Monarch — Restaurant in Prague

We were led to believe that this was the best steakhouse in Prague, with its Michelin star reinforcing that reputation. Unfortunately, our experience was a complete disappointment from start to finish.

The service was abysmal. After being greeted once, our server disappeared, forcing us to rely on another server assigned to a different table for basic service. Throughout the entire meal, there were no offers to refill water, wine, or bring bread.

The real issue, however, was with the food. We ordered a porterhouse steak, which took 25-30 minutes to arrive. When it finally did, it was encrusted with a shocking amount of visible salt, rendering it inedible. We had to send it back immediately, and were told it would take another 20 minutes to prepare a new one, bringing our wait time to nearly 45 minutes. The second attempt was equally disappointing, arriving undercooked (rare to medium-rare) despite our request for medium. Visible blood pooled in certain parts of the steak. When we returned it again, the kitchen chose to simply reheat the steak, leaving it unevenly cooked — overdone and dry in some areas, and still rare near the bone.

On top of all this, nearly half of the steak was inedible fat, as shown in the picture. After nearly an hour of waiting, what was left was a cold and poorly executed dish, with sides that had long gone cold and soggy, completely undermining the dining experience.

When we raised our concerns, the restaurant's initial solution was to offer a 20% discount on the steak while charging full price for the rest of the meal. To make matters worse, we later discovered that this 20% discount was a lie—the receipt clearly indicated only 15% was applied. We expressed our frustration, only to be told that the manager was "probably asleep" — at 10 pm. After some insistence, we were finally offered 50% off the steak, which felt appropriate given that only half of it was edible. Yet, no consideration was given for the excessive wait times, repeated issues with the steak, or the substandard service throughout.

As frequent travelers who dine at high-end establishments globally, this was by far one of the most disappointing experiences we've had. For a restaurant that prides itself on Michelin-level standards, the food, service, and overall experience were shockingly subpar.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

UPDATE: (to the owner’s reply!!) MUST READ

Since you kindly explained the Michelin Star aspect, could you also address the service issues that are clearly highlighted in the review? And while you're at it, could you explain how a steak ordered as "medium" first came back rare/medium-rare, and then, 45 minutes later, was an unusual mix of medium-rare, medium, and well-done (and dry)? Personally, I think this is the more important point to focus on, rather than the Michelin explanation.

You're absolutely right in your explanation of what a Porterhouse cut is—we're very familiar with it, as it’s our usual choice. You mentioned in your reply that the fat content should be around 20g per every 100g of meat, which sounds accurate. So, for the 1kg special we ordered, a reasonable amount of fat would be approximately 200-250g.

However, as shown in the picture, nearly half—or possibly more—of the cut was fat.

I hope this review is helpful for both those searching for the best steak in Prague and for your management...

I honestly had very high hopes for this restaurant but it ended up being very bad.

The worst part about it was definitely the service. We ordered the New York strip bone -700g medium cooked and after an entire hour of waiting we got the wrong order, it wasn’t even close to 700g and we had to send it back because it was medium-rare almost raw.

This wasn’t the only inconvenience, every time we asked for something it took ages to arrive and we saw that other tables were having the same problems. Two people that ordered like 5min after us still didn’t have their food when we were about to leave.

The tables were also very close to each other and crammed up.

The food itself wasn’t bad, the meat was actually pretty decent but I’ve had much better steaks for half of the price and with much better service.

I would honestly not recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Prague, my advice is that you should do a little more research before picking a restaurant and don’t get fooled by all the great reviews.

I’m sure that many people have had a great time here but you should also check out the bad reviews because if I’d done that, I would’ve certainly not gone to this restaurant.

—————————-UPDATE————————— After the owner’s review:

First, thank you for reading my review but I certainly doubt that what happened at the restaurant was a rare occurrence.

Every other negative review I’ve read has said similar things than me and every person that was having dinner that night was having the same problems.

I am willing to admit though that the food was pretty decent and that maybe this could have been a coincidence, but if many of your orders take 1h then maybe you should do something about it.

Either way, I only went to your restaurant once and I’m not saying that it’s a bad restaurant, I’m just saying that my experience was bad.

The main thing that I think you should fix is the service because the food was decent, maybe even good if it would’ve taken less time.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope I was helpful to you and the rest of...

We recently visited Paris, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, and by far and away Monarch was one of the highlights of our trip from a food perspective. Monarch was one of those meals that you just have to recommend people have at least once in their lives, it was truly that good. There is a reason it has a Michelin star! I do have to wonder if some of the lower-star reviews on here were during peak busy times as when we went on a week night at dinner time it was rather empty and we received impeccable food and service. We started off with the chips and bread - the homemade chips were deliciously salty and we paired this with the cheese and jam platter, which was a perfect pairing. The chips and bread were the perfect balance with some of the cheeses as well as the jam (I believe a fig jam?). My husband got the regular steak and I got the dry-aged, which was very tasty and tender and had extra seasoning compared to the regular steak. The peppercorn sauce/jus on the side was an absolute must and gave that perfect extra bite/kick of flavor to the steaks, which were cooked perfectly. Our server recommended some excellent red wine to go with the steak, and the sides of french fries/mashed potatoes made great pairings as well. The staff was very attentive, timed our main meals to come out perfectly after finishing our appetizers, and were overall very pleasant. They also spoke excellent English and there were no language barriers despite the fact that we didn't speak Czech. The interior was very cozy though old-fashioned (in a good way) with lots of wood paneling and high vaulted ceilings which lent a coziness to the place. Would be an excellent restaurant choice for a date night or upscale dinner. A definite must-try if you're...