Restaurants: Lake Como, Alba, Milan, Modena, Bologna

Hi all, I’m deep in the planning for a month-long trip to northern Italy during truffle season and have spent lots of time reading through many recommendations and travelogues on here. I’ve put together the following list of restaurants and would love your help: are there any obvious omissions, or restaurants that really shouldn’t be there?

Lake Como

  • Trattoria Baita Belvedere (Bellagio)
  • Enoteca Cava Turacciolo (Bellagio)
  • Ristorante Alle Darsene di Loppia (Bellagio)
  • Il Cavatappi (Varenna)
  • Osteria Quatro Pass (Varenna)

Alba and surrounding villages

  • Piazza Duomo (Alba) - we’ve got a reservation
  • Caffe Umberto (Alba)
  • Osteria dell’Arco (Alba)
  • Antine (Barbaresco)
  • La Cantinetta (Barolo)
  • Ristorante San Marco (Canelli)
  • Marc Lanteri Ristorante AL CASTELLO (Grinzane)
  • Ristorante Bovio (La Morra)
  • l’Aromatario Osteria (Neive)
  • Il Centro (Priocca)
  • Vinoteca Centro Storico (Serralunga)
  • Trattoria La Coccinella (Serravalle)
  • La Ciau del Tornavento (Treiso)

Milan

  • Contraste - we’ve got a reservation
  • l’Alchimia - we’ve got a reservation
  • Da Martino
  • Trattoria del Nuovo Macello

Bologna/Modena

  • Osteria Francescana (Modena) - we’ve got a reservation
  • Sette Tavoli (Bologna)
  • Ristorante Da Cesari (Bologna)
  • Gelateria Gianni (Bologna)
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In Milan, an evening at the lively Navigli neighborhood by the canal is soothing and away from the city’s hustle and bustle. Trattoria Milanese and Nonna Mafalda are solid restaurants featuring local regional cooking.

A little more sceney in a NYC West Village mode is Trippa Milano for some awesome tripe and bone marrow dishes. A personal favorite in Milan.

Bellagio:
About < 10 minutes uphill from the town piazza, Ristorante Silvio provides the awesome views and fresh seafood dishes.

Your pick of Cava Turaciollo should be good in a winegeek way. In the old town itself, Cava Turaciollo has good antipasti, a couple of cooked specials, and a very good wine list at close to retail pricing, where I chanced upon and opted for a bottle of 2001 Montevertine 5 years ago.

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Milan has an embarrassing number of amazing restaurants. I’m not sure how long and where exactly in the city you’ll be, but I would highly recommend Ratanà (modern Milanese) and Yoshinobu (world class sushi with excellent wine list). Both are in the Porta Garibaldi area. I know one doesn’t necessarily think of Sushi when visiting Italy but I promise you won’t find fish this fresh in many places.

i would hit turin for at least a day when trekking from milan to alba. go to consorzio and drink some cult jura wines on the cheap. del cambio also has quite a deep cellar.

Turin is so out of the way from your best driving route and I wouldn’t bother with an overnight unless you have time for a quick meal so that you can fly out of its airport (nearest from Alba) to get somewhere else.

In Piedmont (Alba area), check out Il Centro in Priocca (18 minutes drive from Alba) for excellent Piedmont family cooking and deep (I mean vertically deep) Nebbiolos from their deep cellar.

Thank you all for your advice it’s really helpful :slight_smile:

ive been to both trippa and ratana in milano…both excellent recommendations and well described by the original posters.

just want to add that trippa has a very celebrated version of vitello tonato that is not to be missed. its in or near the porta romana area of milan. i HIGHLY recommend you go for aperitivo before dinner at trippa at mom cafe nearby. tons of delicious food for those staying for drinks…lively crowd of locals having a drink after work. that plus trippa was a very enjoyable evening.

i recall that ratana had a very well priced set menu with wine tasting. mushroom risotto was a specialty.

Hi Yao
I like your balance of locations: water, cities and rural town (albeit Alba itself gets rather busy in truffle season)

Como: Sorry I can’t offer advice, as I’ve not been there

Alba:
The big decision will be whether to stay in Alba, or out in the wine villages around Barolo and Barbaresco. If you have a car, then I’d lean towards staying outside. The last time we went, we got into Alba early (~ 7:30am I think) and parked at the new multi-storey car park next to the train station. This was reasonably priced, convenient and also reasonably spacious, so was a good low hassle option. The advantage of doing this is it avoids the serious traffic build-up when the events are on in Alba, but also gets you into the beautiful wine country. The advantage of staying inside Alba, is that it allows you easy access to all the events that go on, and there is much to enjoy, plus the truffle market, plus a now vast outdoor street market, both with some wonderful stalls (e.g. Spezialmente and their huge range of mint related products). A special mention to catch the flag waving/throwing procession, something I always love whenever I see it in northern Italy.

