Malostranská pivnice — Restaurant in Prague

[TOURIST BEWARE🔥🔥🔥]

EXPECT EXTRA CHARGES ON YOUR RECEIPT! (Dont know if this stands only for the waiter Milan or its a common theme for this place.)

Short tip list for not getting ripped off in this place:

PRETZELS are not FREE. (we knew that and still got charged for them, ate none) (When you sit on your table 1st COUNT your pretzels, should be 10 on the hanger. If there is less tell the waiter to refill asap because you will get charged for missing pretzels) Before you take your order if you don't eat bread say you don't want it because it will be served and charged aldo noone mentioned bread when we took order.

When you take your order, let's say "smazene kur. rizecky" you need to ask what is included in the dish? (I still don't know are fries included in the dish or waiter charged us extra fries but that's ok and my review is not based on that one itsy bitsy thing).

Do not be shy to ask questions you normally would not ask in your local restaurant.

Our "short" story: Us 4, two couples, came and sat, my friend had visit Prague before and he told us about the 'pretzel policy' (waiters do not say a thing to guests that pretzels are not free, still, knew that, so not important). We sat, noticed there are 7 pretzels on our hanger, took a pic of it and orded our dishes. Ate, food was ok, a little bit cold but not that much to complain about it. Asked for receipt and there we had 'somerhing' to see, extra fries and 5 pretzels aldo we ate none. So, I said nothing about the fries but had to say something about those damn pretzels. Said to the waiter Milan politley and on my best english that we did not ate any pretzels (as I said there was 7 when we sat, the same waiter, his name is Milan, took 4 pretzels from the hanger on our table and refilled some other table and then charged us for 5 pretzels like we were blind in the meantime and seen nothing). He just pointed at the pretzel hanger and said "Ok, ok, you said there were 7 pretzels and now there is 3 so that is 5 pretzels you need to pay for. " (I'm elementary school teacher. 7-3=?). So, I went to work and explained to Milan that 7 minus 3 is not 5. It's 4, dear Milan, and still, after that upper math challenge for Milan I said to him we did not ate any of it so you can call your manager or the police because I'm not paying you for ripping me off. Then he went full berserk on czech and stormed out to take a smoke at the restaurant entrance. Our ladies came back from the toilet and were surprised when they took a look on a receipt. They did not want to continue with this 'pretzel issue'. They just said you use cheap tricks on tourists. We ended up with paying for the full receipt with some small tip. Just left the receipt and money on the table and went out. But, Milan waited there with his smoke and the question "Where is the money (Lebowski)?" Answered: "It's on the table. " There was more than I wrote here but I'll leave it like this, unfinished as an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Jaroslav Hašek - The Good Soldier Švejk after this franchise is named I guess..

So, we went to another Švejk establisment just for laugh to see if it will be the same. This time only for a beer. We ordered 4 beers and I said to the waiter if he can take away pretzels from our table because I don't want it on a table. He took it away and came to our table every 5 minutes to ask us for this and that...we took a message,...

NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL!

when we took our seats the waiter came and informed us that the credit card payment is not accepted today because the restaurant is very crowded and staff is busy. It did not make any sense to us because it is the fastest way how to pay - The waiters do not need to lose their time with dealing with the change. Of course after paying our bill it was more than clear why the card payment was not accepted at that day - to receive the TIPS. (when I checked few old review from other customers who had visited this restaurant they were facing the same issue with arrogant attitude of staff and aiming at tips). I ordered a goulash soup (otherwise delicious taste) and I got a basket of bread. Because I do not eat bread, I returned it to the waiter immediately with the words that I will not eat it. Of course we paid for 4 slices of bread, although we did not consume it. When we got our check I asked him why we should pay for that bread he just answered that the basket is part of the goulash soup and he can not do anything about it. And he left. there was written "Recommended tip" on the receipt (in my opinion it is absolutely rude and inappropriate way to request tips in this or any other way, otherwise it was 10% of the check price). Anyway we decided to give a tip around 30Kc- (we returned and did not eat the bread). Mr.Waiter was apparently not happy with that low tip so he gave us the exact amount of change back.

I believe this kind of restaurant with traditional food and beverages are always crowded by tourists and waiters are busy most of the time. I agree that the soup and czech beer was delicious, we got the drinks directly after ordering (logically to increase the check) and we got new drinks immediately, but we waited for 35 minutes (3x soup, 1x fried cheese). Unfortunately the attitude of the staff was absolutely inappropriate, it was so obvious that the restaurant/waiteres aim at tips first instead of providing a great service to the custommers. The food is definitey not the cheapest one and we expected nice and warm czech atmosphere which we did not receive.

I definitely do not recommend...

ABSOLUTELY WORST RESTAURANT IVE EVER EATEN AT!! DO NOT EAT HERE.

We walked in around 3:30 because the restaurant had its doors open. We were NEVER informed that the kitchen was closed The waitress then took our order after 15 minutes. After that, we ultimately waited for more than an hour for our food (until around 4:45). It is likely that the kitchen was closes, but they did not let us know so that we would order full meals.

It got much worse from here. Apparently, many of the entrees come with a suggested order of fries or potatoes. However, my family did not see this and the waitress never asked if we wanted them or not when we ordered. We never said we wanted the sides. Yet, she brought them and unknowingly we ate them. The final bill charged both the written meal price AND the sides of fries.

Furthermore, WE NEVER ORDERED BREAD. Yet, the waitress plopped the bread on the table without any mention of charging PER PERSON for bread. Therefore, we each ate bread not knowing that we would be paying for it later. We had to pay 80CZK for bread only.

And to top if all off, it was objectively horrible food. My brother ordered a salmon that was the skinniest sliver of food I’ve ever seen. My club sandwich was incredibly mediocre and the other dishes were not great. Portion sizes are absolutely horrible.

At the end we kindly vocalized these problems and suggested that the fries be taken off the order. The waiters absolutely refused and forced us to pay all costs. Then, they kindly escorted us out of the restaurant. I recommend that the main manager be fired. Incredibly rude—with the intention to scam tourists and locals alike.

Overall, am very very angry at this restaurant for extra billed costs, incredibly long wait times, not notifying us that the kitchen was closed, terrible service, and horrible food. Do...