Tag: Czech food

Czech Club Revisited – London West Hampstead

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Reblogging about the Czech Club! This time round I had different food and there were more people joining us, so might as well. ^_^
Again I went with Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak and Ms LǜFù plus two others (friends of Ms LǜFù) who have now become my extended friends.
Here’s the Czech menu, you can’t see the menu items but can you see the picture of women in the middle? Probably a Czech piece of artwork. We waited for a long time to order as we were waiting for one more friend but she came later… at 9pm!!

Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak went for the Goose Roast (breast fillet), sauerkraut and dumplings. He said it was ok but the breast was a bit dry. (I think that’s expected with most breast meat, they go dry too often).
And this was his salad.

I had the “wild boar” roast with creamy and cheesy sauce and dumplings. On the menu it was changed to roast pork! So watch out if you want to try this dish. This was recommended to me the last time I went there and I chose to try it out this time. The pork was salty but the cheesy sauce and dumplings compensated for the saltiness. It also came with a sweet jam/chutney that went well with the dish. ^_^ Absolutely delicious! Presentation is exactly the same as it was the last time I came. Heheh.

I also ordered the cucumber salad. I was expecting slices of cucumber with some sort of dressing but this is Czech style. It’s made into a lemony, vinegary cold soup.  I found it a bit odd to eat so I didn’t eat all of it.

One of Ms LǜFù’s friend who is Czech had the Pork Schnitzel. It’s a fried breaded pork cutlet. This came with chunky potaotes, salad and I think that’s mayo in the little pot of possibly potato salad… I didn’t ask.
Ms LǜFù had the Chicken Schnitzel with chips and salad. Gosh I feel like most countries have similar tastes in food… fried food…

And lastly our friend who came late Miss L also had the Chicken Schnitzel with lots of salad! Very healthy person. ^_^


Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak and Ms LǜFù both went for desserts. I started on a diet (which I broke for a little while) so I skipped. Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak ordered two scoops of ice cream but got it in two bowls. Heheh.

Ms LǜFù and her Czech friend had an apricot dumpling with cream. Mmmmmmmmm. I wished I had dessert now. 😀

We all paid for our own food but total cost would’ve been about £56.50 (excluding the drinks).

My geeky rating: 5/5 (increase the points because I had good food that evening)

Skipping the good and bad points for today!!

Address: 74 West End Lane, West Hampstead, London NW6 2LX
Telephone: 0207 372 1193


Czech Club Restaurant – London West Hampstead

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
If you have been following me for a long time you would probably know that I was studying Mandarin, but this school term I’ve decided not to… Methinks I have spent too much money this year! From the last school year, I’m still friends with a few of the classmates and a couple of months ago I went to My Old Place 老地方 in the Liverpool Street area with two of them. This time it was the three of us again and we went up to North London to eat Czech food.
So off I trek up to West Hampstead. My colleague Mrs SweetTooth told me that someone had jumped in front of a train around the Stratford area and said the Jubilee Line might be affected. Oh dear! But I got there early thankfully…

Both my friends have created their own names for this blog!! 😀 So my male friend is called Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak (aefelgar-yellow-cloak, ¬,¬” don’t ask, long story) and my female friend who introduced us to the Czech Club is called Ms LǜFù (Chinese Traditional characters: 綠嬔, meaning Green Baby Rabbit… that’s a long story too!!).

When Ms LǜFù arrived, she directed us on where to go. She can speak Czech by the way and often goes to this place! You need to turn left out of the Tube station and keep walking. It is a well hidden place as it is amongst some houses. It was once a house itself back in World War II and then turned into a club for Czechs and Slovakians. More history is on their webiste!! ^_^
Outside the Czech Club

The Czech Club is very different to normal restaurants, it feels like you can just walk around the place as there are various sections. There’s a restaurant bit, a club bit, a pub area and another room. It is a very popular little place during the evening for various people. The Czech club serves a lot of different dishes and there menu is written in both English and Czech…

A couple of empty tables which were filled up in the end

A Czech and Slovakian memorial

Paintings and pictures along the staircase

My beer. £3. Very good beer.

This is what we had…

Someone on Twitter (@WHampstead) recommended the wild boar dish so Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak had that one. I never got to taste it but he said he could taste mostly the cheesy sauce but the meat was tender. Hmmm maybe I should’ve went for that in the first place.

Wild Boar roast with creamy and cheesy sauce & dumplings

Ms LǜFù opted for this pork dish which had sauerkraut and dumpling pieces. She never said much about her dish. But she loved how her meat was so tender.

