Reviews for the Little Prague Restaurant and Bar for January-December 2009.
2009-02-03 22:33:44 Are they still doing Pink Night here on Thursdays? —strawberry
2009-02-09 Most bars in Davis are on their own time-zone, that shouldn't be surprising. Ever notice how last calls everywhere in Davis are well before "real life 2am"? I'm sure they just don't want any reason for the ABC to get involved. It's not a big deal. In fact, LP's time seems closer to real time than most bars, as I used to go there for a "night cap" after the other bars have kicked everyone out at 1:30am. Also, when you give respect, you get respect. I've had friends treated rudely here, but they were being rowdy and totally deserved it. I've always had great service at both, the restaurant and the bar. I'm also not belligerent and respect the bar. I wonder if there's a correlation. ..
2009-02-09 19:41:54 "last call" is always 1/2 an hour before close, not at close. just thought i would correct you. —BettyBean
2009-03-06 01:38:39 Horrible, horrible service. One girl bartender was nice. the other skinny (new, as i was told) girl was very rude and had horrible customer service skills. The owner was the absolute worst. Rude, angry, and absolutely unacceptable OWNER. I don't think anyone should eat or drink at this place. No point in supporting such a crappy company. There are many other (extremely better) restaurants and bars in davis. Don't waste your time here. THis was my first time here and definitely my last. Definite lack of professionalism. I had read the reviews here before going, and wow are they true. —RichardBobo
2009-03-18 14:58:29 SO I worked her for a total of 2 months before I got totally sick of it. let me clarify one thing, Vaclav is a complete asshole and the most rudest person I have ever met in my life. If you support his restaurant then you are also supporting the following:
Terrible and degrading treatment of this employees. I knew for the second I got hired that I wouldnt be there to stay. I had n=only worked there for a short while before I had to witness his yelling and temper tantrums. He cusses and screams at anything and everything. I had to work with him one day out of the week. He doesn't do shit other then walk around barking orders. and yes he is the owner but if he plans on only staffing one waitress (me) to take care of a lunch shift then he can't expect me to be BUSSING, ROLLING NAPKINS, TAKING/PLACING ORDERS, ROLLING NAPKINS, WASHING DISHES, SERVING TABLES, RING UP TICKETS, GETTING DRINKS AT THE BAR AND GETTING REFILLS ALL AT ONE TIME. So one lady came and I had not had a chance to help her but Vaclav did. I didn't know he sat her but didnt help her. When i was in the back washing dishes after bussing and talking another parties orders, his wife EVA pulls me aside to show me that someone had punched a hole in the bathroom wall. When we came back Vaclav shoved a bunch of togo boxes at me and yelled at me to stop talking. I was completely blind sighted and after he yelled at me I started crying and walked away. he pulled me aside and i tried to explain that Eva pulled me aside and that I hadnt done anything wrong. He kept telling me to be quiet and accused me of yelling at him in front of costumers which was a total lie because she was shouting at me. Is wife Eva even tried to tell him that it wasnt my fault. After I refused to let him continue to yell at me he brought me to the back and said that I was fired. I said peace and told him that I was reporting him for harassment (on many occasions) and working me without breaks. Yes, I would work 5,6,7, 8 hour breaks with no break! Other employees said that they had worked 12 hours with no breaks as well.
ALSO, the place is totally UNSANITARY! You have been warned. this place has a roach infestation! Not a typical restaurant one either, I REALLY BIG ONE. I find them crawling all other their breads, silverware, food, and have even found tons in our coffee pots AND i recently discovered one in our chocolate powder. ALSO, the coffee he serves in the morning during the week is NOT brewed fresh. its from the day before and he has us heat it up again to serve at lunch. When we ran out of fresh regualr coffee he had us use the old decaf coffee saying, "they will never know the difference." I WAS TOTALLY AGAINST THIS and served fresh coffee when he wasnt around. ALSO, I have witnessed the cooks drop food on the floor, pick it up, put it back on the plate and serve it to customers I SHIT YOU NOT! The bread that you eat when he serves it with meals is also is taken off of other peoples tables that had not eaten it and put together iwth others to amke new bread baskets. these are just a flew examples of how disgusting this place is.
