The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Ca' d'Frara
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Rank 1. Ca' d'Frara
Emilian Italian
A small, discreet door off a quiet street in central Ferrara opens into two simply furnished rooms where the cooking is all Emilian: hand-rolled pasta, tortelli in butter and Parmigiano, tagliatelle with prosciutto ragù. The tenerina, a fudgy local chocolate cake, arrives with a glass of mascarpone cream. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a neighborhood trattoria where the food does the talking and nobody's performing for you.
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Rank 2. Makorè
Italian Contemporary Seafood
The kitchen has a window onto the pass, so you can watch the brigade work while the sommelier talks you through the pairings. This is a contemporary seafood restaurant grown out of a partnership with the fishmonger next door, and the menu stays loyal to that origin: fish, shellfish, and vegetables, with quiet nods toward Japan in the marinades and fresh pasta. The room is elegant without being stiff.
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Rank 3. Cucina Bacilieri
Modern Italian
Soft spotlights keep the room dim enough that you forget what time it is, which is probably the point. This small, romantic modern Italian restaurant in central Ferrara runs on seasonal ingredients handled with care, the menu moving between meat and fish in equal measure. The dessert course gets particular attention, treated less as an afterthought and more as its own argument. A young, enthusiastic team runs the floor with warmth that never tips into fuss.
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Rank 4. Da Noemi
Emilian Italian
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A Neapolitan-style pizzeria tucked under an ancient portico in central Ferrara, where writing in Campanian dialect covers the walls and two ovens handle both traditional and gluten-free pies. The chef came up from Salerno and the dough shows it, long-leavened and properly puffy. Seating spills across two floors in a room that feels more southern Italy than northern. The "ruoto" pan pizzas, rooted in rural Campanian tradition, are worth the short walk from wherever you managed to park.
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Rank 6. Quel Fantastico Giovedì
Modern Seafood
A seafood-forward restaurant that has been around forever and still books out well ahead, which tells you most of what you need to know. The intimate dining rooms feel genuinely warm rather than fussy, and the service matches. Fish comes prepared with a classic sensibility and lighter modern instincts, while a few Ferrarese meat dishes, salama da sugo among them, hold their own on a menu that is otherwise happily pointed at the sea.
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The pizza at Me put Ferrara on the map for a style the team calls "true contemporary," Naples-rooted but lighter than you'd expect, with a steam-cooked option that tilts the bill toward restaurant territory. The cocktail pairings are part of the pitch, though a thoughtfully assembled international wine list is there for the holdouts. Desserts come in jars. It's a pizzeria that takes itself seriously without being insufferable about it.
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Rank 8. Trattoria Lanzagallo
Seafood
A seafood trattoria in the flatlands outside Ferrara that has been a local fixture long enough to count as furniture. The room has been freshened up without losing its unfussy bones, and the kitchen stays loyal to the classics, raw scampi lightly kissed with lemon zest, turbot under a potato crust. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks: this is the kind of cooking where the fish does the talking.
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Rank 9. L'Antico Giardino
Modern Italian
A trattoria-style restaurant in the Ferrara countryside where the menu leans hard into local tradition, white truffle taking over the room when the season allows. The owner doubles as a genuinely useful sommelier-without-the-pretension, steering you toward pairings you'd never have landed on alone. The cooking runs to rich, layered plates: passatelli in cheese fondue, pheasant with Castelmagno custard, the kind of food that makes the drive feel like a reasonable decision.
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Rank 10. Osteria la Fefa
Emilian Italian
A farmhouse osteria outside town where the beer list gets as much attention as the pasta. The kitchen covers traditional Emilian cooking with a few local turns, and the Michelin Guide has flagged it with a Bib Gourmand for the value. The owner's beer selection runs from regional craft labels to bottles from well past the Italian border, and the Birramisù, a tiramisu built around beer, commits to the bit. Book ahead.
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Rank 11. Iacobucci
Contemporary Italian
A Michelin-starred restaurant set inside a historic villa outside Bologna, where the chef builds a menu around the distance between Campania and Emilia-Romagna, two regions that don't naturally talk to each other but have plenty to say. The wine list runs deep, with multiple vintages of Sassicaia and Tignanello for anyone who wants a reason to linger. The garden is there if you need somewhere to quietly reconsider your life choices after the rabbit stew.
