Figuring out what makes one restaurant more popular than another is a mug's game. Good prices, good food, good service and good atmosphere might be the standards for many of us, but the masses have their own criteria, choosing the joints du jour and flavors of the moment seemingly at random. If you want to know what makes one place more successful than another, throw the conventional measuring sticks out the window. You might as well use a Magic 8-Ball.

That's certainly true in the case of Resto Café Patio, as only dumb luck would explain why this Old Town restaurant remains overlooked. Part of the Le Patio design group, Resto Café Patio occupies the corner restaurant across from Dahab and is filled with many stylish touches apparently lifted from Le Patio's home-furnishing catalog. In short, it's chic and smooth, with excellent lighting and ambience. Service is also good. And closer to a real foodie's heart, they serve excellent dishes at moderate prices, some of which are surprisingly accomplished.

Starters include house-made pates and quiche, as well as carpaccio and salads. Like more than a few places around town, Resto Café Patio also has a small selection of tapas: nice, diminutive dishes priced at 45 Kč ($1.85) each, or three tapas and a 2-deciliter glass of wine for 165 Kč. (An unfortunate note: I ordered three individual tapas and was charged the higher price for the three-tapas menu, though I didn't get the glass of wine.) Some of these are better than others. The black olives are the pitted, unexciting variety from a can, nothing close to the high quality of the fresh, peppery arugula salad with creamy goat cheese, let alone its more-generous portion. Also excellent is the Parma ham, a combination of salty, meaty tastes wrapped around the cool, fragrant taste of sliced artichokes.

It's similar to another dish here, a large appetizer of smoked salmon rolled around sliced fennel, though this one is even better. Like the artichoke, the fennel seems to be pickled, offering a dill-like, gingery, aromatic crunch to balance the smoky, tender taste of the fish.

Main courses keep up the high standards. As an ingredient, chicken is about as dressed-down as food comes, served in every hole-in-the-wall pub and from street kiosks, perhaps surpassed only in its ubiquitousness by roast pork. Resto Café Patio returns some elegance to the bird by pairing a nice cut of well-cooked white breast meat in a sweet, honey-scented sauce brightened with figs. The fig, a syconium, is closer to a flower than a fruit, and its florid fragrance adds a nice touch that pairs well with the slightly spicy (is that cinnamon?) sauce. You could eat a lot worse at this price — just 195 Kč, with a side dish of baked potatoes.

Another main course, grilled tuna steak, is less accomplished, served slightly overcooked for some tastes, with a side of sautéed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, red bell peppers and chipped potatoes. It's good, but the chicken is better.

Unfortunately, the portions are generous enough to prohibit dessert. Next time I'd like to try the chocolate cake with caramelized sour cherries, or the apple "lasagne" with cinnamon cream.

To accompany its accomplished Continental fare, Resto Café Patio has some nice wines on offer. The large-scale Australian producer Penfold's makes consistently good bottles at moderate prices: Their Rawson's Retreat semillon-chardonnay blend is no exception, a delicious, semidry white with lovely notes of lime and slate. It pairs perfectly with the chicken and tuna.