The Best Italian Food in the Czech Republic

A walk-in wine fridge you can see from your seat sets the tone at this one-Michelin-star Italian restaurant tucked into the Old Town. The cooking leans North Italian, with breads, pastas, and ice creams made in-house. Turbot is a recurring reason to check the daily specials, or you can hand the wheel to the chef and take a five-to-seven-course tasting menu. There's a private chef's table for eight in the basement, and cobblestones out front when the weather cooperates.

Seafood cooked with the kind of restraint that takes confidence, no heavy sauces, no theatrical plating, just clean product made to taste like itself. Aromi is a sleek Italian restaurant on a handsome Vinohrady square, split across two rooms that both feel considered rather than corporate. The wine list is long and sensibly priced by Prague standards. It ranked 30th on 50 Top Italy's global list, which is a strange thing to find two hours from the sea.

A glass-roofed atrium courtyard leads you into this bistro and bar tucked inside a centuries-old building in central Brno. Vaulted ceilings and a small open kitchen set the tone: pared-back and unhurried, with a menu short enough to read in under a minute. The cooking leans seasonal and contemporary, pulling in Italian ideas alongside straightforward meat dishes. You can also just stop in for a cocktail, which the room, honestly, encourages. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand.

The open grill runs right through the room, and what comes off it changes daily, which keeps regulars guessing. This contemporary Italian restaurant sits just outside the old town, its exposed brick and concrete walls dressed with vintage furniture and wine racks stacked floor to ceiling. Pasta and risotto hold their own alongside the grilled dishes, and truffle turns up on the menu regardless of the season, a policy nobody seems to argue with.

A section of excavated medieval church wall sits behind glass in the dining room, which sets the tone for a place that takes its surroundings seriously. Borgo Agnese is a contemporary Mediterranean restaurant where the menu swings between Italian coastal and something wilder, and a serious European wine list backs it up. Tasting menus are available, though à la carte works just as well.

Mismatched chairs, old floorboards, figurines on shelves, and enough books to suggest the owner couldn't quite decide between restaurant and antique shop: Divinis is an Italian restaurant tucked into the Old Town, spread across several levels in a way that feels accumulated rather than designed. The open kitchen turns out refined Italian cooking, and the staff will happily walk you through a wine list that leans heavily Italian, which at a place like this feels right.

The wood-fired oven turns out Neapolitan pies with that soft, slightly puffy crust, and the tomatoes and mozzarella come straight from Campania. This is a roomy, lively pizza restaurant, family-friendly enough that there's a play corner for kids. The all-you-can-eat format, where small portions of every pizza keep arriving until you wave the white flag, has made it one of the more talked-about spots in Prague. It ranked 30th on 50 Top Pizza Europe.

The wood-fired oven came over from Naples, and the dough gets more than 50 hours of slow fermentation before it sees the flame. This Vinohrady pizzeria is the Prague outpost of a much-loved Pilsen original, turning out soft, airy-crusted pies with buffalo mozzarella and house-made salami. The wine list leans toward small producers, though the tables mostly seem to be ordering spritz, which feels right. Italian beers, too.

A silver oven shaped like a disco ball anchors the room at this Neapolitan-style pizza spot in Dejvice, which doubles as a DJ venue on certain nights and leans heavily on takeout. The two Italian pizza makers behind it work sourdough in both classic and creative directions. The wine and beer list is short, the tiramisù is not. Listed among 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias.

Sitting above the main pedestrian drag in the old town, this Neapolitan pizza spot imports nearly all its ingredients from Italy and seats around eighty people in an easy, unpretentious room. The Margherita is a reliable anchor, and the calzone draws a loyal following. On a street that cycles through pizza-kebab-noodles with dizzying efficiency, the focused menu and quick, capable staff make the choice pretty simple.