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Rank 12. La Chiocciola
Regional Italian
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Rank 13. L'800
Emilian Italian
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Rank 14. Trattoria la Rosa 1908
Emilian Italian
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Rank 15. Locanda Pincelli
Creative Italian
Named for the village's former postman, this relaxed trattoria in a converted workers' club has a shaded porch for summer meals and a menu that drifts pleasantly away from straight Emilian tradition into something more inventive. The kitchen is generous with portions and precise about presentation, and the wine list is short enough that asking the owner for a steer is genuinely half the fun. A Michelin Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 16. Trattoria al Ponte
Traditional Italian
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Rank 17. Buriani dal 1967
Modern Italian
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Rank 18. Al Cambio
Emilian Italian
Parmigiano and mortadella turn up in nearly every corner of the menu here, which tells you everything about where this modern trattoria stands. The team calls their pastas "soups," a nod to old Emilian convention, and the desserts follow the same unambiguous logic. The wine list leans hard into Emilia-Romagna but keeps a surprisingly serious champagne section for when the mood shifts. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the bill makes that feel reasonable.
- 50 Top Italy #7 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Modern Trattorias And Bistros
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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The place still has no sign out front, which either says something about confidence or about the family that built it on a Renault 4 delivery route. Balobino is a pizza restaurant in Lendinara, minimal and quiet, where the dough is taken as seriously as a religion and the crust aims for something the menu calls cloud-like. Natural wines and beers chosen with the same fussiness as the flour. It made 50 Top Pizza Italy's Excellent Pizzerias list.
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Rank 20. La Capanna di Eraclio
Seafood Italian
The dining room sits seven metres below sea level, which tells you something about where you are before the food does. This old-school trattoria in the Po delta has been in the same family for generations, and the kitchen leans hard into the estuary around it: eel roasted with white polenta, clam pasta, sole with fresh mayonnaise. The room feels like someone's grandmother never quite let go of it, and that's the whole point.
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Rank 21. Antica Osteria del Mirasole
Emilian Italian
Tortellini made with cream skimmed straight from the family dairy is the detail that explains everything about this old-school Emilian osteria. The kitchen cooks in the tradition of the region with a wood grill doing heavy lifting on the secondi, and nearly every ingredient traces back to the farm next door. You can buy the same dairy products in the shop on your way out, which feels either very convenient or very dangerous.
- 50 Top Italy #2 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Modern Trattorias And Bistros
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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A pizzeria sitting out in open countryside, which already tells you something about the regulars who make the drive. The menu breaks pizzas into revisited, award-winning, and chef's specials, and the fish options are taken more seriously than you'd expect. Wines and beers run deep, service is warm without being fussy, and 50 Top Pizza Italy has it among their Excellent Pizzerias.
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Rank 23. Entrà
Emilian Italian
An old-school trattoria in Emilia-Romagna that traces its roots to a post-war wine shop, Entrà has been feeding the same kind of hunger for generations. The kitchen's guiding rule, stated plainly: no reinvention when the original works. Pumpkin tortelli with meat ragù and roast guinea fowl on seasonal salad are the things people drive out to località Entrà for. Around 400 wines to keep you at the table longer than planned.
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Rank 24. I Portici
Mediterranean
A Liberty-style frescoed ceiling inside a converted 19th-century musical café sets the scene for this Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant on Bologna's grandest boulevard. The kitchen runs Mediterranean-leaning tasting menus in three lengths, and if the main room feels too grand, the 14th-century icehouse downstairs has a glass floor looking straight into the wine cellar, which is exactly as theatrical as it sounds.
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Rank 25. Ensama Pesce
Puglia Seafood
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Rank 26. Seta Sushi Restaurant
Japanese
A medieval courtyard in central Bologna is a genuinely odd setting for a sushi restaurant, but the contrast works. The dining room runs modern bistro, and in summer the courtyard fills up nicely. The menu stays close to Japanese tradition with a few personal riffs, and the front-of-house team is unusually good at walking newcomers through both the food and the sake list without making anyone feel remedial.
