Everyone has to eat and a tourist in Slovak Paradise is not an exception. During the summer vacation, when there is short summer touristic season you have more options and it’s totally up to you wheather you take the first thing you see or you will think about who you give your money for the food. During the last august weekend we tried several places and now we are going to share our experiences with you.
In the begging I should say that me and my girlfriend belong to the gorup of people who refuse to buy and eat chemical rubbish, saturated fat, flavorings and colorings instead of real foods. We want vitamins and nutrition for muscles we use on our bikes from food, not from pills. We are aware of the fact that there is a healthy mind in a healthy body. In restaurants it’s maybe more about our health than it is on the roads.
Breakfast on our own
That is the reason why on every vacation web ring our own home-baked bread, quality spreads, ham, cheese, vegetables and we prepare our breakfast on our own. It’s the way to avoid problems with unfitting breakfast or the quality of smorgasboards in the accommodating facilities. Or in the case we would like to sleep longer.
For lunch and dinner w ego to restaurants in the region of our vacations or near surroundings. It was the same on our short vacation in Dedinky.
Hotel Priehrada
If you come to Dedinky on foot from the railway station or from any direction with a car, the first thing you encounter is the Priehrada Hotel on the right side of the road. There is a big parking lot under it. From the parking lot to the restaurant are first concrete stairs and then construction with marble scales.
These „stairs“ are a bit older, so be careful.
These „stairs“ are a bit older, so be careful.
These „stairs“ are a bit older, so be careful.
As you can see from the pictures, there is no interest in the guests. Stairs probably remember early socialism, even health person has problems with passing the bottom of them, not mentioning old or sick one. When you come to the marble scales you can fasten yourself with mettalic handrail until you realize it’s attached to the mast for flags. And then you start to think how much can it handle. But then you’ll find another problem. When you are slowly coming closer to your lunch, big flower pots are put just into your way, so if you are having troubles with walking and are using crutches, you are out of luck.
These stairs don’l look very nice too.
You have problems with walking? We put a bit flower pot in your way so you really deserve your lunch!
The whole building needs reconstruciton
If you overcome all struggles and walk into the building, on the right side is a restaurant. There is a big largescreen television, under which sits the stuff with computers and papers, because it’s their pub, right? Nevertheless, no one is here although it’s lunchtime.
Be careful where you sit. In the mater of fact, there is not salt, pepper and toothpicks on each table. Waitress, in our case a student of hotel academy, comes immediately, brings menus acording the number of guests and waits. Something like „Choose immediately, don’t stare and don’t restrain“. So I requested for a glass of Kofola, to make us time at least for reading menu.
We have chosen „Geravská nátura“ (The temper of Geravy) and chicken breasts with cheese (grilled) with boiled potatoes. Young waitress took both our menus immediately, what if we decided to choose something else like coffee or some desert, and what then? Geravská nátura is actually a potatoe pancake filled with pork meat „flavoured“ with sterilized cucumber. My girlfriend put it aside, chewed the hard meat and left half of the uncooked potatoe pancake on the plate.
My meat was prepared alright, but boiled potatoes were without imagination. Not even a bit of parsley leaves, cumin or anything. In the corner of the plate some kind of mixed vegetables. But what would we want for 9 euros, right? I felt like in a camp kitchen. Make it quickly, put it in fornt of them a kick them out. Although the waitress asked us wheather we want something else, but I don’t have an elephant memory to memorize all the menu, so I payed and walked away.
I didn’t come back to the restaurant of Hotel Prierada for the whole time of our vacation and if you are not a masochist, please don’t bother them in their dream of restaurant business in the womb of the beautiful nature and choose another restaurant.
Grilled goodness
Just around the corner there is outside snack bar, which is formed with some tents, wooden benches and tent roofs with beer ads. Quite a skillful young man takes care of your food. Although we didn’t catch goulash, because there is no sense in cooking on the Friday evening, when the season ends on Sunday, but you can get here grilled pork neck (150 grams plus 3 slices of bread for 3 euros) or sausage, cabage soup, fires or pancakes with whipped cream (probably from spray – it means saturated fat). They put out gas grill promptly, grill what they need and make you a coffee into the mug. Or you are a bit cold after the hike? They have solution here, although the cups for alcohol are from plastic.
When it’s not raining and it’s not cold outside, it’s a nice sitting outside and you don’t have to fight with any broken stairs and instead of watching television you can observe nature or the barrier.
Lángos, gyros or fries
With the gravel road leading to the tent campgrounf and cableway to the Geravy which is out of order, you can get to another slovak tourist fastfood. You don’t have a place to park your bicycles, you are sitting on plastic chairs, but at least they make here really good lángos and also have drawn kofola. Also the burnt oil couldn’t be tasted. Modest tourist can really eat here or it’s also good for grabing something small before the dinner.
In some hundreds of meters away, on the square of Dedinky, there is a building near the park, which seemed to be a pizzeria, but at the same time a bar and a pool pub. It seemed to me like it was more for domestic people rather than for tourists and I didn’t fancy going in there.
Where to buy groceries?
If you wanted to buy some groceries in Dedinky, you made a horrible mistake by not bringing them with yourself. The only grocery store there, which is a patisserie and a tavern at the same time, so called „Delicatessen“, is near square, under the church.
Iron stairs leading from pavement to doors look like breaking under your legs, but luckily it didn’t happen. Inside you see a small amount of the cheapest groceries and we can only imagine what was sooner – egg or hen. Whether tourist stopped shopping first or they stopped shopping after seeing there is nothing to shop. And where do natives go to shop? I can’t imagine they can live from the things that can be bought here. If so, it reveals much.
Penzión Pastierňa
Fortunately, even in Dedinky you can find a restaurant, where you don’t have to worry about having breakfast, come having a lunch and even stay for the dinner. Pastierňa Pension with restaurant capacity over 20 people with terase provides great kitchen and decent waiters. Although they have some meladies too – breaked candlestick on the table or uncovered PUR foam that isolates window (it could be solved by a small wooden stick), but as I told the waiter, cooker from Hotel Priehrada could use some teaching from them.
Our landlord told us that cooker from Pastierňa would serve us everything we want, but when I wanted meat sauté he didn’t say a word and waited until we chosed from the menu.
But bryndzové pirohy were made from a real bryndza cheese, not like in Koliba Ožďany, potatoe pancakes were goldes roasted, not like in Priehrada. Chicken steak with mozzarela cheese was delicious, just like the one made of green peas and boiled potatoes were served with parsley leaves. Even the vegetable salad looked better.
To the Pastierňa, turn right.
The view from pension to the village
So if you want to get a really great food in Dedinky, you have to visit Pastierňa. And where do you find it? At the end of the village. By the church you turn right, just like when you want to walk to Geravy. Directions tables will lead you. The last house on the right side, on the left side there is a parking lot for guests.
