L'Osteria Grand Hotel

Fine food and a little bit of country ambiance in the city

*** Ristorante L'Osteria Grand Hotel
Via Asciano Sforza 75
tel. +39-02-8951-1586
www.osteriagrandhotel.it
Closed Sun lunch and Mon



Since 1981 this osteria—named for the Greta Garbo film, not part of some fancy hotel—has offered a little slice of the countryside in the midst of the big city. It's tucked away far beyond the other trendy restaurants, bars, and clubs that have sprouted all along the canals of the southerly Navigli district.

You must venture south along the canal, cross a highway, and turn left down a blind alley and go through two high gates. Just when you think you must be in the wrong place—and completely lost to boot—there's the doorway that opens into the culinary realm run by Milan native Stefania Zari and her Mantuan partner Fabrizio Paganini.

Near the entrance to this single long room, a cheese table groans under the weight of more than a dozen scrumptious choices, most of them obscure but excellent local varieties made according to ancient techniques. A door just past the high bar opens in warm weather onto a wisteria-shaded patio overlooking a gravelly bocce ball court, completing the countryside feel.

While you ponder the more than 600 labels populating the heavy tome they call a wine list, you can nibble an  excellent seasonal appetizer such as (in late summer) a terrine of pureed porcini mushrooms drizzled with a medley of melted Alpine cheeses from the Valle d'Aosta. Settle in for a long meal of dishes that freely mix recipes from the owners' native Lombard lands with ingredients and styles culled from culinary traditions across Italy.

Reservations are highly recommended, especially for terrace seating.

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This material was last updated December 2010. All information was accurate at the time.

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