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Rank 27. Bottega Aleotti
Emilian Italian
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Rank 28. Trattoria di Via Serra
Emilian Italian
Bolognina sits just past the point where most tourists turn back, which suits this no-fuss trattoria in Bologna's old working-class quarter just fine. The kitchen runs on fresh pasta and regional recipes done without flourish, the tortellini in broth being the kind of thing you think about on the train home. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Book ahead, including at lunch, or you'll be thinking about it even longer.
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Rank 29. All'Osteria Bottega
Emilian Italian
Tucked down a side street under Bologna's porticoes, this trattoria treats Emilian cooking as a thing that doesn't need improving. Fresh pasta, cured meats, local wines, and a zuppa inglese with alchermes cake that closes the meal in the most unapologetic way. The room is small and warm, and it books out every day, so reserve before you assume good fortune is on your side.
- 50 Top Italy #35 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Modern Trattorias And Bistros
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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The building itself spans Via Stalingrado like a bridge, which sets the tone before you've ordered anything. By day it runs as a casual bistro with straightforward plates; by evening the room shifts into creative modern dining, all warm wood and a mostly female front-of-house team who seem to actually enjoy being there. The kitchen draws from Emilian tradition and then quietly departs from it, mixing regional references with a chef's own restless curiosity.
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Rank 32. Gigi Pipa
Wood-fired Pizza
A former match factory in Este is now a pizzeria with a garden, which is exactly the kind of origin story that sounds invented but isn't. The chef runs three styles of pizza, wood-fired classics, tasting pies in a contemporary style, and thin Roman rounds, with vegetables and ingredients pulled largely from small local producers. Ranked in the 50 Top Pizza Italy and World lists, it earns a Forno Verde special award for its green sourcing focus.
- 50 Top Pizza #88 · 50 Top Pizza World
- 50 Top Pizza #29 · 50 Top Pizza Italy
- 50 Top Pizza 2026 · Forno Verde · 50 Top Pizza Italy Special Awards
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Rank 33. Osteria Bartolini
Mediterranean Seafood
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Rank 34. Il Grano di Pepe
Mediterranean
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Rank 35. Sale Grosso
Mediterranean
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Rank 36. I Carracci
Contemporary Mediterranean
The seventeenth-century Carracci school ceiling sets the tone before you've ordered a thing: this is a fine dining room inside the Grand Hotel Majestic, dressed for occasions. The chef bridges Naples and Bologna with quiet confidence, a contemporary Mediterranean menu moving between sea and land. The sommelier is serious, but the cocktail pairings are the unexpected move worth noting.
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Rank 37. Zivieri
Emilian Italian
The Zivieri family raises animals and grows produce in the Apennines, then drives it all down to Bologna and cooks it for you inside a medieval tower off Piazza della Mercanzia. It's a regional trattoria where the charcuterie and grilled meats are essentially the point, made from animals the same family farms. A butcher's counter next door sells the same stuff to take home, which feels either convenient or dangerous depending on your willpower.
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Bitter notes are the kitchen's calling card at this contemporary restaurant in the Euganean Hills town of Este, where the chef builds dishes around vegetables and contrast rather than complexity for its own sake. Nothing hides behind a sauce or a garnish; the cooking is stripped back enough that each ingredient has to earn its place. The kind of room where you leave tasting something, not just eating it.
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Rank 39. Oltre.
Emilian Italian
The entrance, plastered floor to ceiling with stickers, looks more like a record shop than a restaurant, and the surfboard serving as a table near the door keeps that energy going. Inside, it's a casual contemporary spot in the Mercato delle Erbe, serving Emilian cooking that wanders confidently into other traditions, most famously a Bolognese ramen built around tagliolino in mushroom broth. Cocktails are available to open or close the meal. Book ahead.
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A tiny ravioli shop in a quiet residential corner of Bologna, where a Franco-Italian-Chinese couple cook what they call "migrant" food: Chinese dumplings alongside dishes that wander from Emilia-Romagna through the Mediterranean and into Asia. The menu changes daily with the market, seating runs to about twenty inside, and a few tables appear outside in summer. Book ahead, because this is exactly the kind of neighbourhood spot that fills up fast.
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Rank 41. Trattoria da Me
Emilian Italian
The sfogline roll fresh pasta right in front of you, and the extra lengths go straight to the adjoining shop. This Bologna trattoria keeps one foot planted in the old school, with Sunday lasagne alla bolognese made the way your nonna's nonna would recognize, and one foot pointed forward in lighter, more contemporary preparations. A heated winter terrace means there's always an excuse to linger longer than planned.
