Friday, February 23, 2007

Half & Half - Update

I revisited Half & Half, the new sandwich, dessert, and coffee shop at the top of Wenceslas Square. I wanted to see if they'd improved since my first visit.

The short answer: No.

I got the grilled focaccia with cheese and tomato sauce and a thick hot chocolate. The woman grilled the semi-circular bread, then took it out, poked at it, and peeked inside. She didn't seem to want to give it to me. She had a mournful look in her eye that said, "You poor man. This might kill you."

Still, I took it. I don't know why.

I brought it back to the office, and studied it. It was old. It was stale. It crumbled and broke apart as I tried to eat it. I threw most of it away.

At least there was the hot chocolate. I had tried this right after they opened, and it was pretty good. On this day, there was barely any left in the glass swirling container that keeps it hot. I got the dregs. This time, it tasted different. It had an unpleasant, slightly sour tang. I threw most of that away, too.

As far as I am concerned, this sandwich place is toast.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stupid foreigner! In my country we eat what we are given and take no time to complain or think about what we put in our mouth! Food is food. Except salad of course.

Brewsta said...

Thank you for your interesting comment. I did not know that North Koreans had internet access.

Anonymous said...

I agree that this place isn't consistent. I bought a chicken sandwich there just a few days ago...when I got home, I discovered the chicken wasn't even cooked.

Anonymous said...

Stick with the Bake Shop on Dlouha

EB said...

The little bakery on Jindrisska opposite Paneria does some good sandwiches.

Anonymous said...

Hi again! Keep up the good work! I understand your pursuit of a decent sandwich in this city. There are a lot of "just okay" sandwiches and a lot of really terrible ones, but there's really no place in town that does sandwiches right. I know that sounds condescending, I don't mean to be. It's just my opinion. One place that I thought would finally get it right was Culinaria, and for a while, they were great. Then all of a sudden (about 6-8 months ago) they started using old -- or at semi-stale -- bread for the sandwiches, and they fell into the old Prague trap (consistency is this town's bugaboo!). I tried to get around that by choosing sandwiches made to order, but even those seem to be made on yesterday's unsold poppy-seed white. Please Culinaria .. I believe in you. Come back to your senses!

Brewsta said...

Well, no bread survives well in refrigerator case. I've had some luck with their chicken Toscana sandwich. I was going to have a sandwich made to order and when the person told me it would take 15 minutes I said forget it.

I don't know if it is good or not, but I've heard the sandwich franchise Pret a Manger is pretty popular in London. Check out this website:

http://www.sandwichguide.co.uk/store.php?store=Pret%20a%20Manger

And in New York, there is this gourmet place:

http://www.wichcraftnyc.com/

We can dream, can't we.

Anonymous said...

The O Briens Franchise.. is quiet good too.
www.obriens.ie... really good wraps, toosties... think I will have one today.

Brewsta said...

I'm jealous.