Pirohy (c) and halušky. (source: Courtesy, Mark Taylor)
During the year or so that I have been lucky enough to be doing these reviews, I’ve enjoyed a really great variety of interesting food. I’ve had Italian, Chinese, Ukrainian and French cuisine. I’ve sampled fine dining experiences as well as burger bars. But there one kind of restaurant that I had not yet reviewed: a basic Slovak pub-restaurant that serves pirohy and halušky with plenty of good local pilsner.
Why not? It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it, a bowl of halušky washed down with a few cold pilsners is pretty much always a good thing. But this kind of experience is so easy to find. I figure that everybody who has lived in Slovakia for more than a week already knows a couple of places where they can go for halušky, or probably a goulash, and a local beer. So why would I need to tell you about one more place serving the same thing?
Well “1. Slovak Pub” claims that they are the biggest and the best. They have, according to their website, 11 different themed rooms in which you can eat. They source produce from their own organic farm a mere 25km away. Apparently they can seat 500 people. They even have a dedicated basement room which they reckon has ideal conditions for storing beer. So we went along to find out if all this makes for an even better experience. Is it worth journeying here specifically for something that, at first glance, seems to be what you can order in 101 other places?
The venue is easy to find, although perhaps not so easy to access. It’s located on a main street near the railway station, and to get in you need to ascend a flight of old wooden stairs. Inside similarly retains a rustic, traditional atmosphere, with a labyrinthine network of wood-panelled rooms and passageways. An old building like this isn’t always conducive to clear, open-plan layouts but that’s part of its charisma, and the aged wooden chairs and benches were surprisingly comfortable.
