The Best Places to Eat and Stay in the Czech Republic

A small photo album at every seat tells the story of the two brothers behind this counter-restaurant, which sets the tone nicely. Diners sit at a U-shaped bar watching the kitchen work through a seasonal five-course Vietnamese menu built on family recipes and a life split between Hanoi and Prague. The sommelier takes the wine pairing seriously, though cocktails and non-alcoholic pairings are both on offer.

A regional Czech restaurant sitting right on Chrudim's market square, with cross-vaulted ceilings and white walls that make the room feel older and calmer than the lunch rush deserves. The menu runs to braised rabbit, red cabbage, and dumplings, the kind of cooking that doesn't need explaining. Lunch deals fill the place fast, so a reservation is the sensible move. Evenings tip slightly more formal, but the kitchen stays grounded in the same flavors.

A farmhouse restaurant outside Pilsen that raises its own cattle, which means the beef on your plate was living nearby not long ago. The menu leans into that fact with dishes like beef ribs and braised tongue, all done in a straightforward Czech style. The room is properly rustic, the terrace in summer is surrounded by greenery, and there is a campsite if you decide the rural quiet suits you for longer than one meal.

The half-timbered house dates back centuries and is one of very few of its kind still standing in the country, which makes the minimalist interior, all rustic ceiling and brick floor, feel like a deliberate provocation. This Czech regional restaurant keeps the menu short and the sourcing local, with the kitchen doing its own fermenting, pickling, and preserving. Five guestrooms sit in a separate timber building out back for those who don't want to leave.

Tucked into a quiet side street in Prague's New Town, Vallmo is a cozy contemporary Czech restaurant where the dining room runs to pale wood and understated wall art, and the kitchen leans on local producers to reinterpret seasonal Czech cooking. Evenings bring a five or eight course tasting menu, with a sommelier who clearly takes the wine list seriously. Lunch keeps things shorter and less ceremonial.

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 chandeliers in the dining room are not decorating the space so much as overwhelming it, which sets the tone for a stay at this grand old Czech spa hotel. Karlovy Vary's mineral waters are the official reason to come, but the Pupp itself, baroque and slightly idiosyncratic, is the real draw. The spa leans atmospheric rather than clinical, the casino is an Eastern European classic, and nothing about it feels like a modern luxury operation. That is entirely the point.

The mill wheel still turns at this ten-room, adults-only hotel tucked into the forests of Českodubsko, a stone mill that has been around forever and shows it. Chamomile grown on the grounds flavors dishes in the restaurant and a signature gin made at a nearby distillery. The bar program was developed by a name from Prague's Bugsy's Bar, and the kitchen has serious pedigree behind it too.

A cross-shaped log cottage in the Jizera Mountains with a date carved into the oak portal by the original carpenter, this is a small place to stay where history and comfort negotiate rather than fight. Five apartments and a converted barn sleep up to ten, and the kitchen turns out modern Czech cooking from local growers, with bread baked in-house. The kind of weekend that's hard to explain to people who weren't there.

Marienbad, as Antonioni fans will insist on calling it, has been drawing people to its thermal waters for as long as anyone can remember. This luxury hotel stitches together several historic Art Deco buildings with modern additions, filling the result with contemporary art and keeping the rooms deliberately calm. The Pürovel Spa is the main event for most guests, and the restaurants and bars handle the rest of the unwinding.

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.