Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Yessi Café Revisited (Closed)

"My salad days, when I was green in judgment..."
- William Shakespeare, "Antony and Cleopatra"
Back in the early days of Czech Please, I wrote a post about the relatively new Yessi Café. I've been back a few times, and I have a few more things to add.

For summer, they've added an outdoor eating area. On a nice day, it is a good place to grab a bite and do some people watching. There are waiters and waitresses providing table service, or you can order your food at the counter and take it to a table.

One of the most positive developments is the addition of a salad bar. There's a wide variety of items to choose from.
The choices include: lettuce, ruccola, couscous, peapods, pickled red onions, raw red and yellow peppers, roasted peppers, shredded carrots, red beans, new potatoes, tomatoes, corn, sun-dried tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms in oil, capers, bacon, croutons, and several types of dressing, like Dijon or pesto.

You can fill a plastic container to take away whatever you want for what I consider the bargain price of 119 CZK.

Their pre-made sandwiches and baguettes are a little too dull for me, but I keep going back because they have a build-to-order option that I love. They have a good selection of different ingredients to choose from.
I can get a little chaotic behind the counter as orders come in, but I've been lucky that it usually isn't too busy when I've been there.
On my last visit, I got a baguette with pulled pieces of chicken breast, ruccola, sun-dried tomato spread, and mayo. It was great.

The bread is fresh, the ruccola has an almost smoky flavor, and the mayo softened the almost-sour intensity of the sun-dried tomatoes.

The only weak point is that the chicken breast is a bit tough and bland. It could use some salt at least. I don't have the receipt, but I think it cost around 100 CZK.
On another visit, I did decided to pick up their pre-made BLT for 89 CZK. Honestly, I won't be doing this again.

They give you two kinds of bread, light and dark. Both breads are thick and heavy. The mass of bread vastly overshadows the amount of bacon, lettuce, and tomato. The tomato slikes are very thin, and there is very little lettuce. Bacon that has been cooked hours earlier is always going to be a challenge.

The interior portion tasted OK, but the bread was dry and something of a chore to eat.

Yessi Café also has coffees, teas, desserts, smoothies, and light breakfasts.You can see their take-way menu and lots more pictures of the place here.

Based on my last post, someone thought I didn't like Yessi Café, but that's not true. I will keep going back as long as they have that fancy salad bar and continue to build baguettes with whatever I point at behind the counter.

Yessi Café
V Celnici 4
Prague 1

Tel. (+420) 222 212 585

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The biggest problem with Yessi is figuring out how to order the food. In my experience, six or seven Yessi staff stand behind the counter and chat .. and your job is to find a helper and order your meal. This works fine if you're the only one in line, but it's a nightmare if there are three or four people trying to order at once. It's mass confusioin. Seeing staff stand around in uniforms doing nothing is like visiting a Socialist-era tractor factory. It actually made me laugh out loud during one visit -- which is a good thing since Yessi takes itself a little too seriously. Some are the sandwiches are good, though, and I have been back several times.

Brewsta said...

Exactly -- I've been lucky, I've usually been there around 1130 am, so the counter problem was minimal (though they still seem uncertain on how to take orders). But I like it when they make a sandwich the way I want it.