Vinograf — Restaurant in Prague

During our stay in Prague we were keen to sample some Czech wines. In fact, wine in the Czech Republic is produced mainly in southern Moravia and Vinograf offered wonderful selections of wines, including many from Moravia. Reading reviews from Trip Advisor we gathered what we would get was a bit hit and miss. Ours was a miss.

I popped in beforehand and found that they offered a tasting “wine-flight”. From our experience this is often a sequence of food matched with an appropriate wine. However at Vinograf it is simply a sequence of 5ml glasses of wines that you wish to try, from those available from their “Wines by the glass” list. There is no set list of wine flights and no fixed number of wines to include; you choose your own. “OK”, we said, “We want a wine-flight of Czech wines.”

This turned out to be more difficult than you’d think. Eventually we worked out that there were ten Moravian wines in their current by-the-glass list, two rosé, six white and two reds. So we decided to share a 10 wine wine-flight and have a platter of cold meats and cheeses and some bread to go with them. Our sommelier was not one of those keen to inform customers about Moravian wine and apart from the grape varieties offered no further information. My enquiry about the proportion of red to white wines produced received a vague and unconvincing answer. I now find that there are four sub-regions in Moravia – none of this was mentioned.

So what about the wine. The first rosé was served from a decanter and was definitely tired. In fact none of the wines came up to the standard of those we had with our meals during the rest of our stay. We were amongst the first there that evening and I fancy that at least some the bottles had been open for a day or two.

By the end of the wine-flight we’d had a third of a bottle each and not much in the way of food to go with it so we opted for a portion each of their homemade duck pâté and ordered a full bottle of the second rosé. The pâté was quite filling and we didn’t finish it. We also took the rest of the wine back to our hotel. We were disappointed, but others...

I’d been meaning to visit this restaurant for a long time, and finally, my friends and I decided to spend an evening there while enjoying the city center.

The experience, however, turned out to be a little unusual. Right from the start, the constant switching between languages by the manager felt distracting. I’m perfectly comfortable speaking either Czech or English, but hearing three different languages in just the first five minutes left the conversation feeling scattered. Multilingual skills are admirable, but a consistent language with guests would make the atmosphere far more comfortable.

We chose a table in the courtyard, which was lovely — quiet, beautiful, and perfect for an evening outdoors. After 10 PM, due to city noise restrictions, we were asked to move inside. That was fine in itself. However, when I asked to be seated in a cozy room near the courtyard, the answer was NO — we had to sit exactly where they placed us, whether we liked it or not. THAT’S A PRETTY WEIRD THING TO BE HONEST. The restaurant was at least 80% empty, so if I prefer a more comfy and dark spot, why can’t I sit there? We didn’t order just a single bottle and sip it all night — we spent at least 4.5K CZK and STILL didn’t get our water at the new table inside.

The food, I must say, was really good. Your chef is doing his/her job PERFECTLY, but it shouldn’t be just about the food. This place should spread an amazing, pleasant atmosphere all over the restaurant — not just where YOU DECIDE to create it.

And the most disappointing thing came at the end. It was 23:31… we were chatting and thinking about ordering another bottle of Spanish Cava… and at that same time, one of your waitresses decided to ask us TO LEAVE SOON BECAUSE THEY ARE CLOSING THE RESTAURANT AT 12AM. Man… I don’t know even “HOSPODA” like this. How is it possible to ask such a thing? We didn’t get it at all.

Overall, I’d rate the experience 3/10. The food is the only thing that saved the evening for us, but unfortunately, the service and atmosphere fell far short of...

A wine bar with poor, condescending, and disrespectful service; expensive and unprofessional.

We arrived at 21:40 to drink wine and have dinner, and they seated us at the bar. We waited quite a long time for someone to attend to us, at least more than ten minutes. We asked for a recommendation for red wine—the wine expert was busy, so they sent a young guy to us. We asked for a recommendation for local red wine, and he simply offered us only the most expensive wines. When we requested a recommendation for something less expensive, he told us we should drink white wine —absurd. When the more experienced waiter noticed, he approached to recommend red wine to us, of course an expensive ones, but we wanted to move on and ordered. We asked to order food, and they told us the kitchen had already closed at 22:00. It was 22:10, and we had been sitting there for half an hour without ordering because they were not available, and no one informed us when we entered that the kitchen would close at ten or that it was already closed. They offered us almonds instead. We asked to leave, pay for the two glasses of wine, and cancel the bottle. They poured very little wine into our glasses. The young waiter started pouring the wine from our glasses into other glasses to measure the quantities and spoke to us disrespectfully. It should be noted that the experienced waiter made an effort and approached the kitchen to see if they could prepare something for us, but after the humiliating treatment from the young waiter, we did not want to continue sitting there. This half-hour cost us almost 1,000 Czech crowns for some reason. We drank dry little wines and were served sparkling water that we didn’t have time to touch. Simply a substandard place with outrageous prices that exploits the fact that its clientele consists of tourists to treat its customers disgracefully. By the way, the waiter told us that all kitchens in the city close at 22:00, which is not true. We left there and went to another wine bar, pleasant and welcoming with...