Restaurant U Kastelana: Brno

U Kastelana is one of the most famous and high-end restaurants in Brno and is right next to our flat :) We always wanted to go there, as so many people mentioned how great it was. Counting down the days before leaving Brno, we decided to go there on my hubby's birthday (yep, our birthday celebrations are pretty low-key).

The funny thing is that the building the restaurant is in looks more like a washed-up car dealer shop and not at all like a high-end restaurant. But once you step inside, you can tell that it has its personality and dignity. The ceiling is low as it is half way down to the basement. I liked the decor and spaciousness as well. Unlike other restaurants, you can actually enjoy the conversation without shouting to each other.

The service was good, but it was surprising that there weren't too many waiters/waitresses who could speak sufficient English. I am sure there must be lots of foreigners visiting the restaurant.

They had a course menu, which looked pretty good and was priced very reasonably, but we decided to go with the a la carte. As a starter, I had oxtail consommé with homemade ravioli and my hubby managed to get the garlic soup with snails which was on the special course menu. I love consomme and have to say it was one of the best consomme soups that I have had - well, I still have to give more credit to the consomme that I had at Cafe Central, yet. :) And, we shared scallops with broccoli puree, cream and champagne cream leek, which was cooked just perfect!  As an entree, I had veal shoulder with shitake mushrooms and glazed vegetables and my hubby had sea bass with saffron risotto, baby spinach and butter rouilly. Mine was superb! And, we finished off our meal with cottage cheese dumplings with cinnamon and sauce of forest fruits, which was a bit overkill in terms of creativity but tasted good.

One thing that my hubby noticed was a misspelling on the menu: instead of "Carpaccio", they had "Crapaccio" :-)
The restaurant has been in business for about 20 years. The chef seems to go to Vienna every morning at 4am to get the fresh ingredients and cook in the afternoon. Kudos to Chef Michael Goeth!!