Lake Como restaurant recs

My family and I will be visiting Italy in July. I’ve found lots of great info on WB. But we’ll be spending a few days on Lake Como in Bellagio and was hoping for some restaurant recommendations. I found this thread: Milan, Lake Como and Piedmont - Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum - WineBerserkers but was hoping people might have some more recent experiences. TIA.

We were at villa d’este in the summer. The hotel has a serious restaurant but we preferred the more casual grill as it was too hot for us to get all dressed up in jacket and tie! There’s a really fun, old school italian restaurant on the isla comacina that you absolutely must go to. Not far in a boat from bellagio. It’s the Locanda dell’Isola Comacina.

Very helpful Dan. Thanks!

There are some very nice restaurants in Varenna.

Osteria Quatro Pass is a wildly intimate place. If your wife sees the pictures from google you’re toast.

you’ll definitely need reservations.

OMG Brig, I made the mistake of looking at the Google photos myself and I think i’m already toast! My only saving grace might be that we’ll be a group of 6-7 and by the looks of it, we’d occupy the entire restaurant. But I appreciate all the suggestions and will file them away, especially Osteria Quatro Pass in case my wife and i can sneak away from the group for an intimate dinner.

Good recommendations for Varenna, which is a smaller and quieter town. Bellagio is more touristy as are most of the restaurants. One I’d recommend is Cava Turacciolo, a very good enoteca with a lot of interesting wines. It was excellent for lunch. I don’t know how it would be for dinner - it’s got a limited menu.

We went to both Il Cavatappi and Osteria Quatro Pass last September and loved them both. Could not pick a favorite. We really liked Varenna, preferred it over Bellagio. Here are a few food porn photos from the two restaurants and as Brig mentions, reservations are a must.

Il Cavatappi






Osteria Quatro Pass




"Alleyway where both restaurants (and others) are located

And the Hotel Du Lac located directly on Lake Como was fabulous. A couple minute walk to both restaurants.

Tom

We stayed in/near Bellagio for two days a few years ago. It was a modest hotel (Il Perlo Panorama) with the most amazing view ever 2 kilometers up the hill from Bellagio. Our good food/wine experiences included:

Cava Turacciolo: a wine bar that offers very delicious cheese and salumi plates. By the glass selection is not huge but we enjoyed some Bellavista Franciacorta and Produttori Riserva Moccagatta for very fair prices. They naturally also sell wines to go and I grabbed some Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Montevertine for ~30 € a bottle.

Trattoria Baita Belvedere: a family run restaurant up the hill with a beautiful view of the lake. They offer free shuttle rides to the restaurant and back but this is far from an overly touristy affair. They produce a large part of their ingredients themselves as they have a farm nearby. The food is authentic and rustic but from good ingredients and very tasty. I remember we had rabbit and wild boar here. This is not the place to go for fine wines - rather you get a solid local wine to go well with the food. That said I do remember them having a delicious Prosecco Grappa which is surprising since I am not a big fan of neither Prosecco nor Grappa.

This is great information! Thanks everyone. Tom - those photos are awesome! July can’t come fast enough.

We stayed down the road from Bellagio in Lezzeno. There was a good seafood place just down the road called Da Abate. They specialized in local fish from the lake, but augmented with other less local items. Extensive menu, and everything we sampled was quite good. We actually got a table with a same-day reservation, though I seem to recall it was the middle of the week in late September, which probably helped.

A couple years ago we rented a phenomenal Airbnb in Bellagio and had a great trip. We ate well and particularly enjoyed Darsene di Loppia outside of Bellagio. Like others, we found Varenna to be very special.

Cava Turacciolo in Bellagio mentioned above is a must go stop IMO. Perfect place for lunch to have some salumi, cheese and fantastic wines. One of the highlights to our Lake Como trip many years ago.

Great info guys! Much appreciated.

Great thread and have seen recco’s for both restaurants and Hotel Du Lac.

We’re going in early July and staying here and have reso’s at both Cavatappi and Quatro pass.

My preferred place near Como is Restaurante Momi to which I got introduced from a local years ago, beautiful location and good food.

https://ristorantemomi.it/

The terasse is right down at the water, looking forward to be there again next month with family

Klaus

Our two favorites from our trip were Salice Blu and Alle Davsene di Loppia down the hill from hotel silvio. Both were exceptional meals.

Just back from Lake Como revisiting Restorante Momi in Blevio, slightly north of Como direction Bellagio.

It is getting actually even better from my last visits, highly recommended, nice wine list too.

You want to use your car tho to get there or take the boat/ferry as a small pier is just next door (Blevio)

Klaus

Tom or anyone else- we’re also staying at Hotel Du Lac. Did you try their restaurant ? just curious, thanks

Fred, we did not have dinner there, had reservations elsewhere during our stay. A restaurant that we did not try (they were closed) but heard was very good and only a few steps from Hotel Du Lac is Al Prato. Excellent reviews from multiple sources. There’s always the next visit.

Enjoy Lake Como!

Tom