Casa De Carli

Verdict

If you want serious Italian cooking in Prague's Old Town, Casa De Carli is the clearest answer at the €€€ price tier. The cooking has a North Italian lean, the pastas and breads are made in-house, a private chef's table in the basement seats up to eight people for occasions where the setting needs to match the food. Book here when you want a structured dinner with genuine Italian craft rather than a broad pan-European menu.

About Casa De Carli

Imagine arriving at a cobblestone street in Staré Město; the kind of Old Town block that looks the same at midnight as it does at noon; and stepping into a room that is clean, modern, deliberately calm. The interior at Casa De Carli reads as a conscious counterpoint to the ornate Prague dining rooms nearby: an open show kitchen, a walk-in wine fridge, a floor-to-ceiling wine wall give the space a visual identity grounded in the product rather than in period décor. This is the room Matteo De Carli and his wife Lenka Hermanová built when they opened here in 2012 after years spent cooking at stops around the world, more than a decade later it still reads as a considered choice rather than a formula.

The cooking is rooted in northern Italy, think lighter sauces, restrained seasoning, an emphasis on quality ingredients over heavy elaboration. Breads, pastas, ice creams are produced in-house, which matters at this price point: when a kitchen makes its own pasta, the tasting menu becomes a more coherent argument for spending the evening there. Daily specials rotate the menu around what is available and in season, so if you visit more than once you are unlikely to encounter exactly the same plate twice. The turbot in puff pastry crust appears on the specials regularly and gives a reasonable read on the kitchen's technical range.

For a special occasion, the tasting menu format is the strongest argument for booking. You can choose five, six, or seven courses, the kitchen paces the evening without requiring you to move through the menu yourself. The private chef's table in the basement is the most distinctive option for groups of up to eight: the chef cooks in front of you in a setting that is separated from the main dining room, which makes it genuinely useful for a celebration, client dinner, or milestone birthday where conversation needs to hold the room as much as the food does. Tables on the cobbled street out front work well in warmer months if the occasion is more casual.

On the question of late dining: Casa De Carli's Old Town location means the area around Vězeňská 116/5 remains animated well into the evening, the restaurant's format suits a late-start dinner more naturally than a quick weeknight meal. The tasting menu structure means you are committing to an extended sitting rather than a fast turnaround, which is worth factoring in if you have plans later in the night. For the Prague dining scene, where many kitchens close their kitchens earlier than Western European equivalents, a venue running tasting menus in a well-stocked room is a meaningful option for evenings where you want dinner to be the main event rather than a prelude to one.

The wine list, evidenced by both the walk-in fridge and the wall display, is a signal that the kitchen takes the full dining experience seriously. No specific list details are available in our data, but the physical investment in wine storage at a small Old Town restaurant suggests a selection worth engaging with rather than defaulting to a house pour.

For context on how Italian cooking at this tier performs elsewhere in the world, the kitchens at 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong and cenci in Kyoto demonstrate how far Italian technique travels when a kitchen commits to sourcing and craft. Casa De Carli operates at a different scale and price tier, but the underlying commitment, in-house pasta, tasting menus, a private chef's table, reflects the same logic. Within Prague's Italian options, it sits closer to La Finestra in Cucina and Aromi than to the more casual end represented by Dejvická 34 by Tomáš Černý. If you want Italian in Prague and are weighing the tasting menu format against à la carte, also consider CottoCrudo and Divinis for different takes on the same cuisine in the city.

Beyond Prague, Czech Republic dining worth knowing includes ARRIGŌ in Děčín, ATELIER bar & bistro in Brno, Babiččina zahrada in Průhonice, Bohém in Litomyšl, Cattaleya in Čeladná, and Chapelle in Písek if you are travelling beyond the capital. For everything in the city, our full Prague restaurants guide covers the full range. You can also browse our Prague hotels guide, Prague bars guide, Prague wineries guide, and Prague experiences guide for the full picture.

Practical Details

Address: Vězeňská 116/5, 110 00 Staré Město, Prague. Cuisine: Italian, North Italian bias, in-house pastas and breads. Price tier: €€€. Awards: Michelin Plate (2024). Reservations: Booking is rated Easy, but secure the basement chef's table in advance if your group requires it (max. 8 people). Groups: Chef's table seats up to 8 in a private setting. Tasting menus: 5-, 6-, or 7-course options available. Outdoor seating: Tables on the cobbled street in front. Leading for: Special occasions, date nights, client dinners, group celebrations.