Restaurant Balada

Halfway along the busy pedestrian section of Moskevská ulice, Restaurant Balada serves up meals from the grill in a colourful and casual atmosphere that would almost have you thinking you’re in a country barnyard somewhere.

Wooden barnyard atmosphere

The three rooms of the restaurant are furnished with old wooden chairs and tables, and divided into private seating areas with recycled wooden beams. Collections of bottles, tools, antique radios and other odds and ends are scattered around and mirrors, old desk drawers and framed photographs decorate the walls. It sounds messy, but the light walls and high ceilings stop the space from feeling crowded.

And from getting too smoky. There are ashtrays on every table and if there was a non-smoking section I couldn’t find it. There was a small sign saying no smoking between 11.30am and 1pm, but when I was there in the evening at least half of the tables had somebody smoking.

Balada also seems to be popular place just to call in and have a drink, whether up at the bar or at one of the tables. But I was there to eat.

Grill specialties

The specialty is grilled food, and the menu offers a variety of meat dishes from 119 to 160Kč. I had the Cowboy’s beef steak (with red beans and corn on the cob for 160Kč and a side order of chips. There was also a generous side salad with the meal, and the menu offers main course salads from 76 to 99Kč for anyone not in a meaty mood.

Svijany beer

With my meal I had a big glass of Kofola (soft drink) for 28Kč, but if you’d prefer beer, the localish Svijany beer is 24Kč a glass for the light Kníže or dark Kněžna versions. A large coffee with milk is 32Kč.

Balada is open from 10.30 to midnight every day except Sunday, when it closes at 10pm.