Kids in Prague

Mövenpick Brunch for Families, Prague 5

Restaurants and Cafes, Family Brunches on 17 February 2010 by Karen

Sunday brunch at the Mövenpick has changed a little bit recently. You now have to go by cable car to get to the top of the hill, where the Il Giardino Restaurant is located. This all feels a bit like going up to a Swiss mountain ski hut (especially in the winter) and your kids are guaranteed to love the novelty of the ride.

The restaurant itself, also looks like the inside of a ski hut and is a lot more intimate than the previous brunch room, which was located downstairs. The atmosphere is wonderful, especially on a sunny day, with light streaming in through the large windows surrounding the gazebo-like room, which offers stunning views of the city of Prague. During the warm times of the year, guests can sit outside, and this is also where the grill is located. The guitar player was very talented and also added to the relaxed Sunday lunch mood.

The Mövenpick is very much geared towards children, something that becomes evident the moment you enter the restaurant. There are 2 rooms allocated for children to play in. One of the rooms is for the younger age group of 0-5. It has tables for drawing, climbing equipment and a slide leading to a ball pool. The other room contains a Wii electronic game console and other games suitable for older children. There are 2 full-time minders on duty to look after the kids at all times.

The choice of food is excellent, especially for the kids. It includes mini schnitzels with beautifully mashed potatoes, soup and many different types of pasta (including penne, tortellini, ravioli, fettuchini and spaghetti) as well as pasta sauces such as Bolognese, amatriciana, carbonara and arrabiata. A novelty for dessert is the choice of 8 different flavours of Mövenpick’s signature ice cream in a cup or a cone.

For adults there is a table with breads, jams, honey, buns with a vanilla sauce, which serves a bit like a late breakfast. Right next to this, you can ‘dive’ into the entrees table which has many types of cold cuts and vegetables such as eggplant, grissini with chorizo salami, ham rolls stuffed with horse-radish foam, beef carpaccio, parma ham, veal patte and mortadella with olives.

The adjacent salad bar stocks lovely fresh vegetables including carrots, lettuce, capsicum, cucumbers, pasta salads and even salmon. On the mains table you will find dishes such as rice, parsely potatoes, cooked veges including carrot, potato and broccoli, spinach rolls and of course, rösti, which are special Swiss potato pancakes.

I really enjoyed the sweet and sour prawns with thinly sliced vegetables that were prepared for me at the ‘live’ cooking station for the mains. My husband, on the other hand, opted for the freshly cut leg of lamb.  My mother’s favourite main was the cordon bleu with café de Paris sauce.

The dessert table offers a wide choice of temptations such as lemon mousse, crème brule, panna cotta, apple strudel, fresh fruit salad and for those who prefer something a bit more savoury, a good selection of cheeses.

The only slightly negative point was the fact that one had to walk down a level in order to access the toilets.