Usually i would not post something like this but after putting up with all of his crap for 2 months and dealing with his harassment and BS i feel i owe them nothing and owe their customers a huge apology and urge you to think twice about when you are willing to spend there. If you do plan on going back at least this will be in the back of your mind and you'll be aware of the kind of business you are supporting.
2009-03-18 19:04:52 apart from the rude owner , this place is a waste of time and money. The food was bland and not worth the price. Not only that when I went there and used there bathroom there was a waitress or cook I'm not sure who was talking to the owner in the bathroom with a tray of food that was going to be served. It was gross. And recently my friend went and found a ROACH swimming in her coffee. In the past I've heard the owner yelling at customers and employees. I was hesitant about coming here after all the bad reviews but by personal experience I have to say for the most part are accurate. I'm officially boycotting this place and have recommended my friends to do the same. —Davidcm
2009-05-29 21:34:57 Im waiting for the day when someone punches out the owner for his crazy antics, seriously guy when are you going to realize your in the united states, you cant do the shit you do here, it's not Czechoslovakia —BEEGEEFREE
2009-06-05 14:18:00 I work at Little Prague, and Some reading this comment may say that i am biased, but i actually think that it is a very good restaurant. i feel confident serving any dish that our wonderful chef come up with. The owner is a very nice man i have had many good conversations with him. what people say about him being too crazy or rude is patently untrue. he has been treated very badly by many customers, i have seen this many times. If you are nice to him, then he will be great to you. ant that goes for the entire staff, I think that all of us are very competent.
and what people say about the restaurant being unsanitary is untrue. We keep it very clean. I have never seen a cockroach anywhere in the back of the house, I know that every night that the bar and the restaurant are cleaned very thoroughly.
I also know that all of the caked there are great, some I like more than others but they all are made with quality and love. The bread too is of the highst quality, and at 3.77 per loaf it is a great deal for a loaf of wonderful fresh bread.
I am just laying out what i think about My place of work, you guys can bash it all you want but it is a nice place, and it is a locally owned family restaurant, lately there have been too many corporate restaurants opening in davis, we should try to support locally owned businesses. —themannn
2009-06-05 14:29:18 I've eaten here on a few occasions. While the service wasn't very fast, the food was actually quite good. I'm a little bit disconcerted by some of the reviews I've read on here lately though. My question - mostly directed at wiki regulars, but open to everyone, is whether other people have also experienced roaches or bad behavior from the owner. Are these the reviews of disgruntled former employees, or are these accurate portrayals of the restaurant? —IDoNotExist
- If they're all disgruntled former employees, than this place has a huge turnover rate to have ever hired so many people over the last four years of wiki comments :P IMO, what you're asking is up to the reader to judge. I think it's clear that many of the comments, especially in the last couple years, are focused mainly the bar/drinking scene: which has also been expanded greatly compared to several years ago. One could note that there does seem to be a pretty big trend towards negativity towards the owner. I think trying to categorize the comments even loosely isn't worth the effort. As someone who prefers to eat around 7 or 8pm, I often feel they're not applicable to what I'm looking for. Comparably, the people who want to come for drinks and music late night and maybe a slice of cake don't really care whether the $22 salmon is good or not. As always on the wiki, everything posted should be taken with a grain of salt. -ES
- I definitely agree that there is a dinner-time/bar-time split in the comments. I've only gone for dinner, and for the most part, the owner has been quite charming. I say "for the most part" because I tested him one hot day when he asked my party to move to a different table; he got testy. I could see that customer relations were not his strong point. —CovertProfessor
2009-06-06 18:04:30 I went to Little Prague last night for my birthday (first time) and the food was amazing and deff worth saving up for. (How often are you still talking about the food straight for half an hour after you leave?) Wait staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, especially with suggestions and wine pairings. One thing I especially appreciated was we were left in peace to chat without being asked every few minutes if we were "all right". So often, the server seems to require the same amount of interaction as one's dinner partner... —curly
2009-06-14 18:21:38 I HATE this place. The food and service are terrible and the owner is a jerk. I went here on several occasions only to be highly disappointed each time. I came here recently with a large group and was promised enough food to feed 46 people, however the owner not only violated the contract, but proceeded to talk down to us as well. He obviously doesn't appreciate business so I discourage anyone from trying his restaurant/bar. —StephCC
