Sphinx

Sfinks Polska operates more than 100 Sphinx Restaurant outlets in Poland, making it that country’s largest casual dining chain. The first Czech outlet opened Feb. 4 on Prague 1’s Na Příkopě. On March 11, a second location opened in the Centrum Praha Jih-Chodov mall in Prague 4. In the first half of 2008, two more locations are scheduled to open in the Nový Smíchov mall in Prague 5 and at the tram and metro station I.P.Pavlova, in Prague 2. Before the end of 2008, the chain plans to have six locations throughout Prague.

Although Sphinx stresses its hearty, value-for-money fare, the food is not entirely without aspiration. The logo “Best Food by Tom Maltom” is daubed on the windows outside the restaurant, suggesting a designing hand behind Oriental dishes such as Arabic chicken soup (Kč 35 / € 1.4) or a variety of kebabs. Maltom is described on the Sphinx Web site as a “mysterious traveler” who collected recipes and dreamed of running a restaurant chain. It is hard to imagine Maltom’s hand at work in the fried onion rings (Kč 67), garlic bread with cheese (Kč 37) or fried breaded camembert (Kč 97).

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Entrepreneurs long ago realized that exploiting the yawning gap in the market between cheap, sloppy pub fare and the well-honed audacity of chef-driven menus was the next best thing to franchising fast-food brands. Not everyone can afford (or even fully understand) froufrou cuisine, after all, but most diners seek at least a gloss of sophistication.

Success, in this segment, depends upon how well chains manage to blur the line between the safe (mandarin chicken in a skillet served by beaming wait staff) and the daring (100-year eggs), appeasing the desires of customers who back away in horror from, say, sea urchin roe, but want a taste of Japan — as long as that taste remains within certain bounds.

The famous shoarma features strips of pork, a tad overcooked, drenched in five-spice powder — presumably. Whatever it was, the seasoning carried an encompassing earthy-sweet-pungent flavor. When slathered in shredded cheese (as those in the Orient are wont to do, apparently), the dish takes on a mellow, smoky note.

If Prague were, say, Columbus, Nebraska, Sphinx would be the place to go for a Saturday evening meal.

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