For restaurants I’ve typically had much better experiences outside the headline villages of Barolo and Barbaresco, which have both delivered mixed experiences. Treiso conversely has 4 places to eat, all of which are excellent (plus I think there is an agriturismo doing meals which we haven’t yet tried). If you find yourself near Serralunga d’Alba I’d recommend Schiavenza’s restaurant. It’s inexpensive but good, plus their wines are excellent. Given the impression I got from their drive and motivation, I expect both have improved over the time since we last visited.

The tourist office in Alba is exceptional, in person and online. Use their Langheroero site as it has a wealth of info/options/booking services and call in their in person if you have the need.

Milano: A city that just didn’t click for us and we’ve not returned. It didn’t help that we felt pestered by street vendors (usually selling roses). If you like fashion, then it’s worth finding time to browse the fancy shops, plus the outlets which can have some vastly reduced clothes that are still very much current ‘season’. For the restaurants, I recall the advice to book in advance, as the better places are typically fully booked even on a week night. That’s about all I can add.

Bologna A super foody city, yet one we’ve bizarrely had few good/great experiences. Sette Tavoli on via Cartoleria is one that has been good enough for us to return to. Not fancy, just good, with a good and fairly priced wine list. We also liked a southern Italy leaning wine bar, but that shut not long after we discovered it. Luckily, we usually get an apartment there, so can graze the many excellent shops and also the good Ugo Bassi covered market. The criss-cross of older streets between the due torri and Piazza Nettuno are prime grazing ground for a food shopper (better than Eataly for sure), but there are also some good food shops on via Oberdan, but also dotted around elsewhere. Some great gelaterie as well, a few indulging my adventurous spirit with the very modern shift away from classic to creative ingredients. Enoteca Italiana is the biggest range in the city, perhaps a little bit pricey, but we’re talking 2-5% over other places rather than gouging, and for many, the convenience of the range makes up for that. Also a good place for a glass of something or a coffee. I prefer the oddly named Caffe Bazar, which has a very good range, very fair prices and listening to the staff chat to others, they came across as genuinely helpful.

I love Milan; haven’t been since 2015, which is shocking, as we would either arrive or depart Italy from there once or twice a year for 10+ years. As a result, I am reluctant to make any restaurant reservations after not being there for almost 6 years, but we ALWAYS have a dinner at Osteria del Binari and will when we return. Milan isn’t an obvious tourist destination aside from fashion because one must go a bit beyond the beaten path of the duomo, fort, refrectory, and Via Montenapoleone area, but it is worth the effort.

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ah…one more favorite in milano…

Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone…we always get lunch here and eat in their courtyard…absolutely amazing scene of fashion and industry types, very solid traditional lunch fare in a beautiful setting.

I agree on Ratana’ in Milan and would put in a word for Daniel Canzian’s restaurant https://danielcanzian.com/il-ristorante/ where i have eaten and drunk very well; food is traditionally dishes redone by the chef.

Edited to add that Rovello 18 is good during truffle season. Simple food, good wine list.

Yao, a few places we ate in 2017 that I would recommend:

Ristorante Le Torri
Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 10, 12060 Castiglione Falletto
+39 0173 62937

Trattoria La Coccinella
Via Provinciale 5, 12050 Serravalle Langhe (CN)
ale@trattoriacoccinella.com
+39 0173 748 220

L’Osteria del Vignaiolo
Frazione Santa Maria 12, La Morra 12064
osteriadelvignaiolo.it
+39 0173 50335

In Milan try to go to Cantina Isola, great wine bar, no food though
In Bologna , Osteria del Mirasole in San giovanni in Persiceto, it’s 15 minutes out of town but it’s absolutely great

this is definitely a legacy spot. vino al vino is also great.

One more round of thank-yous to everyone for your recommendations!

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Really enjoying these recommendations. I’ll be in Milan and the Piemonte in November and plan to use some of these tips.

I did a similar trip two years ago and my top restaurant in the Piemonte was Osteria Veglio. My favorite meal for sure. Il Centro was another great meal but the service was BAD. Our servers were incredibly condescending and rude. I’ll give it another shot because so many people love it and everyone has an off day, but it was rough.

Hope you love your trip!

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I have been to many of the restaurants on your Langhe list.

Piazza Duomo - always very good
Osteria dell’Arco - spotty in my experience
Antine - never had a bad meal there
Ristorante Bovio - one of my favorites
Vinoteca Centro Storico - solid
La Ciau del Tornavento - As one would expect with *. One of the top 5 wine cellars in all of Europe, IMHO. If you go ask to go downstairs and see it. Priced accordingly. But an experience not to be missed. We usually stay at the restaurant as they have rooms on property and have breakfast with the amazing views.

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Looking forward to hearing about Contraste. We had a reservation planned for our ill-fated April 2020 trip…

Enjoying this thread. If I can quickly hijack: I have zeroed in on La Morra as a nice place to use as a home base for exploring Piedmont over four days this fall. Would that be a good spot to stay? I have a cancellable apartment booked that seems quite nice.

Stay. Every hill town is great and you’ll still be within the same reasonable distance from the other great Nebbiolo towns.