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Rank 42. Trattoria Battibecco
Italian
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Rank 43. Posta
Tuscan
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Rank 44. Span
Neapolitan Pizza
The menu announces that pizza has no owners, no masters, and belongs to the people, which sets the tone immediately. This is a Neapolitan pizza spot, one of three Bologna locations, with classic and creative pies, a short beer list, and traditional southern desserts. Reservations aren't taken, so a wait is part of the deal. There's a small terrace if the noise inside gets to you, and the bill won't get to you either.
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Rank 45. Corte Matilde
Mantuan Italian
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Rank 46. Storie Dipinte
Pizza
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Rank 47. Acqua Pazza
Mediterranean Seafood
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Rank 48. Corbezzoli
Contemporary Italian
A garden frames the dining room through wide picture windows at this creative Italian restaurant tucked inside a hotel on Bologna's quieter side. The kitchen moves across vegetarian, meat, and fish dishes without committing to any single lane, and tasting menus sit alongside à la carte for those who prefer to graze rather than surrender the wheel. The baba with pastry cream and sour cherries has a reputation that precedes it.
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Rank 49. Il Tartufo
Regional Italian
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Rank 51. La Zanzara
Seafood
A Michelin-starred seafood restaurant on a tiny islet in the Po Delta, reached by a farmhouse that sits in near-total silence broken only by lagoon birds. The kitchen leans classic, which here means golden-fried seafood, steamed fish salad with house-made squid-ink mayonnaise, and eel cooked over embers the way it's been done in this corner of Emilia-Romagna forever. The caramelized beignets with mandarin sauce are a quiet nod to local pastry legend.
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Rank 52. Osteria Numero Sette
Emilian Italian
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Rank 53. Zio Mo’
Pizza
A sprawling pizza spot where the dough changes before you've settled on a favorite, because the kitchen is always mid-experiment. The mix of flours and hydration levels shifts with the seasons, so the menu runs from timeless classics to stuffed calzones to high-hydration variations that feel like a different argument for what pizza can be. The room is big and popular in the way a place gets when the neighborhood has actually adopted it. Ranked among 50 Top Pizza Italy.
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Rank 54. La Nunziadêina
Emilian Italian
A fire crackling at the back of the room is your first hint: charcoal-grilled meat is the main event at this old-school Emilian trattoria, which has been feeding the neighborhood across from the Abbey of Nonantola for generations. Fresh pasta, outstanding charcuterie, and a dessert trolley that comes to you round out the menu. The rooms are homely but cared for, with fresh flowers on every table, and the wine list runs deep.
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Rank 55. Il Grifone
Contemporary Mediterranean
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Rank 56. San Domenico
Classic Italian
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The kitchen at this contemporary restaurant inside Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore's country estate runs almost entirely on fire, with chef Jessica Rosval building her menu around live embers and the farm on the property. The smoked meat selection moves through various cuts before landing on a wood-grilled beef rib that earns its place at the end. A Michelin star and a spot on the World's 50 Best list, and the room still feels like a house.
- 50 Best #92 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- 50 Top Italy #4 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Luxury
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Rank 59. La Lumira
Emilian Italian
Castelfranco Emilia is tortellini country, and this modern Emilian restaurant leans into that with zero embarrassment. The chef grew up here, and the menu reads like a love letter to the region, fresh pasta folded by hand, bollito misto served with serious sauces. The dining room is contemporary without being cold, and the service runs warm enough that you don't notice how long you've been sitting there.
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Rank 60. Lazzaro 1915
Contemporary Italian
A sibling act runs this Michelin-starred contemporary restaurant in the Veneto flatlands: one in the dining room, one in the kitchen, both clearly in charge. The tasting menus lean on regional fish, meat, and vegetables, with a shorter produce-forward menu that changes weekly. The wine list is serious enough that you should let someone talk you through it. The cooking is technically ambitious without announcing itself, which in this part of Italy feels like the right call.
