Where to Have Dinner in Como: A Local’s Guide

The three dining zones in Como

Understanding Como’s map saves you time and disappointment. The old town is small and walkable, but each zone has a different feel.

• The lakeside — the waterfront promenade, between Piazza Cavour and the first basin. This is the postcard: outdoor tables, water views, sunsets. Convenient and scenic, but also the most touristy and, in the evening, the priciest. Great for an aperitivo or a light dinner with a view; always check recent reviews, because quality here varies a lot.
• The historic centre — the pedestrian heart inside the old walls, around the Duomo and Piazza San Fedele. Narrow lanes, long-standing trattorie, wine bars and pizzerie. This is where you find the highest concentration of genuine Como and Lombard cooking, at prices more reasonable than the lake.
• The Borgo (San Rocco / Sant’Agostino area) — the more residential districts, just outside the tourist core. This is where locals eat: neighbourhood osterie, home-style cooking, honest portions and a local crowd. Less view, more substance.

Rule of thumb: want the view? Go lakeside, but choose carefully. Want to eat well for a fair price? Aim for the historic centre or the Borgo.

What an Italian dinner looks like

A full Como dinner follows a clear structure. You don’t have to order every course — plenty of Italians skip one — but knowing them helps you read the menu and order with ease.

• Aperitivo — the opening ritual, usually before you sit down to dinner: a spritz, a glass of white or an Americano, with olives and nibbles. It’s a social moment, not a meal. We cover it in the best aperitivo in Como.
• Antipasto — cured meats, a board, vegetables or marinated lake fish.
• Primo — the key course: fresh pasta, risotto or pizzoccheri. This is where Como’s tradition shines brightest.
• Secondo — meat, lake fish or polenta, often with a contorno (side) ordered separately.
• Dolce, coffee and a digestivo — tiramisù or gelato, an espresso, and perhaps an amaro or a grappa.

An Italian dinner is slow by design: you talk between courses. Don’t expect the bill to arrive unless you ask for it — bringing it early is considered rude.

The Lake Como specialities to seek out

Dinner in Como means tasting lake and mountain cooking at once. Look for these on the menu:

• Lake fish — lavarello (whitefish), filleted persico (perch), agoni, and for the adventurous the missoltino, the sun-dried agone fish typical of the lake. Often served with risotto or polenta.
• Pizzoccheri — the buckwheat pasta of the nearby Valtellina, with cabbage, potato and cheese: a rich, comforting winter dish.
• Risotto — Lombard by nature, here often with lake fish or saffron.
• Polenta — with braised meats, mountain cheeses, or mushrooms in autumn.
• Fresh egg pasta — tagliatelle, ravioli, garganelli: hand-rolled sfoglia is the heart of the Emilian-Lombard tradition.

For a wider tour of the local dishes, we wrote a dedicated guide to what to eat in Como. To drink, stay regional: Lombard whites and Valtellina reds (made from Nebbiolo, called Chiavennasca here) pair well with almost everything.

When dinner happens in Como

Italian timing surprises visitors from the north. Dinner doesn’t start before 7:30 pm, and most locals sit down between 8 and 9 pm. Many kitchens close around 10–10:30 pm, so don’t leave it too late. In the busy months — spring and summer — a lakeside table needs booking; in the centre you can often find a spot, but a phone call never hurts. On Sunday evenings and Mondays several places close: always confirm current hours on the venue’s official channels before you set out.

The dinner you cook yourself

There’s an alternative many travellers stumble on and remember more than any restaurant: cooking the dinner yourself. At our cooking class in Como — a short walk from the historic centre — over about 3 hours, in a small group of up to 12, you learn to roll the sfoglia by hand and then sit down and eat what you made, with wine. The evening follows the same shape as an Italian dinner: it opens with a spritz lesson — you build your own Aperol or Campari spritz and enjoy it as your aperitivo — moves to the primo you made with your own hands, and closes with gelato topped with a few drops of Traditional Balsamic of Modena DOP. The resident chef trained at Rina Poletti’s Accademia della Sfoglia.

It costs €150 per person, all-inclusive, and we ask for no upfront online payment: you pick a date, you message us, we confirm availability, then we arrange payment together. You choose from four menus: the Tagliatelle Masterclass – Fresh Tomato, the Tagliatelle Masterclass – Ragù Bolognese, the Ravioloni Verdi Masterclass – Ricotta, or the Farfalle e Garganelli Masterclass – Ragù. See how it runs on our how it works page or in the FAQ.

---

To carry the evening on

If you want a weekend built around good food, read our weekend in Como and our things to do in Como for food lovers. And if you’re after a gift idea, there’s the gift voucher for a whole evening of cooking and dinner together.