The 2025 was an amazing year for Prague’s food industry. Discounting all the coffee shops, bars etc, we counted 27 new openings the last year that were somehow meaningful to us, and we’re sure we are forgetting or missing some, if not many. That’s a new exciting restaurant every two weeks! Sure, prices are up, rents too, hiring is hell, but hey, that still did not stop at least 27 crazy individuals to open a restaurant in Prague. Let’s get right into it. What are the most exciting new restaurants in Prague in 2025?
NEW PRAGUE RESTAURANTS IN 2025
Let’s start with Prague’s OGs of just about any food concept for a grown-up, the Ambiente group. And What a year they’ve had after a slower 2024 with zero new openings.
First, Eska opened its new location in the Letná district. It may be more a bakery and shop than a full-service bistro like its Karlín sister, but hey, it’s a lean machine that baked and sold about 400 breads from day one and only grew from there, serves specialty coffee, a few sandwiches, some sweet buns and the like, and whole lotta produce and merch from other Ambiente branches. A concept like this on the main street of an affluent neighborhood like the Letná just makes sense.
Second, a sweep at the Michelin ceremony for Ambiente: Štangl has received both a green star and a Michelin star, Ambiente’s second (in addition to La Degustation, which has defended its own). U Kalendů, the best cooking Pilsner pub in town, has been awarded a Bib Gourmand, and Zdeněk Oudes of Marie B was the sommelier of the year according to the Michelin inspectors. Good job!
Finally, the long renovation of two houses in the Holešovice market has been completed, and Ambiente has opened not one, but two new places in the gentrified market halls. The new location of Myšák does not bake per se, but resells Myšák’s pastries, reheats a sandwich or two, and serves good coffee. Four seats only, but again, just like the new Eska, this is a concept with very little fat on it - they will make you coffee and a sandwich, and sell you some great pastries. What more would you want? (Naše maso butcher shop’s new beautiful location next door did not open until January, so they don’t count.)
The other opening is Skô, Prague’s first young Slovak restaurant in a city full of young Slovaks. Headed by chef Tomáš Valkovič (former executive chef at the old Eska and one of Ambiente’s creative chefs), the open kitchen is dominated by an open fire grill. The place is super cute, sits about thirty people and serves comforting dishes that bring back many memories if you have a family that is part Slovak. (Many people in Prague do.) Add cool wines, a nice cocktail program, and a cool soundtrack, and you’ve got yourself a place we may be returning to a lot.
Next big category for 2025: hotel restaurants, as Prague saw some very cool properties open in 2025.
First off, Zlatá Praha in the Fairmont hotel has become, under the eye of chef Maroš Jambor (ex sous-chef at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park), a serious contender for another Michelin star, if not two. Let’s get it out of the way - the view is second to none: when they touch that button to open the wooden sliding door, revealing the view of Old Town’s rooftops, it takes your breath away, and you inevitably pull out your phone to take a picture. The food is a fine dining affair with lots of delicate technique. The wine glasses are beautiful, as is the cutlery. And since Chef Jambor was a longtime chef in NYC’s Eleven Madison Park, their vegetarian tasting menu is really a vegan tasting menu, and it’s great. Is this „fun and casual“? Not exactly, but we don’t really expect that from this sort of fine dining. But if you want a have a date, or celebrate an occasion, with someone who loves and understands food, this is hard to beat. (The Fairmont hotel has more restaurants, including Greenhouse, and Kafka.)
Another fine dining restaurant in the city is Parzival in the Bookquet hotel at Karolyn Světlé by chef Gal Ben Moshe, whose Berlin-based Prism was a Michelin star. We liked some dishes more than others, but the signature dish, stone bass with verjus and XO sauce, was absolutely delicious. What really made the evening for Jan was the „concept“ wine pairing based mostly on Lebanese, Israeli and Syrian wines that are otherwise harder to find on menus of Czech fine dining restaurants. Chef Ben Moshe is a super nice person and seems to enjoy Prague a lot, having relocated his whole family here, so let’s hope he finds happiness in Parzival.
Finally, Eyal Shani, arguably the most famous Israeli chef at the helm of the Miznon group, has opened Seven North in the Sir hotel right across from The Real Meat Society in Náplavní. And it’s great: Middle Easter, vegetable-forward cuisine with a sense of fun and flair that will speak to a younger, hipper audience (at least that’s what they seem to be targeting), but that won’t leave more conservative diners disappointed, either. The Sir hotel is a beautifully renovated property, and the restaurant is a looker, too.
Brothers Ta have opened two new concepts in the renovated Dunaj palace on Národní st - first they reopened Taro, an evolution of the original place in Anděl (now home to Pho 100, the best pho in town and the most franchisable concept the brothers have created to date). The new Taro is a bit more mature, more elegant, darker, more expensively appointed space, and a clear upgrade on the original Taro, allowing the brothers to tell their story better through their beautiful food tastings. Right next door they later opened Paté, a bakery that sells congee for breakfast (yay), banh mi and shokupan sandwiches, and loads of sweets at the intersection of French and Asian baking, along with specialty coffee and matcha. Excellent stuff.