2009-06-14 18:36:27 I was here just this past week and it was my first time trying out the place. I had a terrible experience!!! The food is sub-par and the service absolutely disappointing. Little Prague was chosen to be the place for some pre-graduation fun and celebration however the environment of our intended venue was in many ways hostile and tense due to the overbearing owner who is extremely RUDE and CONDESCENDING. We were intended to have a buffet style meal...I kid you not we were handed plates the equivalent of dessert plates and once everyone had gone up once and filled what space they could...don't even think about seconds because when we went back out all of our entrees had been cleared...and dessert had been brought instead which was also meticuously cut and monitored by the owner who insisted on specifically 46 pieces when clearly more could have been cut from the cake. We were cheated of our money (grossly overpriced contract and overall menu) and treated with utmost disrespect. I highly reccommend everyone to skip this awful restuarant especially if you are looking into holding an event...and actually want to enjoy yourselves and get your money's worth! The owner really needs to re-think his professionalism and demeanor. —UCDChristine
2009-06-14 21:27:31 Where do I start? First off, the service was terrible!!!!!The owner glared at our party the whole night, never asked how our meal was, and didn't even fulfill expected tasks such as refilling our waters. Their background music was not in the background at all! I could barely hold a conversation with the person sitting across from me because the music was sooooooo loud! I can't really say much about the quality of the food because we hardly received any! The portions were so small that I went across the street to Jack in the Box after my meal to reduce my appetite. Save your money and go somewhere else. —HJS
2009-06-15 00:06:23 Even if Little Prague is your last resort, don't go. The staff was nice, with the exception of the manager. The manager is very rude and doesn't keep to his word. He didn't fulfill the contract my friends made with him for a group dinner. So if you're planning a huge event with many people, choose another venue. Little Prague will definitely disappoint. The food is okay, but that was because I was starving and I'd eat anything that night. Their chocolate strawberry cake is horrible. —mgdelros
2009-06-15 00:25:39 All right, back from hiatus just to write a review on this fail-tastic place I should O so lovingly dub “Not So Little Fail.” Please sir, madam or whoever may be tempted to try this establishment, don’t. Long story short, I went to this place to enjoy a graduation dinner in Davis and the owner managed to ruin it. The cold food was warm and the hot food was cold. Service was non-existent and the little service we got came with a brutally nasty attitude. The only part I enjoyed about this establishment was the company of friends.
To be fair, the food was decent but the portions were incredibly small, anorexically small. Although if some of the above comments are true about roaches, then it won’t really matter since you won’t be eating here anyways. [I wish I read the wiki before I came here!] Avoid this place unless you’re looking to enjoy an entrée the size of an appetizer and you’re a sadomasochist wanting to be treated like dirt. My experience can only be summed up as this: THIS PLACE SUCKS.
2009-06-15 02:37:36 If you're looking for a nice place to dine and enjoy your time, then this is NOT the place. You'll get the complete opposite. Aside from food being served cold and late, the food was nothing at all special. I had an okay slice of dessert, but even then, that does not sugar coat the owner's rude remarks and horrible service. Rolling your eyes and grunting at a customer requesting decent service? I just wanted to enjoy my food and time with some friends! sheesh. That killed my experience. Definitely not coming back. Save your money and time folks. —gato
2009-06-15 12:32:35 the manager/owner was a complete ass hole. if your organization is looking for a venue, this is the LAST place you should ever resort to, and even then there are probably better places. you are promised one thing in writing in the form of a CONTRACT that both parties agree to, HOWEVER you get something completely different at the time of the event. a BUFFET is nothing more than a few cold dishes. DEFINITELY NOT worth your time and never worth your hard earned money. for someone running an establishment that caters to mostly college students, he is doing a shitty ass job of it. he is condescending, rude, and an all around prick. —swc
2009-06-15 16:00:43 I like to sit outside by the fire with a drink, and maybe even knit with my knit night friends. The bar food was slow, but it's a nice environment with the violinist who just plays. I really, really like the Princess cake. —ChristyMarsden
2009-06-15 16:27:39 The only things I'd say were good about the event we had there was the security guy at the door and having the company of the limited number of people we were allowed to have there. We were supposed to be able to have more guests attend after the meal but instead were told last minute that no more than a certain number was allowed to be in the room.. at ANY time! The buffet was mediocre - they give you TINY plates and after people went through once, they took away the main meal to make way for the dessert. If you have to talk to the owner about any kind of arrangement, don't expect him to keep his word! Go somewhere else! —kashou
2009-06-17 02:00:16 This place is ridiculous. Not only did they not keep to a pre arranged/signed contract, the management and owner were RUDE and INCONSIDERATE people.
