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Want to find the best bars, the best restaurants and the best food in Italy? Ask the Italians. When travelling abroad your best bet is not your guidebook - every Tom, Dick and Harry has a copy of Lonely Planet so those restaurants in Milan are always packed. No, your best bet for finding the perfect meal is local advice. With that in mind we asked our Milan tour guides to tell us which local restaurants they bring their friends and family to.
 The clear favourite among our guides was a well-known spot down by the navigli (canals).“El Brellin” at Vicolo Lacandai 3 is one of my favourite restaurants,” says Alice. “It has the best typical local dishes in town like risotto zafferano (saffron risotto), and costoletta alla Milanese (breaded veal cutlet). It also has a great setting on the navigli (canals) where it is lovely to walk. It’s a very bohemian, romantic spot that’s great for couples.” Our guide Ludovic agrees with Alice, adding that El Brellin has a great wine menu and awesome lobster ravioli.
Alice also recommends Bianca, at via Panizza 10. Bianca, meaning white, is the perfect name for this spot with its completely white décor. “Bianca is very modern,” says Alice. “The kitchen is Italian but it cooks typical local food that is just reinvented in a modern way. It’s younger than El Brellinand is perfect for any couple looking for a modern restaurant with good food in Milan.”
That said the best food in Milan won’t necessarily arrive in front of you surrounded by garnishes and crisp white linen. Your best Italian food experience may just as easily be a hot slice of pizza eaten awkwardly while standing up with the cheese running down your chin or a coffee half-spilled on your sprint to a tour meeting point. Rafaella says that L’Antico Ambrosiano at Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 2 does one of the best cappuccinos in in Milan. “Eat them at the counter,” he says. “Never sit at the tables because they will charge you for the service!” This is a point of contention among our guides however, as Alice maintains that “100% the best cappuccino in Milan is from Bastianello on Via Borgogna, 5!”.
Another other pizza place that Rafaella would recommend to a friend, partly for its handy location, is Rosso Pomodoro at Largo La Foppa 1. As well as doing a mean pizza, there is a great restaurant at this spot on the MM green line near the Moscova stop.
And what tour of Milan’s best food would be complete without a mention of Panzerotti Luini in Via Santa Radegonda 16 – the city’s most important bakery. “I always recommend a stop in Luini’s,” says Rafaella. “It is the most historical bakery in Milan and only a few metres from the Duomo but still it’s very cheap.” Panzerotti is a delicious Milanese treat that could well be the beautiful love child of a reckless night spent together by a doughnut and a Neapolitan pizza. The result is so good that it is very rare indeed for the queue not to snake the whole way around the corner.
If you are travelling in Milan on a budget (or if you just like to eat huge quantities of good food) don’t miss a chance to experience happy hour during your visit. For usually less than €10 you pay for a beer or wine and get free, unlimited access huge buffet of pizza, pasta, risotto, meat dishes, salads, cold, meats, cheese, fruit, desserts ... Just about everything really. “In the summer it is so beautiful to sit down to happy hour in the Brera district,” advises Alice, referring to one of the city’s most elegant neighbourhoods. “Or by the navigli (canal) area. I recommend Momo, in Ripa di Porta Ticinese 23.”
Ludovic, on the other hand, likes to spend his happy hour in Alchimia on Via Brioschi 17 . “Once it was a warehouse but they did it up and made it really hip. It’s a great place to go with friends to hang out, eat and drink. The food in happy hour is very fresh too. And there is so much of it!”
So there you have it, the favourite haunts of our tour guides who live, eat and love in Milan. But don't take their word for it. Get out and try the lobster ravioli in El Brellin, the world's best panzerotti in Luini's and decide whether the title of best cappuccino belongs to L'Antico Ambrosiano or Bastianello. Leave your guidebook at home and don't be afraid to try out Milan restaurants with no other tourists in them – if it's full of locals it's almost guaranteed to be great.
Buon Appetito!
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