Jason H.
Yelp
Stunning!
In every way, the Cafe Imperial was stunning. Firstly, the entire restaurant is layered with mosaic tiles. Floors, ceilings, walls and pillars. Very colorful and ornate, these tiles make the restaurant shine.
When you walk in, you feel like you're in a five star fancy restaurant. You should carry yourself that way, because that is how they treat you. You'll find that the attire by other patrons and the atmosphere is casual, but it truly has the essence of a fine dining establishment. Which....it is...
I ordered the French Onion Soup as a starter. As French Onion Soup goes, this was fantastic. It also came out at the perfect temperature so you weren't searing your mouth to literal shreds because you just couldn't wait. Believe me, after the first taste, you won't want to wait.
For the main course, I selected the Confit of Duck with Red Cabbage and Potato Dumplings. The duck was out of this world! I don't order duck often, but this is a game changing dish. The sweet/sour flavor of the red cabbage complimented the duck quite well. It wasn't necessary to blend the two, as they were both independently delicious, but it gave you some flavor palette mixing options. The potato dumplings were something else. They were good, but after spending a week in the Czech Republic, I learned that dumplings were quite common. But their not what an American would expect. American dumplings are often found in soups or stews and they are a bit mushy of a texture. These potato dumplings were perfectly shaped spheres, about the size of a ping pong ball, and were surprisingly dense. Alone, they don't impress. Cutting them to smaller pieces and blending them within your bites is a nice addition.
Would I go back? 100% and I cannot wait to return. Best of all, the Cafe Imperial, like many places in Prague and the Czech Republic are quite affordable. My dinner, consisting of the Soup, Main and a Pepsi cost a total of about $30. Tip wasn't included. Their tip custom is different than ours so you typically need to leave cash.