There is not reason to even bring this place your business because their rude management is just accompanied by food that is bland and that isn't very healthy either.
If you do any business with this restaurant, you will not only be belittled and treated like you were unequal with the owner, but your contract will be broken and the owner could care less.
In addition to the food being poor and lacking of taste, there is a LACK OF BAR SCENE as well. You can stroll along the blocks of Davis seeing which bars are doing well and this isn't one of them. Their place isn't packed like others are and it's not as hot as other places. If you're in the Davis area, don't go to this bar, there are many other places to go to kick back and enjoy yourself.
All in all, this place has horrible service, food, and an owner that could care less about his customers. I wouldn't recommend this place due to prior experiences.
DON'T waste your time and money with this restaurant! —koi
2009-06-17 09:58:09 Unhappy graduation party flooding the page with negative reviews as a form of punishment? As a person who has never been to Little Prague I must say that 20+ people all spewing variations on the same "our party sucked" theme doesn't really sway my feelings towards going or not going to this place. It sounds like perhaps the crowd became rude and obnoxious (as indicated by how thoroughly rude you all sound on the wiki) and perhaps the owner of the place didn't feel beholden to your every desire or wish.
Just because you pay for something doesn't mean someone has to kiss your butt and bend over backwards to make you 100% satisfied. This is a free market, not a slave market. When you enter a contract you have just as much responsibility as a consumer to uphold a level of dignity in any business transaction. If they were providing good service and chose to snub you because you were being rude in their establishment and disrespecting their staff, or generally disrupting their other business I can see how they wouldn't care to honor the contract either. Obviously there are two sides to every story.
I think college students need to learn lessons like this. There is something called "right to refuse service". Which means if for any reason you are causing trouble in a business establishment the owner of that business reserves the right to refuse to serve you and ask you to leave. There are many reasons including consideration for other patrons and staff as well as access to the facility and safety. If you wanted to have a huge party where people can bring friends and not buy anything I would think Little Prague was not the best idea. I mean just looking at it, it would seem like a bad space. It certainly isn't a rental hall. Maybe your expectations for use versus the owners expectations were not clearly communicated. It doesn't mean you should punish this business for a lack of communication. —CarrieBishop
- We'd appreciate it if you didn't speculate especially since you've never been here before. We were by no means rude and the owner decided to violate our contract before anyone showed up. We decided on our own to leave after we got our tiny portions and the owner even came outside to tell us he was surprised we weren't going to stay longer. He was probably hoping we would buy drinks and to milk us for even more money. Also, we had a WRITTEN contract, and our expectations and the owner's expectations were clearly there. And if you read most of the other comments on the site from years before, you should've already realized that the owner is a jackass. We just wish we read them beforehand. —StephCC
- Who is we? And I don't think I speculated, I assessed from previous commenters including the most recent comments as of 6/14 (the Sunday after Commencements) and I feel from viewing the overwhelming amount of negative comments (I count 10 now but there were more) that "you" as in all of you commenters after 6/14 are being incredibly unfair. As a matter of fact none of your comments really even state what appear to be actual facts but simply opinions and perceptions. How do I, a reader of the wiki, know whether or not you are telling the truth? Most of these statements are empty name calling. Here's my question, how much was the contract, was there a per person or per plate price? Did you pay a set fee for a number of people? Who arranged the event? Why did they agree to those terms when the portions and such were unseen? Did you have some kind of indication of portions to compare what you were promised with what you received? —CarrieBishop
- The wiki is unfriendly to super posts just as townies are unfriendly to students. For answers to your posed questions please look no further than below. —senioritis
2009-06-18 16:46:00
Assumptions, assumptions. You seem to jump to conclusion when you know nothing of the details; indeed it’s quite obvious you speculate in favor of the owner due to what is blatantly a personal predisposition of animosity towards Davis students. Nonetheless, I shall enlighten you of some details:
Right of refusal? I suppose you assume the group of us came shirtless and shoeless. O contraire, this was a graduation celebration: we had a business casual dress code and not a single sip of alcohol was consumed. The entire event was nothing short of professional in both demeanor and dress. This was to be a relaxed celebration, not a time to get rowdy and wasted. And no, we were not noisy.
