From two-Michelin-star counters on Piazza del Duomo to a garden hidden behind Roman ruins, this is where we’re booking.
Milan has always eaten well. Right now, though, it’s eating brilliantly. In the past year, Louis Vuitton has handed its kitchen to the Cerea family, Langosteria has moved onto the top floors of Palazzo Fendi, and the Quadrilatero has turned into one of Europe’s most exciting places to have lunch. Add the trattorias that have been perfecting risotto alla milanese since the 1930s, and the only real problem is choosing where to go.
And choose you must, because in Milan the stakes are high. Walk a few metres in the wrong direction from the Duomo and you’ll be paying a €8 cover charge for a sad sandwich. Walk the right way and you’ll find a jewel-box dining room, a secret courtyard or a rooftop where the cathedral spires feel close enough to touch.
So our editors have eaten their way around the centre (read: several tasting menus, many saffron risottos, a regrettable number of tiramisus). These are the twelve we’d send our best friends to, whether you want a quick fashion-week lunch or a long, special dinner. It’s a tough job, etc.
Where to eat in central Milan at a glance
Best for a big night out: Andrea Aprea
Best Duomo view: Giacomo Arengario
Best rooftop: Horto
Best fashion-crowd lunch: DaV by Da Vittorio Louis Vuitton
Best seafood: Langosteria Montenapoleone
Best classic Milanese: Trattoria Milanese
Best garden: La Brisa
Verso Capitaneo, Duomo
Best for: Dinner and a show (the chefs are the show)
Price: ££££
Address: Piazza del Duomo, 20121 Milan (entrance on the square; take the lift to the second floor)
Book: Michelin Guide
Why we love it: We’ll be the ones to say it: this is the most exciting fine-dining room in Milan. Brothers Remo and Mario Capitaneo came from Puglia, trained with Andrea Berton and Enrico Bartolini, and then won two Michelin stars within their first year. Forget hushed, carpeted fine dining. Here, most guests sit at long counters facing the open kitchen, and the brothers often finish and serve the dishes themselves.
The cooking brings together their southern roots and their adopted Milanese home. Order the king crab spaghetti with finger lime if it’s on the menu. We still dream of it. If you’d rather talk than watch, ask for one of the traditional tables at the back. Fair warning: counter seating in a group of four makes conversation tricky. That’s the price of front-row seats.
Andrea Aprea, Porta Venezia
Best for: A really big night out
Price: ££££
Address: Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Corso Venezia 52, 20121 Milan
Book: andreaaprea.com
Why we love it: Take the lift to the top floor of an Etruscan art museum and you arrive in one of Milan’s most striking dining rooms. The walls are clad in bucchero, the glossy black clay the Etruscans used for their pottery, and they slope gently towards the open kitchen. A Murano glass and gold-leaf chandelier hangs overhead, and a huge window looks out over the Porta Venezia gardens.
Neapolitan chef Andrea Aprea has two Michelin stars and three tasting menus to choose from. Pick Partenope for his modern take on Campanian classics, or go for Signature, eight courses of his greatest hits. Want the Aprea experience without the full evening? The Caffè Bistrot downstairs, in the palazzo’s secret green courtyard, serves classic Italian cooking from breakfast through to dinner. Stunning.
DaV by Da Vittorio Louis Vuitton, Quadrilatero della Moda
Best for: The fashion-crowd lunch of the moment
Price: £££
Address: Via Bagutta 1, 20121 Milan (the café is in the Louis Vuitton store at Via Montenapoleone 2)
Book: Through the restaurant
Why we love it: Louis Vuitton’s first restaurant in Italy opened in the renovated Palazzo Taverna, with the kitchen run by Chicco and Bobo Cerea, the brothers behind three-Michelin-star Da Vittorio. The mood is relaxed fine dining, with 44 seats over two floors and antipasti served in the centre of the table for sharing. There’s plenty of Monogram wit, too. The classic risotto with ossobuco comes with the saffron rice shaped like the Vuitton Monogram flower. Come on, it’s Louis Vuitton!
Don’t leave without the tiramisu. For something quicker, the Da Vittorio Café Louis Vuitton sits in the palazzo’s former courtyard, now under a glass roof. Peter Marino designed the space and Milanese landscape designer Marco Bay filled it with palms and ferns. It’s easily the prettiest espresso stop on Via Montenapoleone.
Langosteria Montenapoleone, Quadrilatero della Moda
Best for: Seafood with a view
Price: £££
Address: Palazzo Fendi, Corso Giacomo Matteotti 9, 20121 Milan
Book: langosteria.com
Why we love it: Langosteria has been Milan’s favourite seafood restaurant since opening on Via Savona in 2007. Now it has its most glamorous home yet, across the top three floors of the new Palazzo Fendi, a 1930s building by Emilio Lancia, right on the corner of Via Montenapoleone. The restaurant is on the fifth floor. Upstairs, Ally’s Bar has a terrace with views over the rooftops of the Quadrilatero. Book a table there for aperitivo, natch.
Order the tonno tonnato, the Sicilian red prawns and the famous Langosteria gnocchetti with red mullet and San Marzano tomatoes. Then share a tiramisu, because you’re in Milan. On the fourth floor, PEPE, a newer Italian counter-dining concept, is the more casual option.