Just two blocks away, pastry chef Jiří Matějka opened Furiant pop up, a pop-up pastry shop in the former Parnas restaurant (that shortly was also Prague’s best jazz club, check out the live album Laco Deczi recorded there) with the best view of the Prague Castle and arguably the most beautiful, albeit unused, bar in the city, with wonderful zodiac-based inlays in the stunning wooden cladding. The pop-up served kolache and the like, along with Czech sweet mains, in the highest quality. We are including it here because while the pop-up was supposed to last until the end of 2025, there are talks of turning it into a permanent fixture.
Two more fun places opened in the city centre: first, La Bottega di Finestra was converted into Finestrina, a more upscale and more elegant restaurant that serves a pretty ample Italian menu in cool, elegant surroundings, reminiscent of some London hotels with their plush seating. And Centraal, located in between U Kalendů and Hostinec na Výtoni, serves the best fried chicken sandwich in town with selected sparkling wines in a tiny restaurants that seems to be more about take outs than the dine-in experience. (That paprika spice mix they but on that chicken…. damn!)
Final place in the historical city centre worth mentioning is Reason, a fine dining restaurant on the top floor of Zaha Hadid studio’s Masaryčka office building. It is run by Jan Horák, former executive chef of The Augustine hotel’s restaurant, and sits 40 inside and about in their 60 rooftop lounge outside. The selling point here is the view, which is almost panoramic. They serve lunch specials and tasting menu or a la carte dinners from Tuesday to Saturday.
More fun things are happening outside of the city centre, too. Bubeneč, the neighborhood that we live in, got not one, but two new pizza places. First, Diskotéka serves smaller Napoletana style pizzas with a sometimes idiosyncratic twist. The place was opened by the good people behind Laforme café and bakery in the same block, and it’s a fun place to get a pizza, some Italian starters and natural wines. Second, Pizza Bici has grown from a pizza pop-up to basically a window near Vítězné náměstí. The take-out only pizzeria serves Napoletana-style pies in a box to whomever walks by and breaths in the smell. Finally, Rakin is a seafood restaurant that has quite bravely based its concept on fresh seafood in a landlocked country, along with natural wines. But we like brave concepts, and Rakin is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. We got some fried shellfish during our visit, but the „bucket of seafood“ that comes with bibs, hot water and the like looks like a beautifully messy affair.
In addition to Eska, Letná also saw the opening of moe, a small coffee shop and bistro where the now iconic Bistro 8 used to be. The place is run by former Letka staff and serves specialty coffee, breakfasts and small dishes in a beautiful, stripped-down room. At one point, their scrambled eggs with smoked trout was our favorite breakfast in town. Café Letka has also opened Studio Letka in the place formerly run by Závitkárna. The studio serves specialty coffee and runs a small grocery store with well curated products and ingredients from local farmers and food purveyors.
Just across the train tracks, the Holešovice district saw the opening of Mexická, a gargantuan project headed by chef Jiří Štift of the Together group that serves a wild medley of Mexican dishes on multiple floors connected by a central golden staircase. The place consists of different work stations that focus on different things (think tortilla making, fish butchery, salsa production etc.) and is serviced by what feels like a hundred servers. The place is packed for lunches, haven’t been for dinner. Was it good? It was honestly better than we had expected. Not Mexico good, but on par with other Mexican restaurants in Prague. In an economy where it’s hard to hire just about anyone, you just have to admire the effort of opening such a huge restaurant… and succeeding immediately.
To finish that part of Prague, Kro opened their Libeň location just across the bridge towards the end of the year. It’s huge and it can feel like a canteen of a big office complex (which it kinda is), but the cooking is recognizably Kro Kitchen, as is the cocktail programme. Plus the bakery on site bakes great bread and other goodies that you may recognize from Kro Kitchen in Moskevská. Given the traffic generated by the offices and residential developments around (and given the lack of any sensible alternatives in the area), we are sure this will be a huge success.
Big things were also happening in Vinohrady and surrounding areas in 2025, putting the district once again at the forefront of what’s up on the Prague Food Scene.
First, the relocation-of-the-year award goes to Maman bistro, where the physical move to a (much) bigger space has also meant a philosophical move from a tiny bistro to a sizable restaurant… and they nailed it: great dishes to eat alone or share, good drinks, and a great presence on social media all make this „mom-and-pop“ Asian restaurant a winner.
Another winner is Lá Bù Lá. Finally a Chinese restaurant in Prague that (1) caters to a younger audience, (2) does not dial down the spice and (3) cooks really well. The chef has staged in Alma (on one of our visits, we saw one of Alma’s executive chefs taking a sous-chef role in Labula) and the cooking is a big step above your mom’s favorite „Chinese bistro“. The menu goes beyond the usual favorites (although the beef noodles are still a dish we’ll be going back to) and the pepper dumplings that make your lips numb are one of our bites of the year.