The terms of the contract stipulated a buffet but it was anything but. We had come expecting a meal but got instead a table of hors de oeuvres. A dessert plate of food was the maximum anyone got as there was a limited amount of food available. This to me was the biggest breach of contract. I went hungry thinking it was all-you-can-eat and got instead nothing-to-eat.
Not all of our members were allowed into the event. I am not even sure how something like this happened. I suppose it was either a numerical error by our part or of the manager’s so to this I will remain neutral. However, it made absolutely no sense to keep them from coming in as there was a limit to the amount of food. I could see the merit of keeping them out for the duration of a buffet where we paid for a certain number of people, but again I repeat myself, it wasn’t even close to being a buffet.
Lastly was the arrangement for after dinner dessert cocktails. It was noted on the contract that friends of the members attending the party would be allowed in to partake in the celebration following the meal. This number would cap around 100 as opposed to the 50 person cap on the dinner. However, the owner seemingly changed his mind and decided to disallow any persons from entering who were not already present at the meal portion of the event. Yet another breach of contract. At this point we decided to leave, as even though we had reserved this venue we were unwilling to go further in letting the owner ruin this night for us.
Around 50 people attended the meal portion of the event alone and we estimated about 90 people to attend the cocktail portion. Did you ever stop to consider what might actually incline such negative results? Common sense would dictate that the owner must have messed things up royally to have 10 people consider putting in the time to warn others of this place and convey their dissatisfaction. Furthermore, if we were punishing the establishment, all 90 of us would have posted. Instead there were only 10 of us, the rest of which declined to comment but I assure you they were generally displeased with the situation as well. Or are you suggesting that we should have gotten together and left you a singular comment? No. Each person is entitled to their own opinion and I am personally surprised that there were not more comments. We are not being unfair. I believe that everyone merely wanted the terms of the contract to be fulfilled, no more and no less.
As to our “swaying” the feelings of others, all wiki entries should always be taken with a grain of salt. One will almost certainly never share the same experience as another diner. My fellow posters and I left comments only to display personal dissatisfaction and as a caveat to others. —senioritis
2009-06-18 20:32:26 Without getting involved in the merits of your claims of bad service, which might be totally accurate, I can think of one reason why the owner might not let more than a certain number of people in. Buildings have a maximum occupancy limit. I believe this is set by the fire martial. You can probably find the number above the inside of the door, or at least you can in some places I've lived. It might also be on a sign near the door. I don't know what the limit is there, or whether you were anywhere near it, but if the number of people in your party + the number of people already in the restaurant was close to the max occupancy limit, that would have been a good reason to keep more people from coming in. Of course, they could then have let more people in as others left, and they certainly should have made it clear to you what the limits were if those miht have impacted you. —IDoNotExist
- A valid suggestion but to clarify, this is the same bar where they host their music nights so 100 people is definitely well below the room capacity. The thing I still can't figure out is why he did something like that. As people have mentioned, the owner seems a bit illogical at times and this may well be the best answer. More people would have meant more drinks consumed which would have invariably translated to more profits. I suppose Little Prague just isn't into good business. —senioritis
