October 2025

We visited this town on our last day at the lake we walked south from the ferry terminal and eventually  sat down in the sun outside this place for a light lunch. A hurried waiter took our drink orders, and when a little later we signalled him hoping for some food he told us to pay inside. We figured out that the seating area near the restaurant was for drinks and the walkway near the water was where they served the eats. But our server agreed to feed us where we were and we ordered pasta amatriciana (spaghetti with bacon peeled tomatoes and pecorino) along with focaccia with tomato and buratta.

When these arrived we were surprised because of the casual almost dismissive approach of the server that the two light lunch dishes were absolutely fabulous. The pasta was packed with flavour and there was an obvious rich balanced sauce involved, and the bacon and tomato fresh and in perfect proportion. The focaccia approached the quality of the haute cuisine we’d had the day before. It was more like an extra-crispy exterior puff pastry than the usual bready consistency.

Just a roadside restaurant like hundreds of others but if you’re ever in the pretty town of Lenno you could do a lot worse than this quality surprise.

Food 9.2, service 7.1, ambience 8.9, value 8.5, peace and quiet not relevant