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Rank 61. Osteria Francescana
Creative, Italian Contemporary
Massimo Bottura's three-Michelin-star fine dining restaurant on Via Stella keeps contemporary art on the walls and an Eduardo De Filippo quote at the top of the menu, which tells you something about how seriously the place takes the idea that tradition is a springboard, not a shrine. The tasting menu changes each year around a new theme, with classics like tortellini in Parmigiano broth holding their ground on the à la carte. The World's 50 Best Restaurants gave it its Icon Award in 2025.
- Michelin Guide 3 Stars
- 50 Best Woodford Reserve Icon Award 2025 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants · Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore
- 50 Top Italy #1 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Grand Restaurants
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Rank 62. L'Ambasciata
Mantuan Italian
At Christmas, an ornate tree rises among mirrors, chandeliers, and stacked books in a room that treats maximalism as a design philosophy. This is a fine dining restaurant in the Mantuan countryside, where the kitchen draws on local tradition and, occasionally, the Renaissance. The signature dessert, a chocolate salami with warm zabaglione poured tableside from a copper pan, is reason enough to make the drive out to Quistello.
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Rank 63. L'Erba del Re
Emilian Italian
Nine tables inside a restored palazzo near one of Modena's oldest churches make L'Erba del Re feel more like a dinner party than a restaurant. Contemporary paintings on white walls, a Michelin star on the door. The kitchen works two registers at once: a tasting menu rooted in classic Emilian cooking and a second that follows wherever the chef's head is at. Both are available, along with vegetarian and à la carte options.
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Rank 64. Antica Trattoria la Grotta dal 1918
Emilian Italian
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Rank 65. Locanda dell'Arcimboldo
Seafood
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An old-school trattoria tucked into the Euganean Hills, Ballotta has been around forever and shows no signs of getting tired of it. The kitchen leans into the land and the season, peasant cooking given a quiet, unfussy polish. The wine list follows the same logic: local, considered, no showboating. A family still runs the place, which you feel in the room before anyone says a word.
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Rank 67. La Peca
Modern Italian
A wine cellar running to around two thousand labels gives you some idea of the ambitions here. La Peca is a two Michelin star fine dining restaurant in the Veneto countryside where the Portinari family has been cooking for generations. The menu is broad enough to feel generous rather than edited, and three tasting menus exist for anyone who'd rather be led. The cooking is technical without announcing itself, which is a harder trick than it sounds.
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Rank 68. Le Calandrе
Creative, Contemporary
You pull off a commercial road outside Padua expecting nothing, then walk into a dining room so quietly lit it takes a moment to realize it's still afternoon. Le Calandre is a three-Michelin-star restaurant run by the Alajmo brothers, who designed the space and most of the porcelain on the table. The menu lets you mix tasting courses freely, which feels generous at this level. One dish wraps eggshell into pasta dough for an audible crunch. It also holds a spot on the World's 50 Best list.
- Michelin Guide 3 Stars
- 50 Best #31 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
- 50 Top Italy #5 · The Best Italian Restaurants - Grand Restaurants
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Rank 69. Come in Corte Aurora
Venetian
Two pairs of brothers run this contemporary Italian restaurant in a renovated Art Nouveau villa: one pair owns the land and raises the meat, the other runs the kitchen. The result is a menu that feels unusually connected from farm to plate. Tasting menus and à la carte both, with Venetian roots and a colorful, image-conscious style. In summer, tables spill outside into views of the Euganean Hills.
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Rank 70. Aubergine
Italian
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Tucked into a nature reserve outside Verona, this two-Michelin-star tasting menu restaurant sits beside an organic kitchen garden that feeds directly into the cooking. The interiors feel like a very elegant living room, all wood and soft light, and chef Francesco Sodano runs three blind menus, including one rooted in his Campanian heritage and one built entirely around the kitchen garden's harvest. You pick the journey; the dishes arrive as a surprise.
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Rank 72. Hosteria Giusti
Emilian Italian
Four tables tucked behind a delicatessen that has been selling cured meats in Modena since, roughly, forever. The menu at this tiny trattoria is a straightforward argument for Emilian cooking: gnocco fritto, tortellini in capon broth, slow-cooked beef with mashed potatoes. The charcuterie comes from free-range Mora Romagnola pigs, which is the kind of detail that separates a place from its imitators. Book ahead, because four tables fill fast.
