Kolkovna Celnice — Restaurant in Prague

We had a really bad experience dining here. As a tourist, I would never recommend this restaurant to other tourists.

We ordered our meal, which included an order of potato pancakes. A little while later a dish was dropped off at our table that was clearly not potato pancakes. It was a soft tortilla wrapped around slices of meat. When I was finally able to get our server's attention, I let him know that someone else's dish was dropped off at our table (thinking that someone was missing their order). He said that we ordered the potato pancakes and I said "yes". He said these were the potato pancakes and I responded that I thought we'd be getting the fried potato ones. He said that's what we got. Dumbfounded, we went ahead and ate it. At this point, I also noticed the 3 Czech gentlemen next to us kept looking at our table and laughing, so I started to suspect something was up. (This was later confirmed on our bill.)

Our meals came, which were very mediocre, and which we didn't finish. We are not picky eaters. so this was unusual. I also noticed that the two girls at the table next to us had only taken a bite of their meal, and after multiple attempts to get our server's attention, they asked for their meals to be boxed for takeaway.

Several tables around us were making many attempts to get the server's attention. We were actually able to catch him and we asked for our check. He asked whether we were paying by cash or card, then brought the credit card machine (but no bill) and presented it for payment. I would have asked for the bill, but it was so tough to get him that I didn't want to send him away. He put in an amount and turned it around for the tip. I did not know if there was already a service charge since I didn't see the bill. He presented the screen in Czech, so all I could make out was the 10%, 15%, or 20%. He said I had to pick one of the three. I reluctantly selected 10% and he printed out the receipt for our card payment and a second one that had our actual bill on it. It was correct, except that there was no item for potato pancakes, but rather something listed as bramborove loks, which sort of resembled what we received.

I felt really taken advantage of at this establishment and I would discourage other tourists from dining here. I also really didn't enjoy the food. This was one of the worst dining experiences...

— Never visit this restaurant👎—

We went there right after we saw decent opera on Sunday night. And suddenly the horrible experience ruined our Sunday night.

In the conclusion, food was piece of x. as you see on the photos I uploaded. Spagetti was very dry like they warmed up the food that was already made. Meat was not juicy at all. Also this place is full of racist. At the first time, they served we ordered which were pork rib and aglio olio spagetti, we didn’t complain because we didn’t want any trouble and to ruin end of Sunday.

The thing was the waiter who greeted us kept talking with the table beside us about asian people really bad especially from china. I don’t know why he did in front of us. He might have thought that we don’t understand english at all or because we said we were from Korea, we don’t care what he said. We’ll never know. Only he knows. But we understood most of sentences. We thought it is very rude.

We decided not to give them tips because we weren’t satisfied at all and at the end of the dinner, the one who looks like manager asked us give them 600czk instead of 562czk. It was nothing to give them that coins. It is nothing. But we refused. He asked why and we explain about all the things we heard and the food. He said we should have told them before we ate then they would have changed the food. And about the waiter, he just tried to go away. It was not enough and not the reaction we expected from him. He just ignored.

We are not picky. We always think that if the food is terrible, all we can do is not going there. Not complaining or calling manager. Because it is what they always do and we can choose what we want. The problem is not food, but service. They were very rude and all we can think was they all treating people like wallet.

Please never go that restaurant never, ever. It was horrible time to be there.

Don’t let them get money from who they don’t respect.

(Also, listening all that racist complaints about asian during dinner I guarantee would not be very pleasant for people who are...

I'm only awarding four stars based off my many visits many years ago, because if I was rating this once great eatery based off my last experience (in November 2019), then it'd be two stars. First discovered this spot about 15 years ago and made sure to go a few times on each trip, I just loved it that much. Food was always freshly prepared with fresh ingredients, and the daily menu options were always great and tasty! I hadn't been back in about a decade prior to 2018 and it was just as good as I'd recalled on that visit. But this last trip in 2019 really changed my mind about this once favourite restaurant of mine. Literally every single dish I and my travelling companions ordered was hard as a rock and very obviously NOT made fresh. We were all appalled since we'd all been here many times before and always left very happy. But my god how things have changed... I don't know if it's new management, a new cook, or if we truly just happened to visit on an off day, but it was truly remarkably horrible that day... the chicken wings, the schnitzel, the goulash, and more... it was like eating hard tasteless rubber! Couldn't believe this was the place I previously enjoyed so much. I will give it another chance on my next visit to Prague this summer and will hope things have been sorted. I will say though that the poppyseed cake I had on my last trip was one of the best deserts...