Our baby Ivan is almost 6 months old now and sometimes he is kind enough to let us eat out somewhere.
This restaurant was recommended in two comments to Mr. Cuketka's recent post on Vietnamese cuisine. Since we don't live too far away and the weather was nice, we decided to take a walk a give it a try. I hereby thank the people who recommended it :-)
Remember took over from a Chinese restaurant. The place is a bit cramped and overdecorated, but clean and cozy. You can actually see the kitchen in a window behind the bar and it also looks clean and well organized.It's great that the staff speak very good Czech and have good knowledge of the menu. A huge plus point for that.
We decided to go for the most popular items, so we had to order the spring rolls. These were very nice. The cook didn't skimp on herbs like they do in Hanoi, where the filling is mostly noodles without any particular taste. The rolls contained shrimp, noodles, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, carrot, omelette, soy sprouts, cilantro and mint, with the usual sweetish dressing. This is the ultimate summer food.
My Nam Bo. The dish contained all the usual suspects - noodles, sweet sauce, beef, herbs, vegetables and peanuts. I love this type of dishes - fresh, crunchy, lots of different textures and profound flavors. I liked it a lot.
Husband's Pho with rare meat (number two on the menu) could have been hotter, but it was tasty nonetheless. It wasn't greasy as the Pho in the Holesovice trznice tends/used to be and had a clean, deep, concentrated beef and spice flavour, without excessive MSG use. Maybe there even wasn't any, we didn't feel thirsty afterwads like we do after Hanoi's Pho. Pickled bamboo, sliced chili and a lemon wedge were served on the side. More herbs would have been more than welcome though.
There is a small shrine inside the restaurant, not something you see often here.
In my opinion Remember serves way better food than the only other Vietnamese restaurant in town - Hanoi (Sapa market doesn't count). I haven't been to the Holesovice trznice for quite a while, but rumour has it that it's gone down a lot. The bistro on Sokolovska didn't impress me, even though it gets much praise. Remember restaurant has an extensive menu, with both Vietnamese and "Asian" dishes, which is probably necessary in Prague if you want to make some revenue. I think it could become a favorite, but we will have to see how it deals with the increasing popularity, due to the mention on Mr. Cuketka's site and the increasing awerness of Vietnamese food. As for me, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Remember and will return asap.