2009-08-19 11:47:48 I have to agree with the exemployee. I worked there for a few months a couple years ago and in my first week was accused of breaking the back door entrance (which I had never touched) and was promptly cursed out. A few minutes later once it was repaired he was laughing and jovial but unapologetic. I also worked a few opening shifts and can attest to the roach problem. When the lights are turned in the kitchen area you can literally see hundreds of roaches scurrying for the dark. The paychecks are kept in the kitchen area between the plates used for services. One day I went in during a lunch shift and grabbed the stack of checks wedged between the plates. The hidden roaches that were attached were thrown all over the place; the plates, the serving line, garnish bins and prep area. Within seconds they had scurried away. Unfortunately, I have personally served roaches to customers, once on the patio a roach in a coffee cup. The customer played it off as possibly a bug from the English Ivy that is all over the patio. Another time was for brunch. Juvenile roaches don't look like adult roaches so when the customer picked up his orange/fruit garnish and saw two little bugs he had rationalized it as something that could have been shipped in with the fruit. I told Vaclav this and it was my fault for serving the plate. Maybe I should have been touching every dish, stirring your goulash with my index finger or lifting your main dish to peek under. Oh yeah, if you get something to go, ask for the box and box it yourself. The shelf under the food window has a large gap in it and the wall between that shelf and the kitchen is INFESTED with roaches. Part of training is explaining not use that ledge if you can help it. It's darkened by the upper food window so the roaches are much more adventurous and determined to try your leftovers. We did use this ledge when busy, otherwise we'd box up on the bar counter. As for the bakery area, it is just as infested and the cakes, while being baked fresh are all from 50lb bags of mixes and 5 gallon jugs of frostings. Nothing from scratch, but the roaches in the room are what did it for me. I am surprised the former employee did not bring up tip pooling. This is where we all "shared" tables and left the tips in the register. It would take Vaclav a week to figure out what the total tips were and who deserved what amount. The surprising thing is no matter if you worked 3 shifts or 7 you pretty much made the same. And those that he liked got more. Nevermind the total never seemed to add up to what the actual tips were, and yes, that does include tipping out the bussers and cooks.
I realize that many people have come to the defense of this place and dismissed these comments as disgruntled employees but I speak the truth. I wish I had a camera phone back then, maybe a youtube video would convince the hardcore among you of the voracity of our comments. And to those regulars that I liked and respected, I apologize from the bottom of heart for serving you what I did. I'll never understand why I didn't walk out during training.
P.S. Vaclav's answer to the brunch roach fiasco was to buy a roach bomb from ACE and set it off in the kitchen that night. No proffesional service and no follow up. —jasonReynolds
- It is apparent to me that this is made of half truths. I have been here for a while now as a member of the staff and have seen the back rooms and see a few discrepencies with the above statements. First, the cakes are made with mixes they prepare themselves and the same can be said of the frosting. So, enjoy the cakes if you like without worry about whether it is Betty Crocker or whatever other mixes this man is speaking of. It is made within the restaurant as a mix and then baked daily. The breads are done the same way, baked fresh in the small bakery in the back. As for the tips, this is garbage. The tips are divided on each shift to ensure that those who worked are getting what they earned. IF, you don't stick around after clocking out, those tips are placed in an envelope and stored in the office where you will have to ask Vaclav or Eva to obtain them. As for the roaches, I will say this, on occasion there is a small roach or two and the issues are taken care of properly as they arise. There is not a single restaurant or dining facility in this town with any type of major in and out traffic that does not have this issue. As for the secret "do not use" shelf.. it doesn't exist. As for Vaclav himself, all I can say is that if you do something to get on his badside, you never get off, but most have had no issues with this as most do the jobs they are assigned and do them well. WesOne
2009-10-15 14:35:09 As a long-time customer at Little Prague (since it opened), I have to say, I'm surprised by all the negativity here. I have always had good food (sometimes even great) and good service. The vegetarian entrees are hearty and satisfying. The poached salmon is very good (and I'm very picky about my poached salmon). The portion sizes are huge and I usually end up taking some home. The owner has always been polite to me and my dining companions. I am dismayed to hear about a possible roach problem but hopefully if it really is a problem, the health department will take care of it. Many many roaches do live outside in downtown Davis, especially in the ivy but that doesn't necessarily mean it's an indoor problem. —davispigeon
