The Best Italian Food in Italy

A handful of tables in a spare modern room with a nod to 1920s detailing, near the edge of Treviso's old center. The name is a riff on tailoring, and the kitchen takes the metaphor seriously, building the menu around whatever the market offers and shaping it into three tasting menus that prioritize flavor over flourish. A business lunch lands at midday for those who prefer not to commit to the full fitting.

A family-run Piedmontese restaurant in Borgomanero where the dining room has quietly ignored every décor trend of the last several decades and is better for it. The cooking is classic, with the occasional modern adjustment, like their paniscia, the local bean-and-salami risotto, finished with a swoosh of vegetable cream on top. A few fish dishes round out a menu that otherwise stays firmly in the region.

Just past Porta Romana, this small contemporary dining room keeps so few covers that booking ahead isn't optional. Rustic details share the room with generous floral arrangements, which gives the place more personality than its size suggests. A portion of the produce comes from the team's own farm of the same name, and the menu moves between meat and fish in a way that feels considered rather than arbitrary.

Terracotta floors, exposed brick, and shelves of bottles stacked floor to ceiling set the scene at this farmhouse restaurant outside Pontassieve. The menu moves between charcuterie, classic Tuscan meat dishes, and a few seafood options that keep things from feeling predictable. The wine list leans toward bottles that are considered rather than expensive, which is its own kind of statement in a region where the opposite is easy.

A nineteenth-century farmhouse on the quiet edge of Empoli, restored just enough to keep the rural bones showing. This is a contemporary Tuscan restaurant where the kitchen takes local, seasonal ingredients seriously without turning dinner into a lecture. The chef's pigeon dish, exploring the bird across five preparations, is the kind of thing that makes you glad you asked for recommendations. The estate produces its own wine and olive oil, which is a very Tuscan thing to do.

A contemporary osteria a short walk from Parliament, named for the owners' grandparents, who were in the trade long before it was fashionable. The menu stays close to Roman tradition but makes room for a Marsala Florio pairing that runs alongside each course, which is a more interesting idea than it sounds. Book ahead if you want a seat on the terrace, and book ahead anyway.

Contemporary art lines the walls of this intimate creative restaurant in central Seregno, the result of a longstanding tie-up with a local gallery. The cooking is modern but relaxed, moving easily between meat, fish, and vegetables without the kind of anxiety that usually comes with "creative cuisine." And in a corner of Lombardy where cheese courses have quietly vanished, this one still rolls the trolley.

The restaurant sits inside a Medici villa, which sets a certain tone before you've even ordered. PS Ristorante runs two tasting menus, one of them vegetarian, drawing almost entirely from the estate's own olive oil, heritage grains, Cinta Senese pigs, and kitchen garden. The Tuscan countryside arrives on the plate in a quietly contemporary form, and the outdoor terrace looks straight onto the gardens if you need reminding where you are.

The menu changes daily at this family-run trattoria in Altare, where the kitchen sits at the border of Liguria and Piedmont and takes that geography seriously. Both regions show up on the plate, from plin and rabbit tortelli to vitello tonnato, all given a modern reinterpretation without losing their footing. The wine list leans the same direction. An old-school institution that has quietly kept up with the times.

The dining room sits inside a former 16th-century church merged with an ancient wine press, and the stone bones of both are still very much present. Radino Wine Bistrot is a casual Italian wine bistro in Matera serving the kind of straightforward southern cooking that doesn't need explaining, cavatelli with Lucanian sausage being the anchor. There's also a snug room downstairs set aside for cigar smokers, which tells you something about the crowd's intentions.

One entire wall opens onto the kitchen, so you can watch the team work while you decide whether you want a taco, a bowl of raw seafood, or something just pulled off the grill. This contemporary Italian restaurant near Nola keeps an unusually wide menu, swinging from street food and Spanish ham to creative meat and fish dishes, with a Champagne list that takes the subject seriously. Come summer, the whole thing moves outside for a looser, more informal format.

A small, packed seasonal restaurant in Milan where the menu leans heavily vegetarian and changes with what the land is actually doing. The kitchen calls its philosophy "cuisine with roots," and the short menu earns the phrase: a handful of dishes built around freshness and the kind of layered flavors that take real thought. Book ahead for the evening, or you will be eating elsewhere.

Five tables on the upper floor, a daily menu that changes with the season, and a couple running everything, her in the dining room and him at the stove visible from the moment you walk in. This tiny Langhe trattoria in Monforte d'Alba is rooted so firmly in Piedmont that "regional" feels like an understatement. Book well ahead, arrive hungry, and consider one of the three rooms upstairs if you'd rather not drive the hills after dinner.

