Ch – ch – Czech it out! It’s the next blog in the A to Z of World Food in London!!!
That’s right, and this time we found ourselves on the borders of Hampstead, sitting down for Bohemian fayre with our parents, who’d come up to dine with us one June evening.
Bohemia House is London’s one and only Czech restaurant, and is a real ‘hidden gem’. During WWII, the building was allocated to the Czech government in exile. It’s basically a spacious town house in a fancy bit of the city. But what makes it worth a visit, whether you’re there for food or not, is the massive beer garden. It’s humongous, yet mysteriously quiet – and definitely doesn’t come up when you Google ‘beer gardens in London’ (the pic above doesn’t do it justice).
The Czech Republic – recently rebranded Czechia – is, of course, the home of pilsner, so we ordered a round of the country’s finest lagers (Pilsner Urquell, Bohem Martina and Radegast). Few things beat a cold pint in a beer garden of a warm evening. So, I’m glad we got them, because the food didn’t quite reach the same levels.
Czech food is heavy, porky, dumpling-y stuff – not quite what you want on a summer evening – but perhaps it would be more enjoyable in a beer cellar in Prague in December. We started with fried cheese laces, basically stringy mozzarella in batter. I thought this was fairly bad really – the cheese had congealed, it was pretty rubbery and the batter had lost its crunch.
For mains, Alf got himself a roast pork knuckle, and definitely ordered best out of the four of us. Sure, roast pork knuckle is hardly inspiring, but it was juicy, the skin crackled and, well, you can’t go too far wrong with it. Mum ended up with a plate of roast pork with sauerkraut and dumplings – a Czech dumpling is basically like soft white bread that accompanies most meals. Dad got a passable beef goulash (plus sauerkraut and dumplings) and I got braised beef in a spiced cream sauce with, you guessed it, dumplings. My meal was quite weird to be honest – slices of roast beef in a carrot soup do not a delicious dinner make.
We then finished it off with apple strudel, which is a pudding that every Central European country seems to claim as its own. Bohemia House’s one was so-so. Tasty enough, but not enough apple and too much doughy pastry for my liking.
For the beer garden and great service alone (our waitress was brill), I’d recommend a trip to Bohemia House. The food was forgettable. But maybe indoors, in winter, a cosy beer, some schnapps and a hunk of something porcine and roasted, and you might see things a little differently…
Score: 6/10
Cost: Unsure (our parents paid!)
Address: 74 W End Ln, London NW6 2LX
The A to Z of World Food in London 