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Rank 73. Momento al 25
Italian Seafood
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Rank 74. Franceschetta 58
Emilian Italian
The smell of warm bread hits you before you've sat down, which tells you something about how Massimo Bottura runs this casual Emilian trattoria. The menu moves from deeply rooted regional cooking, aged pancetta, handmade tortellini, into quieter moments of creativity. Lambrusco gets an entire page of the wine list, as it should in Modena. The room is intimate and a little buzzy, and the whole place feels like a love letter to the region rather than a résumé.
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Named after the chef's mother, this tasting-menu restaurant in central Modena shifts its lighting, music, and room details in step with the menu as the seasons turn, which is either charming or a lot, depending on your tolerance for concept dining. The kitchen draws on a wide spread of references and cultures without any apparent anxiety about what goes with what. Counter seating puts the young team's storytelling right in front of you.
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A handful of tables face an open kitchen in a room stripped of all distraction, which tells you exactly where to look. This is a Michelin-starred creative tasting menu restaurant in a small Veneto town, the kind of place where the chef's curiosity sets the itinerary. First-timers get a ten-course introduction; regulars eventually work up to sixteen. À la carte exists, but choosing it here feels a little like buying the postcard instead of taking the trip.
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Rank 77. Trattoria Pomposa - Al Re gras
Emilian Italian
Tortellini in Parmigiano cream and bollito misto are the kind of dishes that remind you why Emilian cooking has a reputation to defend. This is an old-school trattoria doing the regional classics without modernizing the soul out of them: fresh egg pastas, cotechino with stewed beans, and the celebrated zuppa inglese to finish. When the weather cooperates, tables spill into the intimate Piazza della Pomposa, and the meal gets considerably harder to leave.
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Rank 78. Il Barolino
Emilian Italian
A family-run trattoria in Carpi where the pasta is the whole point and nobody pretends otherwise. The menu runs deep into Emilian tradition, the kind of place where tortellini in Parmesan cream and gramigna with ragu feel less like choices than obligations. Desserts follow suit with sbrisolona and zuppa inglese. The room is warm, unhurried, and loud with the particular happiness of people who know exactly what they ordered.
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Rank 79. Trattoria da Amerigo
Emilian Italian
You enter through the shop, past shelves of wine and house-made sauces, before reaching the dining room of this old-school Emilian trattoria in the hills outside Bologna. The menu follows the seasons without making a fuss about it, built around lasagne with a tomato-free ragù, pumpkin-filled pasta, and tortellini in broth on the coldest days. Tigelle flatbread arrives alongside the ham. One Michelin star.
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Rank 80. Cavallino
Emilian Italian
Enzo Ferrari bought this old farmhouse to feed his factory workers, and it has been a proper restaurant since the 1950s. Today it holds a Michelin star and runs on the creative lineage of Massimo Bottura, with his protégés reworking Emilian classics in a dining room that feels warmly, unapologetically vintage. The tortellini are the thing to order, and the wine list leans generously toward by-the-glass pours.
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Rank 81. Antica Osteria Cera
Modern Seafood
Raw seafood and charcoal-grilled fish are the spine of the menu at this two-Michelin-star seafood restaurant tucked into a quiet Venetian village. The room is elegant and minimalist, the name "osteria" kept mostly for nostalgia's sake. The kitchen leans hard into lagoon identity, from raw cicchetti to seasonal fried green crabs, with a dedicated vegetarian section for anyone who wandered in from the wrong coastline.
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Rank 82. Il Baretto
Venetian Seafood
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Rank 83. tRe in Pomposa
Pizza
A high-crust sourdough pizza place in the Pomposa neighborhood, where the dough ferments for up to 36 hours before it ever sees a flame. The toppings lean heavily on Modena's pantry, so expect the region's producers to do most of the talking. Wines and beers are well chosen. Skip dessert and order another slice instead; the kitchen seems to know which battle it wants to fight.
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Rank 84. Osteria FraSe
Venetian Seafood
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Rank 85. I Tigli
Pizza
Wholemeal flours and a long natural ferment give the dough at this San Bonifacio pizzeria a crust that shatters before giving way to something pillowy inside. The chef has been refining that balance for what feels like forever, and the toppings stretch well past margherita into fish and seasonal vegetables. It's the kind of pizza that makes you wonder why anyone settled for less, without quite saying so out loud.
