Five Brno restaurants praised by the editors of Grand Restaurant Guide are joining Grand Restaurant Festival. This means that you can buy vouchers for special discounted tasting menus offered from January 15 to February 15.

Koishi fish & sushi, La Bouchée, Noem Arch, U Kastelána (CZ only) and Valoria (CZ only) sell the vouchers for the same prices:

Of course, it is still not “cheap”, but it is a great opportunity to try out dining in these fancy restaurants. Just keep in mind that you have to buy a voucher in advance.

If you want to explore Moravian cuisine and Moravian wines, this is the best opportunity (source: labouchee.cz)

Six of the most renowned restaurants of Brno are hosting an interesting Local food festival from June 1 to June 14.

Boulevard, Hansen, Koishi, La Bouchée, Noem Arch and U Katestlána offer special menus with meals prepared only from ingredients coming from farms around Brno. If you enjoy your dinner (which is very likely), you can even get a contact to the farmers to buy what you want.

For better prices, get a festivall passport for CZK 444 – too bad the website is in Czech only.

The Brno House of Arts

After three years, the restoration of the Brno House of Arts is finally completed. In the last stage, the building got a café, a design shop and a restaurant – everything branded “Leporelo+”.

Leporelo+

I was invited to the opening of the restaurant and quite liked its simple concept. There are some five fresh meals every day, based mostly on French recipes. Chef Milan Dvořáček has worked at U Kastelána and in various restaurants at France and manages a huge collection of wine, so this may be a new cool place to go.

Beef and quiche were outstanding

Check out the website of The Brno House of Arts for info on the ongoing exhibitions and the website of Leporelo+ (Czech only, damn).

Map

Larger map

Last year, I complained that Brno had been missing a good “deli” offering simple, traditional local meals. Well, this may have changed – few days ago, a “sausage bar” U Bohouše opened at Dominikánské náměstí sq., right in the centre.

U Bohouše - the venue is named after an old popular Czech short movie about an extremly hungry St. Bernard dog

I gave it a shot yesterday and what I got was a tasty sausage with a fresh horseradish:

Spicy sausage Flamenco - to me it was rather mild than spicy

You can have some of the ten types of sausages (CZK 50-60 each), a goulash, a cabbage soup, bread with lard (!) and few other meals.

Feels like 1960s (and my cell phone camera feels like 1999)

I have not tried whether the cook/waiter speaks English, but it is quite easy to point to the sausage you want.

Seeing is salivating

Refreshing Dalešické and Poutník beers are on tap. And the radio plays Czech country. Quite a concept!

Map

Larger map

This January, my dear food blogger Chilli Julie asked me whether I wanted to write restaurant reviews for local supplement of Mladá fronta DNES, the most-read serious (well, semi-serious) newspaper in the Czech republic.

How could I say no? So there you have the 10 reviews of local restaurants I wrote this year:

Klub cestovatelů | 65 %

www.hedvabnastezka.cz/brno, 14 Veleslavínova st.

Meal called the Lunch of a Levant peasant

It is always hard for Czech cooks to prepare Indian or Levant meals – in Klub cestovatelů, they are quite successful with some recipes, less successful with the other ones.

Pontos | 85 %

reckarestauracepontos.cz, 22 Křížkovského st.

Yoghurt, honey, nuts. I loved this!

A Greek restaurant with simple, affordable, usually almost perfect meals. Really recommended.

Española | 55 %

espanola.cz, 19 Botanická st.

A piece of tapas made of eggplant.

You can’t cook meals based on fresh tomatos, seafood and other seasonal/regional ingredients in Brno in March. The chef does not get it. However, the place looks nice and the waiter was great.

Makkabi | 70 %

8 Velenova st., Boskovice (only out-of-Brno review)

A trout with horse raddish.

Located in the small jewish quarter of Boskovice, Makkabi is the only Jewish restaurant in the region. Don’t expect bagels – actually they offer traditional meals from the central Europe, influenced by the Jewish cuisine. Not bad at all, but also not particulary great.

Zorbas | 65 %

restauracezorbas.cz, 4 Sokolská st.

The fishes were OK, but the plate looked like a big mess.

Excellent pita but other meals had smaller or bigger imperfections.

Sitara | 60 %

Located in Tesco shopping mall in Královo Pole

Non-veg thali

Unbelieveable quality/price ratio! Good chicken vindaloo for CZK 60 (€2,50).

La Chapelle | 80 %

la-chapelle.cz, 2c Černovická st.

Raspberry cream with vanilla foam

An interesting restaurant offering both terrible “Czech classics” based on ketchup and pork, but also surprisingly good French meals. My girlfriend enjoyed a perfect steak for reasonable CZK 140 and a breathtaking dessert (on the picture).

Chutné štěstí | 70 %

chutnestesti.sweb.cz, 38 Lidická st.

A black egg

Considered by some to be the best Chinese restaurant in Brno, I think it is just a “better average”. I enjoyed a great service.

