Honestly, I don’t think you missed all that much. If you like Czech (or Hungarian) food, it was a decent quick fix — but you could probably get the appropriate cookbook and do just as well yourself. The new owners have already replaced the old Sycamore St. gate/wall to the patio, so I feel sure that the tradition of outside dining will continue. Besides, that’s better than half the seating of the place. What they should have done was grab the shop next door and bust-out the wall between, but that place appears to have been snapped-up by yet ANOTHER phony mentalist, after the last one was evicted for failure to pay rent and garbage pick-up. OY!

With the rats and all it looks like it was time to go…

-BABS

‘Gee, what do they want? We gave them a handful of vaguely-authentic dishes and a short list of beers and interior seating so depressing that they HAD to sit at the cafeteria/picnic-style tables in the enclosed alley-like backyard, regardless of the weather, to avoid having their meals ruined by homeless people pressing their faces and/or asses against the greasy, paint-smeared windows! What could be more authentically MISSION?!’

But I digress.

Believe me, I PRAY that the new owners (who plan to open some sort of undefined, to the general public, restaurant called “The Sycamore”) do much better — starting with the decor, which, under the old management, began and ended with metallic gold poster paper. And, Jesus H. Walrustitty, if you’re reading this, PLEASE get rid of that disgusting old “Weird Fish” Dutch door! Let’s have a righteous good restaurant that brings something welcome to one of the worst blocks in The Mission — not something that reflects its existing malaise.

That said, I actually liked Cafe Prague’s Goulash Paprika. I wish it had been 25% smaller, a dollar or two cheaper, and served someplace else. I always left feeling like I had fallen down a manhole, had my pockets picked, and been stuffed to the gills with savory calories.