- 50 Top Pizza #7 · 50 Top Pizza World
- 50 Top Pizza #4 · 50 Top Pizza Italy
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 86. Osteria del Viandante
Emilian Italian
The dining rooms are frescoed, except for the old lemon house, which keeps its wallpaper of citrus trees as a quiet nod to what stood there before. This Michelin-starred osteria sits inside a medieval fort in the centre of Rubiera, where the chef cooks a deeply Emilian menu rooted in the traditions of Parma and Reggio. The wine list runs long and reaches into France. Romantic in the way that frescoed ceilings tend to make things.
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Rank 87. Civico 25
Pizza
A pizzeria in Emilia Romagna built around a social mission, where young people with disabilities and survivors of bullying make up the team, and where the pizza itself is the thing that keeps people coming back. The crust runs high and crisps nicely, and the panuozzo from Romagna and the pinsa round out a menu that takes the food as seriously as the cause. The staff greets you like they mean it.
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A former tobacco-drying shed at the north edge of Abano Terme, now a pizzeria with high ceilings, open space, and a wood-fired oven doing serious work. The dough runs in several directions: traditional biga, whole wheat, burnt wheat, and contemporary Neapolitan, all landing crispy and light. Tables fill fast, which tells you something about how the price sits relative to what arrives. The outdoor areas help with overflow.
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Rank 89. Alto
Contemporary Italian
Glass walls on the top floor of a hotel catch the hills and the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Castle, which is a view that earns its keep. This is a Michelin-starred fine dining room from chef Mattia Trabetti, built around two tasting menus or à la carte, with a small map on the menu tracing each ingredient back to Modena, the Apennines, or the broader Emilia. A thousand-label wine list leans regional but reaches France.
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Rank 91. Magnagallo
Emilian Italian
The dessert counter sits right at the entrance, so you're picking your finale before you've even been seated. This is a well-worn, deeply traditional Emilian trattoria a minute from the motorway, serving gnocco fritto, tortellini, and fritto misto the way people around here expect them. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the prices have stayed honest through everything.
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Rank 92. La Baita
Emilian Italian
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Rank 93. La Cucoma
Seafood Italian
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Rank 94. Casa Serafini
Contemporary Italian
Three tables face the kitchen directly, with a wood fire burning behind the pass, and those are the ones to ask for. This is a contemporary Italian restaurant in the Emilia-Romagna hills, run by a young chef who trained in starred kitchens before coming home to do things his own way. The menu comes in three versions, ranging from an open-handed tasting format to a vegetarian route, all built around a cooking style that shifts as he goes.
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Rank 95. ‘O Fiore Mio
Wood-fired Pizza
A pizza shop set along Faenza's old city walls, with a following that stretches across Emilia Romagna and into Milan and Bologna. The doughs use organic Italian flours and long leavening, cooked in a wood-fired oven, and the menu walks you through a selection of extra virgin olive oils to pair with your slice. The room is informal and contemporary, the service moves, and the regulars already know exactly what they're ordering. Ranked 25th in Italy by 50 Top Pizza.
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Rank 97. Antica Trattoria al Gallo 1909
Regional Italian
The art nouveau interior puts "trattoria" in embarrassing air quotes the moment you walk in. This old-school Ravenna institution has been in the same family for what feels like forever, and the dining room runs accordingly: regional cooking built around truffles, local fish, and serious meats, while the owner works the floor with the easy warmth Romagna seems to produce in unlimited quantities. Book ahead; it fills up fast.
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Rank 98. L'Acciuga
Seafood Italian
Wooden panels and nautical fittings put you somewhere between a vintage fishing boat and a proper Italian seafood restaurant, which is exactly the spirit of L'Acciuga. The kitchen works from fresh catch and interprets it through a Romagnolo lens, with the anchovy spaghetti a good argument for staying put through dessert. The bar counter adds cocktails and kombucha to an otherwise serious wine list, because why not.
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Rank 99. Osteria del Tempo Perso
Contemporary Italian
Books and wine bottles share the walls with old photos at this intimate bistro tucked into a quiet corner of Ravenna's historic centre. Tables are small and close together, the lighting is low, and the whole thing has an almost Parisian feel that feels slightly unlikely this deep into Emilia-Romagna. The menu runs contemporary Italian, the wine list strays into the rest of Europe, and you should book ahead, because the room fills fast.
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