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New ‘window’ still needs time to shine

Wednesday, May 13, 2009, Milan Ballik
A A A Velikost textu:
The gastronomy landscape in Prague is constantly changing. New places keep arising while many established adresses disappear. Among the newcomers there is La Finestra in Cucina. This restaurant, opened just a few weeks ago, is a younger sister of the well established Aromi, specialized in fish meals, at Mánesova street in Prague 2. La Finestra differs from the older establishment mainly in its offer of meats. Here meat dishes are the fundamental element on the menu, while fish plays only a complementary role.
New ‘window’ still needs time to shine
Author: Martin Siebert
Looking from outside through large shop windows I can see a simple, affable interior. Later on, comfortably seated inside with the menu, I am looking around the long, high-ceilinged room with brick vaults. A wooden floor and unsophisticated furniture help to create a warm atmosphere.

Moderately illuminated red-clay–colored walls evoke a calm that is undisturbed by the stream of hardly discernible muffled conversations emanating from the tables. Visitors sitting in the back half of the room have an opportunity to watch the buzz in the kitchen, behind windows consisting of small glass sheets. These windows allowing people to watch the cooks at their work probably gave the place its name. La finestra in cucina is Italian for “the window to the kitchen.”

A good start

And here comes my starter. One of the waiters brought me, with casual grace, what I had been waiting for so impatiently: risotto with Umbrian truffles. Even before the waiter got to my table I smelled the exclusive, heady scent of extraordinary mushrooms, announcing from far away what was coming. Glossy grains of rice, plain, unadorned, with only shavings of truffles scattered on top of the mold, completed with a tiny green spray of parsley. But the taste more than compensated for the inconspicuous look of the meal.
LA FINESTRA IN CUCINA
Platnéřská 13, Prague 1
Open on Mon-Sat 12 a.m.–11 p.m.
Sun 12 a.m.–10 p.m.
www.lafinestra.cz (under construction)

A mixture of firm, fine, unobtrusive rice together with the dramatic taste of fragrant mushrooms gave every mouthful a fantastic gradation. Truffles from Norcia in southeastern Umbria are perhaps not as distinctive as their white cousins from Alba in the Piedmont region, but they do their job properly. Their taste is smoother, finer—even aristocratic. They add a fragrant, long fading-away spirit, to an otherwise plain meal. It was a satisfactory start, indeed.

A disappointing main course

Spoiled by the pleasant risotto I looked around, waiting for more. The serving staff was constantly on the move, always in the right place at the right time: efficient, quick, but unobtrusive. Then, out of nowhere a man appeared in front of me, balancing a large plate loaded with meat of all sorts, altogether at least 10 to 12 kilograms. The selection of meats is not among the items offered by the elegant, hand-made one-sheet menu; you are left to make a choice by looking. The wine list, incidentally, is much longer, with some 10 pages, a veritable book by comparison. But it will be read by more eyes.

Each of the cuts of meat proved to be more tempting than another. From among veal from Holland and two sorts of Italian beef I decided for a T-bone steak from the white cattle from the Marche region of east central Italy.

The steak was a large one: sweet-smelling and bordered with a strip of fat. I made my decision a little prodigally, without much thinking. It is almost impossible to spoil such a fine piece of meat—so gamey and nice smelling— that was what I was saying to myself, looking forward to a perfect culinary experience with the steak that weighed in at a minimum of 500 grams. I also ordered arugula salad with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, which is always a good choice to accompany a steak. With my fork and knife in hand I was waiting for the waiter, who was carrying a slice of bull nearly as large as the plate. I was served rather promptly, indeed, but with the first cut to my great dismay I discovered that there would be a problem. The meat was brown, roasted through, virtually parched with only a thin rosy strip in the middle. And the fat trimming that I was so looking forward to had become as tough and impossible to chew as a soldier’s belt.
EVALUATION
Commendable:
Good choice of wines, superb dishes with truffles.
Needs improvement:
Meat preparation should be paid more attention, perhaps there is problem is in communication with the cook, Web site not ready.

I somehow managed to dissect out the rosy middle, repeating to myself that I surely could not have said “bring me a sole of a shoe, please” instead of “medium rare.” The victory in this round thus went to some very good mashed potatoes with extraordinary olive oil. Also, the excellent red wine—Villa Martis—was flawless, but even that was less than adequate to wash away my memory of the cook’s unforgivable blunder in overcooking such a promising cut of beef into something resembling footwear.

A balmy conclusion

My mood was spoiled and I did not feel much like dessert, but finally I let the waiter persuade me that the chocolate cake with truffles was really absolutely a thing of perfection. I can say that I found it delightful. It was craftily constructed to highlight the excellent chocolate’s flavor with the accents of truffles. The result was a smooth, dreamy experience. The long-fading delicious taste did much to cover up my earlier troubles with the steak and to a certain degree it improved my general impression of La Finestra.

Only the unsatisfactory incident with the steak disturbed an otherwise rather agreeable visit. Nevertheless, a restaurant with such ambitions, at such a location and in such troubled times should not be risking its reputation at the very beginning—even if only in a test run. I do believe they will put everything straight soon. But a price of Kč 3,630 for two dinners, even including a bottle of exquisite wine, would be rather cruel even without any inconvenience with the steak.
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