Avatár | 45 %

avatar108.com, Mendlovo sq. 10

A plate carring almost everything Avatár offers

One of the few vegetarian restaurants in Brno. I liked their halva and their “think globally, act locally” attitude. However, most of the meals were plain bad, even cold.

Dragon II | 65 %

10 Náměstí svobody sq.

Phở gà

This place is awful! However they offer probably the only phở you can get without travelling to a Vietnamese market. And it tastes really well.

Updated on 6/3/2011: the stand has moved to Královo Pole quarter. You can find it at the corner of Palackého and Malátova st., near Raiffeisenbank.

Few days ago, I discovered that there is a new (well, maybe only rebranded) stand selling Turkish and Levant Azerbaijani Turkish food at 6 Nerudova st.

As far as I know, this is the only place where you can buy lahmacun and pide in Brno. I tried out the first dish. The cook prepared the dought right in front of me, covered it with meat, asked me if I wanted it spicy or not and baked it, so I was given a totally fresh meal for CZK 35 (€1.40).

The bistro is located next to Nerudova tram stop.

Prices of meals are rather low.

I had a lahmacun and it was really tasty.

Updated on 12/20: The bistro has a website now and offers delivery, just call (+420) 774 328 704.

Map

Larger map

A garden of Hansen restaurant (source: hansen-restaurant.cz)

I got a lovely letter last week:

Dear Kasparek,

I’m an expat in Brno. I was wondering if you could recommend me some restaurants for a romantic evening. The kind of food actually doesn’t matter that much. A wide variety of choice is appreciated.

Thank you for your consideration. Keep up the good work!

Hello! K——

If you sometimes ask your friends a similiar questions, you may find handy my answer:

My girlfriend loves Greek restaurant Pontos (22 Křížkovského st.), but someone might mind the sharp light there. On the other hand, it is a budget-friendly place. I think Hansen (corner of Husova st. and Komenského sq.) may also be a good choice – they even have live jazz in the garden these days!

Later, some more tips came to my mind:

• U Kastelána (51a Kotlářská st.) has a beautiful interior and it offers top-quality Czech meals with some French and Italian influences. Prices are above average.
• La Bouchée (33 Údolní st.) is located in a quite romantic cellar and meals like “snail caviar served with toast, butter and salt” may be good aphrodisiacs, I guess.
• Rialto (125 Veveří st.) is among the most expensive restaurants in town, but they try really hard to offer exclusive meals. The menu is frequently updated with fresh and seasonal ingredients.
• Momo Sushi (13 Solniční st.) is one of the best sushi bars in the town (there was a boom of these venues last year).

What is your favorite place to go when you want to spend a lovely evening with your spouse or lover? Let us know in the comments.

Cheese pizza at Tučkova st.

I moved to quarter Veveří several weeks ago and since that time I have been often buying take-out pizza at the corner of Kotlářská st. and Tučkova st.

Just follow this sign

One huge slice costs only CZK 25 (€1). Whole pizza costs CZK 150 and it can easily feed three people.

Map

Larger map

Brno is a town with population of 360,000, attracting much more people several times a year. Rents and wages are still lower than in Prague and your competitors may be less skilled and experienced than in bigger towns. It looks like a great place to start a business – I have spotted seven opportunities:

Selling affordable alternative fashion

An indie fashion boutique may have a great success in Brno (photo by Luiz Alberto Fiebig Junior)

There are tens of thousands of students and young “hipsters” in Brno. When they want to buy new clothes, they go to H&M or Zara – or they travell to Vienna to get something more unique. So why don’t give them an indie boutique?
You can import clothes from Asia or America – or hire young local designers.

Guided bicycle trips

There are dozens of kilometers of bike paths around Brno and many of these lead to great destinations, like Mikulov, the gardens in Valtice and wine bike paths. Yet there is no company offering guded bicycle trips for Czech or foreign tourists. You may buy 5-10 ordinary bikes, an used pick-up and try your luck. I think the question is not whether you get your investment back, but when does that happen.

Segway tours

I have seen many people riding Segways in Vienna and Prague – but not a single one in Brno. Consider that walking from the main train station to Špilberk castle is pretty exhausting, and Segways can solve this problem out.

This business may be risky, as new Segways cost $5400+. However, you may try to buy used ones and sell them if you do not succeed.

Licencing the first franchise of its kind in Brno

With only McDonald’s, KFC, Subway and Burger King in Brno, there is still opportunity for bringing another international food chain to the town. Brands to consider:

• Starbucks
• Wendy’s
• Hooters

Delicatessen

There are no delicatessen offering snacks based on the traditions of Czech or Moravian cuisine – bread with smoked meat or pork fat, hand-made pies, blood soup… Something what Katz is doing in NY City.

Rent a small place downtown, start offering great, simple meals, set reasonable prices (traditional ingredients are really cheap in the Czech republic) and think about your marketing – I think it is possible to make your delicatessen popular among blue-collars during day and among the creative class on evenings by offering different menus etc.

Simple service for buying tickets online

I do not know about any website allowing you to buy tickets to all concerts in Brno (including those taking place in really small venues) online with your credit card and PayPal, print these tickets at home and then bring it to the venue, without any stress.

