The thrill of the chase.

(From The Prague Post)

Byline: Evan Rail

Tracking down rare air out of the center

There's nothing quite as much fun - nor as challenging - as finding an unusually good restaurant or cafe out of the center. In Bubenec, our favorites include the brilliant Cafe Orange, which serves up good fresh pasta and light meals. In Radotin, there's the wow-able Colombian restaurant Don Pedro. In Pankrac, everyone knows about Botanic. And on the back side of Strahov hill, inside a Carmelite convent called Casa Edith Stein, there's an enjoyable Italian eatery called Quel che c'e.

Like most of Prague's other far-out restaurants, Quel che c'e is not going to cause the chefs at Kampa Park to lose sleep. There's no discernible foot traffic inside the courtyard at the end of a dead-end street, even though getting there is relatively easy: It's about a 7-minute uphill hike from tram stop Klamovka, just three stops from metro Andul.

The atmosphere is fairly rare, with the hushed, becalmed aura of a working convent and small hotel surrounded by trees and greenery, all located inside a renovated 16th-century complex. As such, the feel is less like a hotel restaurant and more like a simple neighborhood eatery, perhaps in a country much further south, especially if you can score one of the tables on the small terrace.

The menu features classic Italian cooking and seafood, with a limited number of dishes. Among starters, the bruschetta are very good: three pieces of fluffy white bread, toasted to a perfect crunch and topped with chopped tomatoes, black olives and basil.