A single communal table split between an interior dining room and a panoramic terrace facing the Palatine Hill is the whole concept here, and it commits to it completely. The contemporary Italian cooking leans Mediterranean, with handmade pasta as the clear through-line. The tortelli with pork ribs and cacao mass is the kind of dish people mention unprompted. Come at sunset and the terrace doubles as a cocktail bar with a view that makes the real estate feel almost embarrassing.

Named for the classic postwar film whose director was born right here in Fondi, this contemporary Italian restaurant sets its creative cooking across elegant dining rooms and a courtyard that earns its keep on warm evenings. The kitchen leans modern without losing the thread, pairing southern Italian instincts with enough invention to keep things interesting. The wine list is short but clearly chosen by someone paying attention.

The suckling pig goes on the spit before you sit down, which is your cue to arrive early and watch. This is a farm-restaurant on a working agriturismo outside Alghero, and the fixed menu builds toward that roast as its centerpiece, everything else on the table grown on the same land. The owners will walk you through every step if you ask, and most people ask. Rooms are available if you'd rather not drive back after.

A terrace over a pedestrian street in Oneglia, where the seats go fast enough that booking ahead is non-negotiable. This is a polished, contemporary Ligurian restaurant with an à la carte menu of fish and meat alongside tasting menus for anyone happy to let the kitchen decide. The wine list ranges beyond the region, though the local labels are well represented. The room is dressed to match the ambition, and the crowd tends to dress accordingly.

Inside Palazzo Ripetta, a short walk from Piazza del Popolo, San Baylon is a contemporary Italian restaurant that manages to feel relaxed and polished at the same time. When the weather cooperates, the internal garden does most of the heavy lifting, a tucked-away green pocket in the middle of Rome. The kitchen works with obvious seasonal restraint, letting good produce carry the argument rather than technique, which is present but never announced.

The wine list at this modern Piedmontese restaurant is organized by color-coded mood, from "voluptuous" to "purpureal," which sounds like a game but is surprisingly useful. The space itself has history, once a grocer's shop where Lavazza first started blending coffee. The kitchen leans into regional tradition with a creative edge, and the carousel of starters makes a strong case for ordering everything on the table at once.

A seasonal tasting menu built around the Agro Pontino region, with a kitchen that treats the local terroir as the whole point rather than a selling line. The outdoor room doubles as a winter garden, all bamboo and soft lighting, and an actual Roman archaeological site sits a few metres away should dinner leave you feeling historically curious. Modern country cooking, and a long drive from anywhere, but that's rather the idea.

The name means "flavour" in Ligurian dialect, which sets expectations clearly enough. Savô is the gourmet restaurant inside the Hotel Windsor, where a contemporary dining room opens onto a terrace with direct views of the beach and sea. The kitchen leans on regional, seasonal ingredients and leans harder on fish, though a meat option runs through each course. The wine list is serious, and the Windsor Bar handles cocktails for those who want to linger.

Wooden floors, exposed beams, and a garden so carefully kept it looks staged: Scola is a country house restaurant tucked into the Ligurian hills, run by the same family for four generations. The chef takes traditional local cooking and nudges it somewhere more unexpected, think coastal flavors refracted through a creative lens. The room is warm and unhurried, the kind of lunch that quietly swallows an afternoon.

Charcoal smoke drifts through the vaulted stone arches of what used to be a royal stable, which sets the mood before you've sat down. This is a meat-forward restaurant in Pollenzo, steps from the University of Gastronomic Sciences, where Piedmontese scottona arrives in several aging stages alongside Chianina and Alpina cuts. The sourcing is serious, the cooking method is fire, and the setting looks like it was designed by someone who understood atmosphere before the word existed.

Lunch only, shared tables, one menu, all meat. The chef behind Solociccia is among Italy's most celebrated butchers, and this is where that obsession becomes a sit-down occasion: a convivial tasting format served at fixed midday sittings across a warren of intimate rooms strung with straw-covered Chianti bottles. A vegetarian alternative exists, though ordering it here has a certain audacity. Book ahead, show up at noon, and make friends with your neighbors.

A contemporary Italian restaurant just outside Pordenone's traffic-restricted center, where the kitchen leans into bold, market-driven cooking that moves between land and sea with some confidence. Dishes lean seasonal and generous, the kind of place where the menu shifts with what's good rather than what's safe. The room reads like a proper dinner out, not a quick bite, and the cooking has enough edge to keep things interesting.

A couple who logged serious time cooking abroad before coming home to Legnano runs this intimate contemporary Italian restaurant, where the menu arrives as one of three tasting options or à la carte if you'd rather steer yourself. The cooking is imaginative without showing off about it, and the wine list has clearly been curated by someone who paid attention. The welcome is the kind that makes you feel the room was expecting you.

A chef who spent time in Milan and Venice before bringing the distilled results back to Padua's historic center. This is a creative Italian restaurant where the barbecue grill quietly anchors nearly everything on the menu, lending a smoky throughline to dishes that pull from different corners of the north. The cooking reads as personal rather than fashionable, and the room feels like a place where someone is actually trying to say something.