It would be a lot of work to make deals with all these clubs and agencies, but after that this would be a hard-to-copy business that would make big revenues with even a small team.

By the way, no Czech ticket-selling service offers simple and fair affiliate marketing for bloggers such I am. Programming this killer feature, which is not really complicated, can bring you dozens or hundreds affiliate marketers, linking to your site every day.

Buying oddments in local antiques, selling it on eBay

The last tip may be good for students. You can buy many Soviet-era cameras for less than CZK 100 in Brno – and sell it on eBay for much more. Thanks to large supply and small demand for antiguities in Brno, the same can be with old furniture, insignia, old photos and paintings etc.

The first Burger King restaurant in Brno opened in Olympia shopping mall yesterday.

Burger King in Olympia

Burger King is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. There are more than 12,000 outlets in 73 countries; the company has more than 37,000 employees serving approximately 11.4 million customers daily (source).

To be accurate, the new Burger King restaurant is located in town Modřice, which is a part of the Brno aglomeration but refuses to connect with Brno administratively, because it would lose money coming from the huge Olympia mall and other shopping facilities located there.

Map

Larger map

I have discovered 5 interesting restaurants employing foreign cooks and offering fresh but affordable meals, together with unique atmosphere.

I am sorry for the quality of pics, I took most of them with my phone.

Bún cá Hải Phòng

There are 14 meals in the menu, all nicely photographed. Vietnamese news channel is on all day long, so you won't miss anything.

This is maybe the most “bizzare” restaurant in Brno, located in a Vietnamese market at Olomoucká st.

Meals cost between CZK 80 and CZK 90. If you are new into the Vietnamese cuisine, have a beef soup. If you want to try something really special, ask for my favorite “tofu-snail” soup.

A soup with snails and tofu

There are knives and forks prepared for those who don’t like eating with chopsticks. Don’t forget to enjoy the green tea served for free.

Map

Larger map

The estaminet of Mr. Thuan Nguyen Van

Hanoi in Brno

There are more interesting restaurants at Olomoucká st. I like especialy this one – an untitled estaminet that belongs to Mr. Thuan Nguyen Van (or maybe to someone else, my Vietnamese is really bad). Only 12 people can fit in, so you have to be lucky to get a place during the lunch time.

The true special of this place are hand-made baguettes with coriander and chilli (CZK 50). Of course you can get a beef soup, noodles or rolls as well.

Beef soup with sprouts

Map

Larger map

Mr. Gyros

A small estaminet in quarter Mendlánky offers Greek cuisine prepared from fresh ingredients. I had a moussaka and it was cool. My friends enjoyed gyros and burgers, so why don’t you have a big fat greek lunch here?

Moussaka

Mr. Gyros was closed down in 2010.

Map

Larger map

Indian restaurant Goa

Fish masala

There is an interesting Indian restaurant at Geislerova st. in quarter Židenice. The owner employs an Indian cook and waiter (or maybe they are from Nepal, I am sorry for having the central Asia so messed up), which gives Goa an oriental atmosphere.

I was always satisfied with my food, although sometimes you have to wait for a long time – anyway, if you want to have a quick lunch, go to KFC.

Great greasy chapati

Map

Larger map

Greek tavern Pontos

Yoghurt, nuts and two kinds of honey: a food orgasm for CZK 40

I visited this restaurant to test it for local newspaper – and I was so suprised by their quality/price ratio! It may has the highest price of all the mentioned places, but you can still have a dessert for CZK 40, so try it out. For more information, read my machine-translated review.

Map

Larger map

Do you have any “secret” tips?

If you know about more restaurants that offer cheap but great exotic (or just “not-Czech”) food, let us know in the comments!

New university canteen “Academic restaurant” in Nový Lískovec offers edible meals for extremly low prices (if you are a student of Masaryk University or a friend of one).

Academic Restaurant

What I liked when I ate there last week was a modern and clean interior, unusually nice — smiling staff and tasty grilled cheese and chicken.

I did not finish up my baked potatos that were far from being fresh and my tomato salad, so cold it made my teeth hurt. I also did not like the line-ups and waiting for a free table (or at least two seats).

There are two prices – the higher, comparable to any other restaurant, are for non-students or students of other universities; the lower (1990s-like) are for students of Masaryk University. The cheapest is soup for CZK 7, both for students and non-students! Good thing is that any of its students can have two meals a day, so a dinner can be shared with a friend.

I liked the cheese and the meat, but potatos and salad were bad.

We had an edible dinner for two and paid CZK 105. However, I’ll prefer paying CZK 70 in Subway or other “better fastfoods” and having a great lunchtimes to saving CZK 20 and complaining about potatos and tomatos. If you are a student of Masaryk University and live on a budget, try it out.

Map and instructions

Zvětšit mapu

Academic Restaurant is located on the first floor of shopping mall Campus Square, next to the Tesco store. The building is new, so it can’t be seen on the aerial photo.