Horto, Cordusio
Best for: A rooftop lunch with a conscience
Price: £££ (lunch) to ££££ (tasting menus)
Address: The Medelan, Via San Protaso 5, 20121 Milan
Book: hortorestaurant.com
Why we love it: Take the lift to the top of The Medelan, a building between the Duomo and Piazza Cordusio, and you’ll find a leafy rooftop garden with views from the Duomo’s spires to the Castello Sforzesco. Horto is guided by Norbert Niederkofler, one of Italy’s pioneers of sustainable cooking. Almost everything on the menu comes from producers within an hour of Milan, and the restaurant holds a Michelin star.
The interiors are all reclaimed wood and calm. The chef’s table is even carved from a cedar that fell in a storm. There are tasting menus if you want the full experience. For a lighter lunch, the à la carte midday menu works out at around €60 a head. And in the early evening, the terrace is one of the best aperitivo spots in the centre. Hear, hear.
Cracco in Galleria, Duomo
Best for: Glamour under glass
Price: ££££ (restaurant), ££ (café)
Address: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, 20121 Milan
Book: ristorantecracco.it
Why we love it: Some addresses you have to experience at least once, and dining inside the Galleria is one of them. Carlo Cracco’s Michelin-starred restaurant sits on the first floor, with resident chef Luca Sacchi in the kitchen. The rooms are lined with blue-grey panelling and hand-painted wallpaper. Order the chef’s version of the Milanese veal cutlet and lean on the sommelier, because the French wine list is one of the best in Italy.
Afterwards, go through the small ivory doors into the Fumoir, a Parisian-style bar built around an original 1970s counter. On the ground floor, Café Cracco serves pastries, aperitivo and a surprisingly good pizza at tables out in the Galleria. The café doesn’t take bookings, so go early.
Giacomo Arengario, Duomo
Best for: The best Duomo view in the city
Price: £££
Address: Museo del Novecento, Via Guglielmo Marconi 1, 20123 Milan
Book: giacomomilano.com
Why we love it: What’s not to love about eating risotto while looking straight at the Duomo? Giacomo Arengario sits inside the Museo del Novecento, in a 1930s palazzo overlooking the cathedral square. Designers Laura Sartori Rimini and Roberto Peregalli filled it with decorative flourishes, from a black-and-gold lacquered entrance bar to a golden main dining room. The best seats are in the glass loggia and on the terrace, face to face with the cathedral.
The menu is classic Italian, with great seafood and the Milanese staples done well. It isn’t cheap, and the entrance can be tricky to find (it’s inside the museum). But when you ask for a terrace table when you book (and you must), you’ll forgive it everything. No, really.
Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone, Quadrilatero della Moda
Best for: Lunch between appointments
Price: £££
Address: Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi, Via Santo Spirito 10, 20121 Milan
Book: ilsalumaiodimontenapoleone.it
Why we love it: Walk through an easy-to-miss archway and you’re suddenly in the cobbled, ivy-covered courtyard of Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi, a 19th-century neo-Renaissance mansion that’s now one of Europe’s great house museums. The Travaini family has run Il Salumaio since 1957, and during September shows its courtyard tables are some of the hardest to get in Milan.
The risotto alla milanese is generous with the saffron. The paccheri with fresh tuna, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts and mint is our lunch order. The café is also one of the few places nearby serving a proper sit-down breakfast before the boutiques open. Service can be brusque when it’s busy, but the setting is so lovely we always come back.
La Brisa, Cinque Vie
Best for: Dinner in a secret garden
Price: £££
Address: Via Brisa 15, 20123 Milan
Book: ristorantelabrisa.it
Why we love it: Across the road are the ruins of a Roman imperial palace. Inside, there’s a veranda and a garden shaded by centuries-old lime trees, easily one of the most romantic places to eat in the city. Chef Antonio Facciolo has run the kitchen for more than twenty years, putting creative twists on northern Italian classics. Look out for original Diabolik comic-strip drawings by his father, Enzo, on the walls.
Order the turbot if it’s on. When you book, ask for a table outside, because in late September the garden is still glorious. La Brisa closes on Saturdays, which catches out plenty of visitors, so plan ahead.
Paper Moon Giardino, Quadrilatero della Moda
Best for: A calm lunch after a morning of shows
Price: £££
Address: Via Bagutta 12, 20121 Milan
Why we love it: Via Bagutta is one of the prettiest lanes in the Quadrilatero, and Paper Moon Giardino is its quiet heart: a bright, airy 19th-century palazzo with a tranquil garden at the back. Book a garden table for a long lunch with the fashion crowd, who come for the classic Italian cooking and the feeling of being miles away from Via Montenapoleone (it’s just around the corner).
Ceresio 7, Porta Garibaldi
Best for: Sundowners by a rooftop pool
Price: £££
Address: Via Ceresio 7, 20154 Milan
Book: ceresio7.com
Why we love it: Technically a short cab ride north of the centre, but you’ll forgive us once you’re up there. Dsquared2’s twins took over Gio Ponti’s former ENEL palazzo, and the fourth floor now holds a mid-century-style restaurant opening onto a rooftop with two pools. It’s cool from lunchtime until late. Arrive for aperitivo, stay for dinner, and watch the Porta Nuova skyline light up. Trust us when we say it’s the chicest end to a Milan day.
Need somewhere to sleep between all this eating? Here are the 10 best hotels in Milan for Fashion Week, and our Milan Fashion Week calendar will help you plan every lunch around the shows.