Pork Roast with sauerkraut & dumplings

I had the pork goulash. I should’ve went for the beef goulash which was what I had wanted in the first place… why didn’t I go for it?! So disappointed with myself. But anyway, this dish was ok. It was on the sour side because of the sauerkraut. The dumplings was just like white bread so nothing too special… and I felt like I didn’t have enough meat… would’ve liked more pork in my dish. 

Segediner Gulash & dumplings (pork cooked with sauerkraut and double cream, spiced with red paprika)

My dish was only £8… and I definitely wanted dessert and so did Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak… He tried to order his in Czech, heheh, and the waiter looked at him… ^_^. I ordered mine in English just to be on the safe side. It was a 20 minute wait but that was ok…

Mr ÆðelgarYellowcloak decided to have the pancakes. He said he liked his. Pancakes are always good…. his cost £4.

Pancake with chocolate and whipped cream

I had the apricot dumpling with yogurt, cream and ice cream. It looked big with a lot of bread. I thought it was going to be like a fried dumpling. Too bad it’s not. The apricot tasted quite sour. Ms LǜFù said it was because of the yogurt. Thankfully I had mine with ice cream as I think I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. Mine cost £3. Love big cheap desserts!

An apricot dumpling with Yogurt & Ice cream, cinnamon icing sugar and whipped cream
Inside my apricot dumpling

We all paid separately rather than split the entire bill in three. But the entire cost including beer came up to £44. That would’ve been about £14 each person. That isn’t bad for a night out in West Hampstead! If I were to go again, I am definitely going for the beef goulash or the wild boar!

My geeky rating: 4/5
Good points: 
– In a quiet area of Northish London
– A homely type of dining experience 
– Cheap food
– Can easily roam about from room to room
Bad points
– Wasn’t too keen on the dumplings. It just looked like a lot of bread to me
– Didn’t have enough meat in my dish otherwise I would’ve given the place a 4.5!

Address: 74 West End Lane, West Hampstead, London NW6 2LX
Telephone: 0207 372 1193


Dublin – Day 1 (Part 2) – Pifko Pub and Musashi Japanese Restaurant

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Day 1 seemed like a very long day… So after the Guinness Tour, we finally became very exhausted (Miss Pinky hadn’t slept for more than 12 hours! I thankfully had 4 hours sleep) and we were both famished… So we went to a pub run by Czechs in the end, and ate like mad people! O_o 

Outside Pifko Pub


Inside Pifko Pub – it started getting busy


Inside Wall Graffiti

Miss Pinky ordered a Czech speciality. Deep fried pork and wedges – Schnitzel “Rizek”.

Deep fried pork and wedges
I had the Classic Burger with wedges… It was definitely 100% beef, and it looked like a burger from Gourmet Burger Kitchen!
My Classic Burger and wedges
There was an Irish family sitting next to us, and the mother of the family was complaining that the chips were too well done… I thought they looked absolutely crispy and fine to eat. Miss Pinky was giving the cold stare (thankfully she was not fully awake yet… otherwise there would be words from her!)…
My geeky rating: 5/5
***
Afterwards, both of us were full and sleepy, so we went back to the hostel, checked in, found our room and shockingly found 2 sets of bunk beds (when I actually booked online a twin en-suite room!). Uh. Not what I expected…
***
After having two to three hours sleep and being interrupted noisily by our neighbours next door, Miss Pinky and I went out to find dinner… We both found that being in Dublin was like being in Amsterdam! But in this case, there’s only one long river instead of four round dams.
Outside Musashi ^^
It took us a while that evening to find something to eat as we didn’t know the area very well, but we finally came across this Japanese restaurant…
It seems very popular with the locals and the restaurant itself is actually run by Chinese people as I heard them speaking in Mandarin (but I wonder if the chefs are Japanese). Anyway, we ordered the following food…
Miss Pinky wanted the tempura set, but knowing her sooooo well I knew she wouldn’t finish it because the batter will fill her up…
Tempura set
I ordered the Musashi Ramen soup… It was bloody good… Loved the soup and the prawns!!
Musashi Ramen Soup ^^
And Miss Pinky ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry…
Chicken Katsu Curry!
I found this place a little expensive compared to London prices. But it was well worth the experience. If you want to eat there make sure you book a table. Miss Pinky and I were very lucky as one cancelled their table! Woohoo!!
My geeky rating: 4.5/5 (because of the pricing)
And finally here’s a picture of River Liffey at night ^^
River Liffey at night ^_^