Trippa is a defining force in Milan’s neo-trattoria movement, playing with nostalgia while bringing back ingredients and dishes that are quietly disappearing from Italian tables. This is the place to convert anybody into an offal (and tripe) lover. The butter and cheese pasta is pure, glossy richness, the kind of dish you could eat endlessly. The vitello tonnato only appears when the chef himself is in the kitchen, adding to the sense of timing and luck that surrounds the place.

This is a see-and-be-seen spot for designers and hip locals living on the west side. Come for lunch or dinner to try things like their near-flawless risotto and homemade tortelli packed with herby buffalo ricotta and topped with slow-cooked tomato sauce and basil. The cotoletta is a Milan staple, and Aimo e Nadio makes it their own with on-bone rib chops, double-breaded and fried in olive oil, and served with mashed potatoes and a simple housemade mayonnaise.

After closing their Duomo location for renovations, this latest outpost opened in the Fendi building, an area with more luxury fashion packed into a few blocks than almost anywhere else in the world. Good restaurants have been surprisingly scarce around here, which makes the new multi-floor space feel especially welcome. There are two dishes that you must order: a plate of raw langoustines and the linguine all’astice littered with huge chunks of lobster.

The beloved La Latteria reopened in 2024, which was a huge deal after it closed the year before and left a void in the city. After almost six decades, the restaurant’s cherished owners retired, but cashmere heir Vittoria Loro Piana acquired the spot and brought back the original owners, Maria and Arturo Maggi, for six months to guide the new team. With just nine tables, La Latteria’s iconic dishes remain. Order one of everything and pass it around.

Set inside a former textile factory, Moebius hits the trifecta of space, food, and service. An evening can easily begin with an aperitivo moment and has a way of becoming dinner built on perfect share plates. Stay downstairs, where there are plenty of tables and loungey corners to settle into, but there’s also a chef’s table experience upstairs. Somehow, they’re pulling off both. The raw dishes are especially strong. After 11pm, the late-night toast is the move.

The space is organized around an L-shaped bar with more than 30 seats, facing a completely open kitchen. That’s where veal is sliced à la minute for vitello tonnato and pastas are finished with chef tweezers. If you’re settling in for a multi-course meal, a table is the better call. And while it’s not on the menu, you can order a risotto alla Milanese if you want.

A stroll along the Naviglio Grande canal in Milan is a must, and 28 Posti is our favorite restaurant in the area. Pass over the a la carte menu for the surprise tastings, which are available in a range of three to ten plates. The owners founded one of Milan’s natural wine festivals, and the list will satisfy the most passionate skin-contact fans. For vegetarians, they’re happy to do a vegetable tasting with advanced notice, which is spectacular in both technique and imagination.

There are a handful of historic palaces that used to belong to Italian royalty just a few steps away from the church that houses The Last Supper. Book a table here in advance to eat at one of the beautiful tables surrounded by ivy and fragrant blooms on the glass-walled terrace. It’s a seasonal menu, but the two things you’ll always find are a wild fish of the day and fancy dried pastas.

Places like Dongiò are here because generations of southern families moved north and kept cooking the food they grew up with. ’Nduja shows up everywhere, and the kitchen is happy to push the heat further if you ask. The lightly fried chicory balls on puréed chickpeas to start are a must, as is grilled scamorza stuffed with ’nduja. Skip the house wine and focus on a tannic Gaglioppo, one of the few Calabrian reds built to handle this much heat and richness. Dinner reservations are essential.

This 16th-century church refectory turned subterranean bar-restaurant is your spot for aperitivo. Tables and a few bar seats fill up quickly in the moody cavernous space, and at sunset, the chic after-work crowd sits on the street, glasses in hand. Downstairs, groups of friends order salumi boards and lots of bottles. Skip the food and go straight for the mixed salumi board and cheese plate.

Ronin is a buzzy Pan-Asian restaurant-bar-karaoke spot. Dreamy neon-soaked aesthetics of Wong Kar-wai meet the stylized worlds of Quentin Tarantino, with cozy private karaoke rooms on the upper levels, and an open kitchen restaurant where DJs spin from aperitivo hour until late night. It’s perfect for a pre-karaoke bite or a late-night snack—skip the fish sando and go for rotating izakaya mains with Italian spins.

Before risotto became a ubiquitous dish on the menus of neo-trattorias across Northern Italy, the simpler, more rustic version was known in Milanese dialect as “ris e lat”—rice and milk. You can try several risottos here, including Milanese riso al salto: a large, soft-yet-crispy pancake-sized disc of saffron carnaroli fried on both sides, delicately, in butter.

Via Fiori Chiari is one of the few streets in Milan that feels like a tourist trap. But Trattoria Del Ciumbia is a new, refreshing departure. It just might be the only place in the city where you’ll find russian salad, foie gras lasagna, and fried trippa on the same menu (though there are fresh pastas, too, for the less adventurous). While the dishes may be old-world, the theatrical energy is extremely fresh. If you can, leave room for a slice of panettone for dessert.