Another surprise newcomer in Vinohrady is Mazel, taking over the interior jungle space left behind the suddenly closed Gram. Mazel (a combination of Ma - meat, and Zel - vegetables in Czech) is a new concept by the Kolektiv group: Výčep has provided a lot of the know how and inspiration, while the closed Nejen bistro in Karlín has provided the talented young chef. And it works: these are clean, simple dishes that are based on, but not exclusive to, Czech comfort food, with some foreign inspirations (oysters?), and obviously a full section of dishes for vegetarians. The staff is of note, too: the front of house consists of a bit older professionals that we had met in other notable restaurants, creating an interesting alternative to the youth everywhere else. (We mean this as a compliment.)
Talking about Czech comfort food, the Zas a znova restaurant (that is also behind the Di nuovo Italian restaurant in Vinohrady) has taken over the space left behind Ossegg in Římská behind the Vinohrady theatre to open Pivovar Římská, a gastropub with its own brewery. The group has always been known for solid cooking, and this is no different - bear-forward dishes done really well, which just makes a lot of sense in Prague. The Zas a znova restaurant (about a 30-minute drive outside of the city) has always been a destination for sweet buns in hot vanilla custard, a classic Czech dessert. The brewery has brought the famous buns to Prague, which a feat in and on itself.
As if the success of Sugo in Karlín was not enough, chef Andrea quickly moved over to Vinohrady and opened Enoteca JZP, where la vita is dolce, the pasta and steak tartare are delicious, and the wines are natural and - duh - Italian. Their outdoor seating with the view of the church on the currently beautified Jiřího z Poděbrad square was honestly one of our favorite places to spend a summer afternoon: good pasta, simple meat dishes, good Negronis and wines, and the occasional pop-up lunch or dinner with an exciting chef… what more would you want?
Specialty coffee? Good. Just walk over to Blumery, a new specialty coffee/breakfast/bistro place from the people behind Kolektor in Holešovice. The interiors are modern and light, with brushed steel communal tables and decor with modern arts. They started slow but we think the kitchen hasn’t said its last word - right now it’s mostly brunch foods but we expect more going forward. Our favorite place for coffee in the JZP area, actually. (And with Automat Matuška opening a location next door soon, JZP will be absolutely on fire.)
Moving east to the Flora area, Oda opened towards the end of the year, bringing tasting menu or a la carte dinners in a fairly small, minimalist space. You have to root for a place like Oda: this is a true mom-and-pop place, run by two veterans of Prague’s food scene (chef Ondra worked in Field, Gram, and helped us in Šodó, too) who have worked hard elsewhere to finally open their own cool small restaurant that works with carefully curated local ingredients to create simple, tasty dishes, with a side note of Japanese-inspired fermentation. When we walked in, unannounced, we burst into laughter when we saw who runs the bar: Jarda, whom you know as a barista from just about anywhere, because he has worked just about anywhere. (We’re not sure if he understands the concept of „free time“.) A lovely place run by lovely people. If you haven’t been, you have to go.
Moving down to Žižkov, Better Than Clasico (or „BTC“) was pronounced the opening of the year by some (looking at you, Adam Rundus). We’re less hot on this modern Korean restaurant, but we do love the concept and the uniqueness of the interior and concept: if they’ve copied anyone, it surely wasn’t a Prague restaurant. We loved some of the dishes (the white ragout tteokbokki was really awesome) but were less impressed by others. We loved the concept and the people. We wish they used a bit better ingredients. But if you don’t care, or for a night out with young friends, this is pretty cool actually.
Chef Punčochář, a TV personality as one of the judges on Czech Masterchef, got to celebrate twice this year. First, his U Matěje restaurant was awarded the Bib Gourmand award by the Michelin guide. Second, he opened the Šnycl restaurant in the Anděl area that serves - you’ve guessed it - schnitzels. It is difficult to transform the ambiance of U Matěje, a modern-meets-classic pub with wooden cladding in a villa district, to a modern open-space building, but they’ve tried anyway. Šnycl serves traditional Czech and Central European comfort food done really well - let’s see how that matches the dietary rituals of the workforce from the offices around.
Takumi ramen opened a new location in the Quadrio mall (right next to Kafka’s head statue), and the ramen is as good as the original location on Senovážné.
And that’s about all we can remember opening in 2025 now. Have we missed anything? Please let us know.
BAR UPDATE - PRAGUE BARS IN 2025
A quick update onT bars, because there has been some movement. First, Hemingway Bar, the icon that has created a class of alumni who have been opening their own bars in Prague and elsewhere ever since, has moved a bit south Opatovická, and added hot food. New hotels means new bars: Fairmont opened Golden Eye, run by some familiar places (we were served by one of the former beverage people of Štangl), which we recommend for people who want the view of Zlatá Praha but don’t want to spend Zlatá Praha money. Second, Minus One in the W Prague hotel is a beautiful hotel bar with a separate entry from the Wenceslas Sq. run by Luca, whom you may remember from the bar of L’Fleur.
On a more local note, Tomáš Melzer of Hradec Králové’s famed Blind Lion has opened Taigen bar in Vinohrady, a more serene, small place that sits about 20 tops, and serves Tomáš’s classic cocktails based on clean tastes and whole lotta cordials. Finally, Martin Tomášek of the legendary Parlour bar has opened a new place, Sabi & Sip, just a few steps down the street from Parlour. First Krakovská street, then the world? Sounds like a plan.