Upon a good recommendation from Rick Steves travel book on Prague, my wife and I were looking forward to a pleasant wine tasting experience at Vinograf. Unfortunately, we were utterly disappointed.
We arrived at around 6:45 pm and were greeted by a nice lady who asked us which language we spoke. We said that French or English would work with us. She mentioned that she could only speak "a little bit of English". We were a bit surprised as language has rarely been an issue while traveling in the Czech Republic, and that RS's book had mentioned the place being "run by Czech wine lover Karol who speaks English and enjoys helping visitors appreciate his wines".
It was therefore pretty much impossible to get clear descriptions of the various daily wines written on the board. We explained that we would like to sample a few wines and asked if it was possible to do so, but the language barrier was too much to get the message across. So we settled on ordering each a glass of red wine we picked at random on the board. The place also offers cheese-and-meat plates to accompany the wines and we ordered a mixed plate. The nice lady mentioned that food could only come at 7pm (we assumed it was because the food person only started at 7pm, but weren't sure). At any rate, we got our wines pretty close to 7pm and thought we'd get our mixed-plate a few minutes afterward (as another table not too far from us did). By 7:15 we still had not gotten the food so we asked the nice lady how long it would take. Was not really possible to get an answer but trusted it would not be too long. In the meantime, we found a promotion postcard about "Taste and Learn about Czech wines from the experts -- Four wines, meet-cheese plate for 299 per person". Exactly what we would have liked to experience. We asked the nice lady about it, and surprisingly, she did not have a clue (but this is the place's promotion!!) and mentioned that she had been on the job only for the second day.
Bummer... we don't blame the nice lady, she's obviously overwhelmed at her new job, but I just don't understand how the owner of the place could ever think that leaving an inexperienced employee run the place while a majority of the customers are English speaking, baffles me. We're not talking about a burger joint here, this is a wine tasting place that proudly promotes Czech wines...
The cheese-meat mixed plate came at 7:25pm while my wine glass was pretty much empty. I asked the nice lady for another glass of the same wine and she acknowledged my request. By 7:45pm we had finished the food, and still no wine. I got up to go pay the bill at the bar and received a check where I was charged the second glass of wine that I had not received. I pointed it out to the nice lady who asked if I still wanted it... Oh boy... I politely declined, she removed the charge, and we quickly deserted the place.
This was our last night in Prague. We were really looking forward to this wine tasting experience promoted by this reputable source that is Rick Steves Prague book. This was quite a disappointment. We feel for the poor nice-lady who did her best but who obviously could not provide the type of service that is expected from that kind of place.
So, if you ever think of going to this place, please give them a call first and ask who is working. Too late for us to use the tip, but hopefully it will benefit other visitors. read more