Restaurant Review: Lemon Leaf

Select Language Chinese Arabic French German Italian Japanese Korean Portuguese Russian Spanish English This review originally appeared in Czech translation in the 14/03/09 edition of Lidov Noviny. As of the first of this year, the Mexican-themed dive bar and restaurant La Casa Bl…"“ formerly an unbearably smoky hole "“ is entirely cigarette-free. The decision came after the restaurant's owners held an online poll of its customers, who voted overwhelmingly for a smokeless atmosphere. Meanwhile, an internet petition protesting smoking in public places has collected over 100,000 signatures. And for the second time in a few days, when I called up a restaurant to make a reservation, I was informed that they only had room in the smoking section. Fewer and fewer people, it seems, want to eat cigarette smoke along with their biftek. Our government has been frustratingly stubborn in passing the inevitable anti-smoking laws now enjoyed by most of Europe, but the Czech Republic is moving with the times despite them. Of course, most restaurants in our country still welcome smokers, with some handling them better than others. The ones that care least about their food and how their customers experience it "“ low-level pubs, for example "“ generally have the most pervasive smoking areas. But even many that do purport to focus on their cuisine serve it in a haze of cigarette smoke. Lemon Leaf was one of the restaurants that informed me there were seats available in the smoking section only. When I got there, I understood why: the smoking area was enormous, taking up the most attractive part of the restaurant, while the non-smoking section occupies a small, less appealing area tucked away from the main action. Worse still, the non-smokers are subject to the swinging doors of the kitchen and the cold blue glow emanating from, of all things, a big cigarette vending machine (I found out later that the smoking and non-smoking sections change places during lunchtime). If it were up to me, I would model the smoking rules in restaurants according to those of the modern airport. The vast majority would not allow smoking anywhere on the premises, and the few that insisted on doing so would confine smokers (as I witnessed recently at the Vienna Airport) to a tiny, glass-enclosed space where they might inhale as much second-hand smoke as they could ever possibly want while the rest of the world walks past, shaking their heads in disgust at the few whiffs of toxic fumes that manage to escape. Don't get me wrong. It's not as if the food at Lemon Leaf is so good that it deserves to be eaten in a pristine atmosphere; I'm just using it as an example of the wider smoking problem. In spite of the restaurant's ongoing popularity, the food is actually quite bad. The first tip-off is right there in the menu. Whenever I see risotto, couscous, and steak with pepper sauce thrown in with the other dishes in an otherwise all-Asian restaurant, I can't help but get suspicious. There's just something unappetizing about a kitchen of all trades. Are they not confident in their Thai cooking? Are they trying to please everybody? It's never a good sign. Neither was the fact that the curry dishes came with hardly any vegetables, only some Thai eggplant, a few sad-looking pieces of chicken and, in the case of the panang curry (219 CZK), some woefully undercooked shrimp. The yellow curry with chicken (179 CZK) had cashew nuts in it, but they were soft and mushy. And both dishes were too heavy on the salt. The fried potato balls (79 CZK) were very salty too, and filled with some chopped-up shrimp mixed with"¦ I'm not sure what, to be honest; the menu said something about lemongrass, ginger, and cilantro, but I couldn't taste any of it. A prawn and octopus salad (163 CZK) was served on a nice bed of fresh greens and mixed veggies but featured limp overcooked octopus and the same crunchy shrimp that came with the curry. Still, all that was nothing compared to the abomination that was the chicken breast in pistachios with oranges (189 CZK). This came in a creamy white sauce that did taste orange-y but somehow "“ either in its flavor or consistency, or both "“ reminded me of liquefied cheese. A few slices of strawberry were on the plate, too, in a possible attempt at being interesting. (For the record, the person who ordered this concoction actually seemed to enjoy it; in the interest of protecting his reputation, he will go unnamed). I did have a fairly good chicken pad Thai (166 CZK), and the neua daet diao (dried marinated beef sirloin, 129 CZK) was all right, too. But you can get better for similar prices elsewhere "“ Noi on ¡jezd comes immediately to mind, along with a few others. Is it that people don't know there's better Thai food in this city or is there something special about Lemon Leaf that I'm missing out on? I'm thinking it's probably not the latter, because I made three visits before this writing and was seriously unimpressed. Maybe people like the space, with its high ceilings and large windows, or maybe there just aren't too many other half-decent restaurants in that particular neighborhood. But the service is nothing more than okay, and the food is okay at best. Yet for all my complaints about smoking and non-smoking sections and dubious cream sauces, nobody could have been having a worse time than the woman sitting at the table next to mine during my last dinner. She was on what seemed like a first date, with a French guy who, for an entire two hours straight, did not stop talking. About life, his family history, his own fabulousness. It was the monologue of monologues, and somehow continued even as he was chewing his food. I would be surprised if she said ten words the entire time. Having to sit through that and eat a Lemon Leaf dinner? Talk about the date from hell. Lemon Leaf Mysl kova 14 Praha 2 - Nov M„"ºsto map Tel: 224 919 056 Open Mon-Thurs 11:00-23:00, Fri 11:00-00:30, Sat 12:30-00:30, Sun 12:30-23:00 photographs 2,5,6 Franti…¡ek Vl„ek for Lidov Noviny; all others lemonleaf.cz