Trattoria Da Pino

An inexpensive restaurant serving a classic workingman's lunch in Milan, Italy

* Trattoria Da Pino
Via Cerva 14
tel. +39-02-7600-0532
Closed Sat diner and Sun



Pino's is a working man's osteria of the old stripe: at first glance, nothing more than a neighborhood cafe. But walk past the bar and down a short hall and you'll be in a back room crowded with little wooden tables and one wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto an interior courtyard.

Marco Ferri packs his guests in elbow to elbow, fitting a trio of lunching businessmen, a young couple, and a lone traveler at a single table set with butcher paper place mats and a single, dime-store glass at each place. By 1pm, the place is packed and the dishes are arriving fast and furious from a kitchen run by Marco's brother Mauro and their Filipino partner, Severino.

The hand-printed daily menu is pure cucina casalinga (home cooking)—nothing fancy, and plenty of dishes that local mammas invented long ago to make use of the cheapest cuts of meat: insalata di nervetti con cipolle (a cold salad of pickled cow tendons tossed with onions), lingua salmistrata (tongue stew), cuore trifolato (heart casserole). Don't worry, there are plenty of less adventurous choices as well.

I'm partial to the salami with fresh figs; rice tinted yellow with saffron (very Milanese); pasta tossed with fresh tomatoes, arugula, and shavings of pecorino; a small fresh ricotta mold under a pesto made from arugula and pistachios; the odd but popular dish of veal nuggets in a corn-studded curry; and torta sbirsolona, a dry, dense, cookie-like cake (a typical Lombard treat).

The wine list is unusually solid, with some 45 selections of Northern Italian bottles, the priciest of which clocks in well under $25 (half cost less than $15). Another sign that this trattoria hails from a friendlier era is that you don't get a check. When you're finished, wander back up to the bar in the front room, recite to the cashier what you ate, and he'll tot up the bill.

Reservations are not accepted, but it can get crowded, so arrive early.

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

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