There’s this little place on Dlouhá in the Old Town district of Prague worth saving your appetite for. You can’t miss it; during the day there will be people lined up out the door and into the streets. In the evening, the little butcher shop is buzzing with carnivores lusting over the meat counter, distracted with the slicing and dicing of the blood stained butchers behind the window. This is Naše Maso.

Lean over the butcher counter and master butcher, Frantisek Ksana is right there to boast the quality standards of his products like a North American locavore. He’s the most enthusiastic butcher I’ve ever met. This man hails from a family of butchers and he played a significant role in brining back the Přeštice pig, a heritage breed named after the region it’s farmed. Frank, as he tells us to call him, claims this pig has the perfect ratio of meat to fat and the meat has a richness of flavours lost on other pigs.

At Naše Maso they not only offer up the best beef and pork in the country, but they’ll cook it up for you too. I’m handed a warm slice of smoked Přeštice sausage. Wow, it’s a powerful, robust, smoky-rich mouthful. It has a burly character with an elegant finesse that lingers long on your palate.

The butcher shop has three butcher block tables for diners to sit around and a few beer spigots in the corner to quench their thirst. I overhear a conversation about controversial Czech sculpture David Černý. They were talking about his giant statue of an upside down dead horse with a rider on its underbelly. The bronze looking statue hangs from a glass ceiling in the Lucerna Palace. I say bronze looking because certainly a glass ceiling could never hold such a massive weight. The debate was over its construction; styrofoam or fiberglass.

I love David Černý’s work because he’s always way out there. He became well-known when he painted a Soviet tank pink; rumour has it for love. Love or not, he was promptly jailed for it. We’re now distracted by the best steak tartare in the city and I never heard if they guessed styrofoam or not.

The juicy disc of succulent meat laced with minced, house-made pickles, onions and mustard is eye candy to any self-respecting gastronome. Lop it onto the warm sourdough toast only after you’ve rubbed it sufficiently with a whole clove of garlic, now sink your teeth into it. The gracious, animal flesh creams the top of your mouth with flirtatious nuances of subtle beef, earthy richness and exquisite complexity. It’s a marvelous roll-your-eyes back and savour the moment experience.

We begin a conversation about our own favourite David Černý’s pieces. High above your head on Husova is a thought provoking sculpture of Sigmund Freud hanging from a pole. The meaning of this is up to interpretation so a debate was inevitable. Does it represent the choice to live or die or does it represent the invisible line between sanity and insanity? Or are they one in the same?

The little butcher shop is buzzing with people who begin to look at us as if they want to join in the conversation; or do they just want our burgers? I only eat good burgers, which means I don’t eat burgers often. But at Naše Maso they grind their burgers from a noble breed of Czech pied cattle that have been properly fattened for an optimum balance of meat to fat. All of their beef is dry aged by experienced butchers. So starting with the best quality, they grind and form into patties – so simple!

The burger is grilled to a perfect medium-rare with little or no shrinkage at all. Topped with thin slices of their house-made pickles and red onion it’s then sandwiched in a thin, toasted roll of little substance (except to hold the meat together). It’s the perfect bun to showcase the beef. Bite into it and feel your shoulders slink down in total satisfaction. Czech pied cattle has an elegance character and a robust beefy flavour; two opposites that play on the palate like Freud plays on the psyche. The result is a burger as polished as a prime steak.

We leave Naše Maso with a plan to return tomorrow for a steak. In the meantime, we walk back wondering if we should stop for a chocolate drink at Choco Café or a sweet from Bakeshop. So many great eateries in Prague and not enough room in my stomach to put it all away.