I find it hard to write about bad food. Probably because it doesn't stick with me (unless it is incredibly bad then I cannot forget it). Amazing food on the other hand...I can think back on some amazing dishes we have had in the past, years ago even, and still call to mind what they tasted like and how delicious they were. A few days ago I posted about Lehka Hlava which was incredible. I can still recall what everything tasted like even though it has been a few weeks since we had dinner there. They have another restaurant in the city that has a slightly different menu, Maitrea, and we were very excited to try it out. Unfortunately it was not good. I still find it hard to believe that the one restaurant is so incredible and the other so not. We started with a sushi plate - one roasted vegetable (though not really the vegetables were raw) and one with smoked tofu and spring onion. The tofu was tasty, but the onion overpowered everything. Besides that it was just okay. Something was missing. The veggies were fine as well even though it said roasted veggies and they were raw, but something was still not right. I mean it was fine, but I would never order it again as it was just okay, but definitely not worth the money. It wasn't until a few days later when we had an avocado roll somewhere else that we realized what it was. They didn't season the rice at all. It was just plane rice with no flavorings at all, so not sushi rice. I would take the avocado roll over these "fancy" fillings any day as it was so much better all because they seasoned the rice. Such a simple thing, but hugely important.
We also tried the goulash as we had seen signs for it all over town. It was seitan in a gravy served with rice. This was disgusting. I seriously could not eat it. The seitan was the most disgusting texture ever. It was so chewy and slimy and just like...even thinking about it now is making me feel a little sick. The sauce was not good. I am not sure what the flavoring is but I did not like it. Really if the seitan would have been good I could have said oh it is just not my thing, but the seitan made me gag and almost made me sick to my stomach with the texture. Not good. Not good at all. Unfortunately this is one of those bad dishes that is so bad I cannot forget what it tasted like.
Overall - I would not go back to Maitrea. I'm still not sure how their other restaurant is so incredible and this one is so bad. The people working here were also not very pleasant and overall it was just a very bad experience. I would not recommend Maitrea.