This legendary bakery with three beautiful locations: the original is near Castello Sforzesco, the second in the Montenapoleone fashion district, and the most recent one opened inside the Galleria. If you’re looking for a quick pause over a macchiato at the bar, head to the original—at the Galleria, there’s table service for all-day breakfasts or aperitivi. The panettone is a must (Milan is, after all, its birthplace).

There are several Il Mannarino butcher-restaurant locations. If you’re visiting and staying in a house with a proper kitchen, this is where you should pick up provisions for a night in. Choose fresh meat from the butcher counter, or cheat a little with pre-seasoned meatballs and freshly made ragu. But it’s worth making real dinner plans here, especially if you're with a group.

A Santa Lucia has been a celebrity hangout since it opened in the 1920s. It’s one of the few old-school spots still in business near Duomo, and great for a bite before or after a long opera at La Scala. Pass on the pizza and go for the Roman-style dishes like crispy veal saltimbocca and stracciatella alla romana. And keep your eyes open for Italian actors.

In Northern Italy, an extensive network of canals flows from the lakes, under the streets, and into hundreds of rice fields, producing the supreme carnaroli Italian risotto rice that you’ll find at restaurants like Erba Brusca. This spot is south of the Naviglio Pavese canal, but well worth the 15-minute taxi ride from the Porta Genova metro stop. Go in hungry for the tasting menu to experience the versatility of the kitchen. At lunchtime, the outdoor garden is a highly-coveted reservation.

Housed in a former gin distillery, Bar Luce, at the entrance to the grounds of the Prada Foundation, is just as much of a destination as the art museum itself. It’s designed by Wes Anderson, and the candy-pastel café delivers as much on the food and drinks as it does on style. While many visitors head to Bar Luce for its cocktails, coffee, or pastries (including a viral pink marzipan vanilla sponge cake), the under-the-radar standout is the huge selection of pressed panini.

The Milanese rarely eat in transit, so street food is sparse. Luini is one of the few exceptions. Rooted in Puglia and family-run since 1949, this wallet-sized panzerotto feels one of a kind, serving a folded, lightly deep-fried pocket of dough—calzone’s crispier cousin—with a soft center and molten interior. Order it hot and stick to classic mozzarella and tomato or the turmeric-tinted panzerotto filled with zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, and leeks, and skip the sweet versions.

This extravagant courtyard was once home to the Bagatti Valsecchi nobles. Order the mezzi paccheri amatricana with tiny octopus or the buttery yellow risotto alla Milanese—they don’t skimp on the saffron here. In the morning, you can start your day with a coffee, brioche, and a dash of aristocracy at Il Salumaio’s charming cafe in the same building. It’s one of the few places in the area where you can sit down for breakfast before the shops open.

Milan’s Chinatown is the second largest in Europe, and it’s where some of the most exciting restaurant openings happen every year. Ravioleria Sarpi quickly became popular for its fresh dumplings, but we actually think you should go straight for the spicy jianbing, or crêpe cinese. The delicate thin layer of flour batter is reinforced with an egg, then painted with two kinds of sauce and filled with puffy Chinese fried dough, thin slices of green onions, and fresh herbs.

LùBar, overlooking the elegant courtyard of an 18th-century villa that now houses the Modern Art Gallery of Milan, is more than a typical museum café. The gorgeous space serves food all day and fills up with elegant diners winding down at night. Pillowy bite-sized panelle chickpea fritters, mini arancini, and a raw bar cater to the aperitivo crowd, with cocktails and mocktails that go down easy. LùBar is also a great spot for a savory breakfast.

Milan is often recognized as the birthplace of the concept store, where the idea of blending retail, art, and lifestyle seamlessly converge. This is a gourmet grocery with specialty coffee and natural wine by the glass. In a city full of traditional bottegas with Italian foodstuffs, Terroir stands out by offering an exceptional blend of international teas, chocolate, pastas, and potato chips (and all the belissimo packaging).

Call ahead to secure a spot at one of the four tables or two stools to watch the one-man show: the young Italian owner is there every night to chat with guests in between cooking, serving, busing, and pouring wine. The small menu of seasonal seafood and produce is mainly traditional Northern Italian plates with a twist. The long-fermented focaccia, with onions, black olives, and anchovies is otherworldy.

Every Italian has their bar, and Bar Basso is the quintessential Milanese spot for aperitivo al banco any time of day. In the morning, locals shuffle in and out for coffee, and as the day passes, a younger mix of visitors joins the scene, gathering in groups at the tables outside (the crowd multiplies during Fashion and Design weeks). Bar Basso is famous as the birthplace of the Negroni Sbagliato—a “mistaken” twist on the classic Negroni.