Pickled Cheese and Delicious Beer at U Fleků

Occasionally, you’ll hear about a dish that you immediately need to try.  I recently learned that pickled cheese is a thing that exists in Czech pubs, and of course, my interest was piqued.

Okay fine, it was more than piqued.  Pickled cheese??  I needed to try it immediately.

So I found myself at U Fleků, a brewery and restaurant with a history going back to 1499.

It’s an interesting place.  It’s quite touristy — complete with a guy playing accordion in the dining room — but its hard not to be taken in by its charms.

Basically as soon as you sit down, someone comes and plunks down a mug of their house beer.  They do ask if you want it — but of course you want it.  The beer is amazing.

I was there for the cheese, but the beer is what really blew me away.  It’s a dark lager, and it’s so damn good.  It’s downright magical in the way that it combines the rich flavour of a stout like Guinness with the easy drinkability of a lager.  It was one of the best beers I’ve had in a long time.

As for the cheese, I enjoyed it too, though it definitely wasn’t on the level of the beer.  It’s a creamy, soft cheese called hermelín, and it has a mildly vinegary flavour from the pickling.  It also has a garlicky paste in the middle, which gives the cheese a lot of its flavour.

The cheese is creamy and slightly funky, and works quite well on the bread its served with (a whole loaf — I was tempted to ask if I could bring the rest of it home, but sometimes I have to balance my need to be frugal with my desire not to come off like a hobo).

Location: Křemencova 11, 110 00 Nové Město

How to find it: it’s a big yellow building, and there’s an ornate clock right near the entrance.