Alba's and Margita's Great Test of Chais, Pt. 5: MONOLOK

When in Vinohrady, you can stumble upon a variety of places to enter and have a coffee or a glass of wine at. Before I visited Monolok, I had thought that this one was actually called Monologue, being a place specifically designed for solitary visits of guests wanting to focus, to think, to introspectively talk with themselves. And that my expat-friends were just pronouncing it a bit strangely.

But nope - in the end it's really Monolok and it's a place to go to in solitude, in pairs, in a group of people. Let's take a deeper mono-look (or in this case double-look, heh) at the chai!

ALBA

The Foam: With a nice flower on top, the right consistency and a tastily spicy touch I think this might be my favorite foam so far :) 8/10

The Chai: A big (really big!) warm cup of fairly spiced chai, arguably a bit too sweet, but fine for me. 8/10

The Experience: I vividly remember how it was a very cold day for October standards and how I was in the phase of denying that winter was coming, dressing like it was late September... So the warm and cozy atmosphere of Monolok was much appreciated after our freezing Vinohrady walk. With smiley service, good background music and nice interior, Monolok is a great place to enjoy a winter afternoon over a hot beverage or a good glass of wine :) 8/10

MARGITA

The Foam: Smooth and soft, ideally thick and delicately decorated. 7/10

The Chai: Before we were served the chai, I'd been curious if we would get it with a bottle of the special Monolok-water we've tried there before. It was a cool bottle with a little branch in it and it turned out to be rosemary-infused still water. Which felt like drinking liquefied baked potatoes.

The chai came without water in the end and was served in a nice and big minimalistic mug. It fit very well with the interior, even the chai was very elegant in its simplistic way. For me it was the warmest chai we've had so far, with taste nicely balanced between spicy and sweet. 8/10

The Overall Experience: Monolok is an interesting café to visit as its brutal and elegant minimalism is in contrast to most hipster coffee places of the area. I find it a very refreshing change to the usual trend of eclectic over-combined decorations. Monolok with its robust wooden furniture, comfy chairs and sofas and the bare minimum of decorations is a nice and quiet place (or rather a place with great interior acoustics) to have a conversation at. And imagine Urge Overkill playing in the background!

The staff is very nice and friendly and somehow very compatible to the overall vibe of the place.

Oh and in the end, we got some branch-less water! (Yes, with the wine!) 8/10

Price of the chai: 89 CZK / 3.50 EUR

Total score: