May 7, 2026
Translated by ChatGPT.
Where can you enjoy Czech cuisine in both modern and traditional forms, but above all in perfect quality? The Czech Specials restaurant-certification project helps lovers of gastronomy answer this question. One of the establishments awarded this label is Angusfarm in Soběsuky near Plzeň.
In the middle of the small village of Soběsuky there is a green with a beautifully grown linden tree, simple rustic benches and a fire station. A tractor occasionally drives along the village road, and a rooster crows from a nearby yard. It is the quintessential centre of an ordinary small Šumava-region village, evoking memories of childhood holidays at grandma’s house—just as it should.
But right here, on this ordinary village green, stands an extraordinary restaurant with a guesthouse and a barn for hosting social events – Angusfarm. It specialises in Czech cuisine, aged beef steaks from nearby pastures, and its own butcher’s products. From time to time, the Czech national culinary team showcases its skills here, or a private helicopter lands on the temporary helipad in the nearby field with a guest who has worked up an appetite in the air.
With respect and without waste
If you manage to reserve the most popular seats at Angusfarm—those with a beautiful view through a glass wall straight into the kitchen—you’re guaranteed entertainment. Watching the show around the preparation of your dish undoubtedly elevates the whole experience.
The local team of chefs follows a philosophy focused primarily on sustainability and respect for ingredients. For example, they are masters of the “nose-to-tail” approach, using the entire animal. Practically nothing goes to waste.
“We use the bones for sauces and broths. We fry in beef tallow, which we render and mix with cold-pressed rapeseed oil from our local presser. Bone marrow can be whipped and served as an amuse-bouche instead of the more usual butter, or added to tartare or sauces. Trimmings are used in many products from our butcher and smoker—house sausages, frankfurters, rillettes, pâté, beef ham or jerky. These then decorate the shelves behind the restaurant bar and our e-shop,” explains the head chef, Jaroslav Viktora.
On the sleeve of his white chef’s jacket, like the rest of the staff, he has an embroidered snail—the symbol of the culinary approach known as slow food. That does not mean, however, that guests wait longer than usual for their meal. “I see slow food as respect—for the ingredient, its suppliers, the season, and the environment,” the chef says. As an example, he mentions celery, which he serves as a smoked purée. He roasts the vegetable, delivered directly by the grower, on salt until golden brown, peels it, and macerates the skin in organic cream from the Struhy farm. The purée is made from the celery, the flavoured cream and smoked butter.
“If I didn’t follow the slow food philosophy, I’d just order frozen celery and mix the cooked product with milk,” says Viktora, illustrating the mindset of someone who thinks deeply about the honesty of his craft.
That he succeeds is evidenced by the restaurant’s inclusion in this year’s Gault&Millau guide. Angusfarm received 11 points, one chef’s hat, and praise as a “gem of the Plzeň region.”
From ashes back to normal in 100 days
“Here we have a maturing cabinet custom-made for us by a specialised Italian family firm. According to standards, meat can mature there for up to a year, but it never lasts that long here. The longest was one hundred days, the minimum is forty,” says Angusfarm manager Petr Berka as he stops by a designer display case filled with cuts of meat. His colleagues regularly visit local farmers and examine the herd composition, living conditions and feed.
On the bar counter lies a commemorative book with a photograph and handwritten dedication from the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, who stayed here with the First Lady during a visit to the Plzeň region this year. For security reasons, the management had to keep the state visit secret from the staff until the last moment. Imagine arriving at work in the morning and learning that you will be serving the presidential couple that day…
But the strongest story here took place earlier—and it is certainly not recorded in the restaurant’s chronicle in gold letters like the presidential visit, but rather in black. On 23 March 2023, Angusfarm was struck by a large fire. Only the perimeter walls remained of the restaurant’s front section and the guesthouse above it, and this shortly after the building had been fully renovated by new owners. “At half past six in the evening we called the firefighters and watched it burn. We had barely recovered from the Covid crisis. It was devastating. Even today, when I talk about it, I get a strange feeling,” says Petr Berka.
According to him, even during the fire—where around 150 firefighters intervened—owner Marcel Klaus reassured his saddened staff that there was no option other than to rebuild Angusfarm. And to do so in exactly 100 days. The very next day, forty volunteers gathered at the site to offer help. The team opened a provisional restaurant in the barn to keep part of the operation going, and construction workers and helpers began work at a frantic pace. On the exact promised “round” date, everything was finished. Angusfarm rose like a phoenix from the ashes.
“Without dozens of supporters, we couldn’t have done it. The firefighters hadn’t even put out the flames yet and we were already receiving numerous messages of encouragement. We realised that the energy we put into our work here stays with our guests and somehow comes back to us,” adds Berka, bringing from the bar a thick photo album documenting the destruction and subsequent reconstruction of the establishment, which has stood here since 1872. The great fire is also remembered by a charred beam displayed at the restaurant entrance and the small movement mechanism from a cuckoo clock that survived the blaze.
Honest work, certified as Czech Specials
Angusfarm is one of 61 restaurants certified with the Czech Specials label, awarded by the state agency CzechTourism, which promotes the Czech Republic as a tourist destination. The label can be obtained by establishments offering honest Czech cuisine in the appropriate quality, provided they meet several criteria: the menu must include at least one Czech or regional soup and two main dishes, the restaurant must be well maintained, and the staff trained, willing, fast and communicative. Visitors recognise such establishments by the logo at the entrance and by the Czech dishes marked directly on the menu.
“We noticed the stand presenting Czech Specials at last year’s Culinary Symposium and the idea appealed to us. It essentially mirrored our long-term philosophy, so the visit of the certification commissioners and awarding of the label was basically a formality,” explains Berka. According to him, the certification, various forms of online-communication support and the Czech Specials sticker can appeal not only to local food lovers but also to foreign tourists who rely on various guides or materials backed by CzechTourism.
And for Angusfarm, it is also a matter of prestige. It is an opportunity to represent Czech cuisine and showcase it to the world. “As part of another project, we used to travel around neighbouring countries—Austria, Poland, Germany, Hungary—and served our national dishes there. People queued for them. Since then we know that high-quality Czech cuisine is competitive globally,” conclude Berka and Viktora.