Snails get their own section of the menu here, which tells you most of what you need to know about this family-run trattoria on Piazza Carlo Alberto. The kitchen works squarely within Venetian tradition, pulling in Lake Garda touches along the way, and the bigoli with guinea fowl and the calf's liver with onions are exactly as old-school as they sound. In summer, tables spill into a garden with lake glimpses.

A bonet that arrives as a dark chocolate-draped traditional cake base with a crispy sphere of custard cream on top tells you something about the chef here: Piedmont is the foundation, but the plating has ideas. This contemporary Italian restaurant sits in the foothills near Lake Maggiore with a relaxed, come-as-you-are feel. The menu moves easily between meat and fish, and lunch runs a little lighter for those who have an afternoon to protect.

A wall of wines priced to take home greets you at the door, which tells you something about where this contemporary Mantuan restaurant's priorities lie. The cooking has a clear Lombardian identity, with clean flavors and confident technique. A tortelli split half sweet, half bitter, and a trio of beef cuts served together make the case more convincingly than any menu description could.

Tano Simonato's creative Italian restaurant sits in a quiet residential neighborhood, which is somewhat at odds with what arrives on the plate: a "tiramisù" built from cuttlefish and potatoes, pigeon glazed in honey and baked in salt. The chef moves between tables, narrating the food and suggesting wine pairings in person. It's a theatrical room that commits fully to the bit, and the bit involves seducing every last sense you walked in with.

The walk from the car park is part of the deal: stone houses, a castle overhead, and then a first-floor trattoria serving the kind of Emilian cooking that makes the drive out to Torrechiara make sense. Stuffed pasta with herbs and a board of local salumi, including Parma ham, anchor the menu. Service is informal without being sloppy, and the wine list covers enough local and Italian bottles that nobody leaves unhappy.

A kitchen dating back centuries anchors this old-school tavern a short walk from Maratea's main square, its walls dressed in Vietri ceramics and its shelves stacked with around 400 wine labels, many from small Italian producers and France. The chef leans into local cooking, including a stewed octopus that regulars know by name. Small parties of six can eat in the wine cellar among bottles that collectors would eye with envy.

The Ravioli Mimosa, made from a recipe so closely guarded that not even the menu will tell you what's inside, has been on the list since anyone can remember. This is a proper Roman trattoria in Trastevere, the kind that still leads with cacio e pepe, carbonara, and tripe without a hint of apology. The room is rustic but pulled together, the service knows what it's doing, and the beef fillet finished over charcoal closes things out the way Rome intends.

The dining room here used to be the apartment of a senator's librarian, which explains why it feels more like eating inside a very handsome thought than inside a restaurant. Perched above the gardens of the Rocca di Lonato, it's a creative Italian spot where the kitchen works with a light, precise touch. Sea bass and pigeon are the dishes regulars argue over. Come for lunch if you want the room without the full commitment.

The first-floor dining room looks straight out at the Duomo and the Galleria, which does make it harder to concentrate on the menu. Chef Valerio Braschi runs a contemporary Italian restaurant where the kitchen moves between Milanese classics and South American and Asian detours, reinterpreting a costoletta alla milanese alongside chimichurri-lifted calamari. The terrace upstairs is where most people end up at some point, aperitivo in hand, staring at the cathedral like it's their first time.

A luminous dining room of warm wood and wide windows onto a manicured garden sets the mood at this contemporary restaurant in San Vito, where a young chef channels years in Italian and French kitchens into something quietly personal. The menu reads as a love letter to Italian identity filtered through serious technique, and the front-of-house paces the tasting menu with the calm confidence of someone who has done this before.

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.

Wood-panelled walls and staff who seem genuinely pleased to see you set the tone at this old-school trattoria in central Alba. The kitchen stays firmly rooted in Piedmontese tradition, and the wine list reads like a love letter to the Langhe. Tajarin with rabbit and hazelnuts is the dish regulars tend to order without looking up. It's exactly the kind of place you hope exists when you arrive in truffle country.

On the uphill road to the Palazzo Farnese, this old-school family trattoria in Caprarola has been turning out northern Lazio cooking for five generations, and the kitchen cooks like it plans to go five more. The food is rooted in Tuscia, with some Tuscan drift, and the wine list runs to around 900 labels, many available by the glass, managed by the cook's son after a stint in fancier rooms abroad.

A trattoria on the main road through San Nicolò that has built its reputation almost entirely on fish, which is an unlikely move this far inland in Emilia-Romagna. The dining room was recently done up, though the cooking stays traditional. Weekday lunches lean simpler; evenings open into a longer menu if you ask. Sunday winters bring a full meat feast, from anolini in broth to boiled meats, that the regulars have clearly memorized.