Gulu Gulu gets what's coming

This week's Prague Post has a review of that sinking ship of a restaurant, Gulu Gulu. Here are some of the highlights:

Ominous dining: Good intentions run aground on iceberg

By Evan Rail

March 17, 2005

I'm not certain what happened at Gulu Gulu, the Old Town cafe and restaurant, but it sure seems ominous. Everything starts out fine: It's got a great location at the back of trendy Tynska street. There's a casual, cafelike atmosphere. There are wall paintings like something Joan Miro's kids would have done after visiting Timothy Leary. But that's not the scary part. What's frightening is that someone composed a creative dinner menu with a number of interesting-sounding dishes. And then, apparently, this person simply disappeared.

Because what seems to have happened is that another, completely different person who had never heard of these dishes was then asked to prepare the food. In the process, many details were overlooked: Meals are inappropriately portioned, side dishes are limited and ill-prepared, garnishes are as boring as the most blase pub garland, and even simple tasks like grilling meat are not handled well.

Among starters, you may be tempted by the "mini skewer" of beef sirloin. This would be a mistake. The meat is tough and chewy, for one thing. For another, the accompanying side salad of rough-cut iceberg lettuce and flavorless tomato wedges is undressed, thrown upon the plate like an afterthought.

In that regard, if you ask for spinach or broccoli, you're out of luck. There is a "warm vegetable mix" that your server may recommend. Pay attention! This is another trap. Veggie mix is composed of chunks of partially cooked tomatoes, red bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant, very much like a ratatouille, only without the flavor. It probably goes without saying that the eggplant was not salted and drained before cooking, so each bite has the texture and taste of raw Mediterranean sponge.

With such relatively high prices and such confusing dishes (seafood en papillote with a side of plain iceberg?), Gulu Gulu is certainly not what it could be, ranking far below other restaurants in this category. Mozaika has the same sort of casual atmosphere, but the food is much, much better -- and less expensive. In the center, any Potrefena husa would offer better food at lower prices, as would Orange Moon, Kolkovna, and many other places. Why anyone would go here instead is, indeed, quite a mystery.