When I first visited Prague in 2017, its dining scene felt…paused. It wasn’t a bad feeling necessarily, but the Czech capital just felt a little behind the curve compared to other major international cities I’d been writing about for years.
Prague is a city where you see and feel the history everywhere. Its classic food culture is clearly defined, and the classics were solid, but there wasn’t much that made you rethink what a restaurant could be. As a Canadian, there is an easy romanticism with Europe—or any international location, really—and for a food-focused traveller, that often comes with the assumption that the city you’re landing in has a more dynamic dining scene than your hometown does.
Sometimes, travelling actually helps me realize just how diverse Calgary’s restaurant scene is, and how far we’ve come. All of this is to say, I witnessed Calgary’s growth spurt starting close to 20 years ago, so it’s quite captivating to be able to watch it happening again in more recent years in a city of comparable population (and, dare I say, similar underestimation too), such as Prague.
Fast-forward to now and the evolution is impossible to ignore. Prague’s food scene has diversified rapidly in just a few years: the proliferation of contemporary Czech eateries (largely thanks to the hospitality group Ambiente), striking natural-wine bars (dear Dionysus, this city loves its natural wine bars), Detroit-style pizza, and corners of fusion that once felt unlikely. Am I rambling? I am rambling. (Really, who can afford an editor these days?!)
Ok, back to the main point: Better Than Classico, one of Prague’s newer restaurants. It is sorrowfully underreported on—and also one of the most unique.
The first time I was brought to Better Than Classico on the fairly bustling Hartigova Street was thanks to my best friend, who lives in Žižkov. It’s a small, quirky Italian-Korean spot run by a group of South Korean friends. There’s nothing quite like it in the city—not because it’s flashy (it isn’t), but because the food is playful, tasty, and quietly unforgettable in ways that take time to sink into my ever-buzzing brain.
The name is the first wink: Better than classico. It’s partially playing with fire (look away, Italian food purists!), but it catches your eye. The restaurant doesn’t actually stake a claim against Italian tradition.
So, don’t call it a contest, call it a remix. I’d dub it deliberate curiosity with a splash of rogue behaviour.
One dish in particular stays with me still: a white ragù built on Korean rice cakes instead of pasta. On paper, this might sound like a playful gimmick, but on the table it’s something else entirely. The rice cakes hold the cream sauce—studded with ground pork—with a decent chew that isn’t trying to be pasta. It’s a different texture meeting a familiar idea in a way that is thoughtful. It’s the kind of dish that doesn’t immediately ask for applause, with its unsuspecting, muted colour palette. One bite in, and I think you’ll agree this is can’t-put-the-fork-down comfort food through and through.
Looking more closely at the menu, it’s very easy to begin appreciating how consistently this playful logic is applied. There’s a chilli chicken and shaved ham dish that balances heat and savoury depth without tipping into excess, and then there are the crisp pork-and-vegetable-stuffed fried seaweed rolls that feel snacky and individualistic at the same time. To finish things off, there’s a bright orange dessert that has earned cult status among my inner circle (i.e. my best friend Matt eats one all to himself every time he has dinner here). It’s a bright, tangy tart made with hallabong, which is a prized Korean citrus.
My best friend is obsessed, and honestly, I get it. It’s bright, not-too-sweet, and the kind of dessert that caps off a meal at Better Than Classico perfectly. We love a pleasantly acidic moment!
I sing my praises here with plenty of context for fusion concepts, and this one in particular.
Calgary, the city I live in, has a restaurant called Carino that I believe was Canada’s first Asian-Italian fusion spot. The restaurant embraces Italian-Japanese fusion wholeheartedly and its menu has been playfully blending Italian favourites with crossover ingredients for well over a decade. The concept has earned it a devoted following in Calgary’s Mission neighbourhood. Carino landed on plenty of noteworthy restaurant lists in its hay day such as the Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants list (2013) and many others.
Because of that experience so many years ago, I wasn’t expecting Better Than Classico to shock me by virtue of novelty—I was expecting nuance. And that’s exactly what the restaurant delivers, visit after visit.
What makes Better Than Classico feel uncommon isn’t some buzzy take on fusion—it’s simply that Korean-Italian is a restaurant concept that’s rarely seen globally. There aren’t stacks of these restaurants to compare it to, no established trend you can point to and say, “here’s the genre,” and I love that.
It’s a creative intersection that most chefs haven’t visited, and it shows in how confidently and quietly this place operates.
In a city where great restaurants have been multiplying, this feels like one of those moments where Prague’s food scene flexes its growing range. Better Than Classico isn’t trying to rewrite tradition—but it is quietly expanding what tradition can mean in this city right now.
And that’s a very good place to be.
Better Than Classico
Hartigova 2B, 130 00 Praha 3-Žižkov, Czechia
Open daily (except Tuesdays); lunch from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Dining and Cooking