Restaurace Jáma

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." Albert Einstein

In that heavenly area close to Wenceslas Square, I resumed, once again, my never-ending survey of Prague's hamburgers.

I went to Restaurace Jama, which means "the hollow" a couple of times recently.The place is quite popular with expats, though I rarely go myself.I'd heard boasts about the burgers over the years. Regarding the vaunted Jáma Burgers, I have good news and bad news. More on that later.

Jáma is a big place, and it is often pretty full. Drinking is a common pastime.A half-liter of Pilsner Urquell was 45 CZK. Gambrinus was 35 CZK. Kozel dark was 35 CZK, and Kozel light was 29 CZK.I should note that the prices listed here should be correct but, as of this writing, the prices on the Internet menu were not up to date.

On my first, I had the world's most popular of burger combination, the bacon cheeseburger. But, I had to wonder why the menu offers a bacon burger (175 CZK) and a cheddar burger (175 CZK), but there was no combo.To achieve full bacon cheeseburger status, you have to order one of the above burgers, and then add extra cheddar (45 CZK) or extra bacon (45 CZK).

This annoyed me. I was also irked that a slice of cheese cost the same price as the bacon -- a mind-boggling 45 CZK.

Regarding the bacon itself, it seemed that the chef took a little shortcut. The strips had the tell-tale signs of being deep fried rather than pan fried.

A friend who worked at a snack bar once told me about this trick. The bacon cooks much faster, but comes out with a dried out, brittle texture.

I have also have a beef with the onions served on the side. What are they thinking, slicing them that thick? When you put them on the burger, they create an airy loft space under the bun.

There was also lettuce, tomato, and oddly, black olives on the side. You can have fried onions for an extra 10 CZK, which I presume would not raise the roof as high as the raw ones.

The menu said the burgers came with fries. But later, I saw there was a 10 CZK charge that said "hranolky (fries) plus." I'm not sure why.

OK, that's the bad news.

Yes, there is some good news. The beef patty was thick, well-shaped, juicy, and held together well. There could have been a little more seasoning.

The bun was large, sturdy, and perfectly-sized for the meat. It was nicely toasted. The steak fries were hot, crunchy, and there were plenty of them. It was all very filling.

On second visit, I decide to try the Jack Burger, made with Jack Daniels barbecue sauce (195 CZK).I don't know what I was thinking. This was a mistake.

That's because the plain, classic burger cost only 150 CZK. I don't see how they could justify the 45 CZK premium for the small amount of sauce unless this liquid gold was hand-carried from the USA on a first class flight.

And I could hardly taste it. A big disappointment. I should have tried the chili burger.

I noticed they had Canada Dry in the fridge, so I ordered a bottle (30 CZK).

Unfortunately, it doesn't taste quite the same to me as the Canada Dry ginger ale in the states. It had a slightly saccharin flavor.

Jama had other offerings besides burgers. There were burritos (155 CZK), Czech beef in cream sauce (159 CZK), and ribs (155 CZK).

I saw they started making something called an "orange drop" chimichanga. I'm not sure what that is, but I'm intrigued.

I probably will try the Tex-Mex options some day in the future. The burgers have so much potential, but the puffed up pricing, odd onion slicing, and bad bacon put me off.

They get the big things right.

But to my mind, they got too many of those slight, but devilish details wrong.

Restaurace Jáma
V Jámě 7
Prague 1
Tel. (+420) 224 222 383


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Mad Bar

"We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors."
-Weldon Drew

Like you, I have some strange habits.

For example, I play basketball every week at 7pm at a gym. This is not the strange part.

It is that my pre-game rituals include some, shall we say, idiosyncrasies.

First, I'm usually very hungry before the game. Unlike my associates, I hate playing on an empty stomach. I need energy. So, I eat just before I play.

Some have remarked upon this to me, finding it odd. But there's more.

I also believe I play better after a couple of beers. Certainly, this is counterintuitive, at the very least. It runs up against what is known about the effects of alcohol on hand-eye coordination.

And yet it works for me.

It has something to do with my hand-mind cooperation. I have no doubt that our game statistics (if we kept them) would bear this out.

Beer doesn't just build confidence in bars. I firmly believe that, either way, it helps one to score.

Which brings me to my recent pre-game show at Mad Bar.It is a relatively new place in Malá Strana with a clean, modern interior.In the past, I'd often met other players for drinks nearby at Kolkovna's Olympia (other players drink with me, they just don't eat). But we got tired of Olympia's service issues and somewhat higher prices.

At Mad Bar, I was very pleased to discover they served Pilsner Urquell.

Not only that, but there is a Happy Hour from 4pm to 7pm and everything, from food to drink, is 25% off.

The normal price for a half-liter of Pilsner is 36 CZK (it is 39 CZK at Olympia). But during Happy Hour, it was only 26 CZK.

The menu (only in Czech on the net) seemed somewhat limited. They do serve a few breakfast items. There were also some sandwiches, salads, pastas, baked potatoes, and a burrito and a quesadilla.The descriptions didn't inspire me so much, but I can't really say anything about them, either way, because I didn't try the above mentioned items.

What I did try was the spicy sausage (klobasa) on black beer sauce with Czech bread (65 CZK or 49 CZK at Happy Hour).It took a fair amount of time to get to my table -- around 20 minutes. But when it came, I liked it very much. As odd as this might sound, it appeared that some love, skill, and attention went into its preparation.

The snappy skin was artfully cross-cut with a knife to allow some, but certainly not all of the fat to run out. It was perfectly fried. There were small chunks of fat inside, but it was also tender and flavorful. And fatty -- but in a good way.

However, it did not really live up to its "spicy" billing.

It sat atop a great, salty beer sauce with red onions and green peppers. And there was great, freshly cut Czech bread. There was also some lettuce, which I ignored, and some carrot strips, which I did eat.

On another visit, I had the chicken quesadilla, which was pretty bad. It was buried under iceberg lettuce for some reason.

I quite enjoyed the music they played, with funky cool blasts of brass. My friend, Big A, joined me and also commented favorably on the tunes.

Looking around a bit, I saw that Mad Bar has Wi-Fi. The bad news? According to the sign on the window, the place closes at 10pm. So, no post-game shows will be held there.

I left feeling quite satisfied with the beers, the small meal, and the price. It's certainly a good alternative for people looking for something less hectic than Olympia.

As for the basketball game afterward, I can report that it was good night for me. I scored early and often. I was in The Zone.

Right up until the beers wore off.

Mad Bar
Plaská 5
Prague 5 - Malá Strana
Tel. (+420) 775 122 256 or 257 219 855


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