The best restaurants of Milan and Lombardy awarded by Gambero Rosso

It has been longer than usual, a year and a half to be precise, since the last time we ventured to recount the best of a region as extensive and complex as Lombardy. And just 49 days ago the Ristoranti d'Italia 2024 guide came out, anticipating a large portion of the award-winners (all “threes” in their respective categories). No twists and turns at the top, then, in a guide that, however, in its 32nd edition, is the result of an accurate structural and thoughtful restyling dedicated to those who 'practice' and 'chew' it to build their own personal and conscious path in good food.

The Lombardy - The Best of Milan and the Other Provinces 2024 guide, which we presented at the Osteria del Treno in Milan on the occasion of the awards ceremony, is a volume that is physically thicker than the previous editions but graphically clearer, more readable and sunnier. This year it reviews 1,121 addresses and almost 200 new entries. After the provincial capital, Brescia - Italian Capital of Culture together with Bergamo - is the province with the largest number of venues, 131 to be exact, many of which are the daughters of a tourist boom that has brought areas such as Garda back to its pre-pandemic splendour, as well as industrious entrepreneurial realities. While, curiously enough, Lodi is the one with the most novelties in proportion to the total number of signs in the province, 7 out of 11.

The best restaurants of Milan and Lombardy

As far as the internal structure is concerned, the Milan city venues are organised into categories (just like the “Rome and the Best of Lazio 2024” guide), so that everyone can more intuitively 'fish' in the right bunch for themselves. Even the categories change shape: this is the case of bakeries, from this year “bakeries & bakery”, because this is the direction in which the world of bakeries is moving, while the botteghe, the places of good shopping, are present in a restricted selection only in the city. It is precisely in the Buying section, moreover, that the special Milanesità prize awarded to the City of Milan stands out for its enhancement of the local markets, those of the 'certain' supply chain, of the small artisans who animate a different neighbourhood every day of the week and who are the 'serious' reference point for locals, included for the first time in the guide alongside the already well-known latest-generation markets.

Trend and countertrend

On the other hand, it is precisely the agricultural issue that marks the line of one of the most popular trends in recent months. Lombardy is the third largest Italian region in terms of the number of farm holidays, and an 'industrial' province such as Brescia has almost 400. It is clear, therefore, that the return to the countryside as a requirement has become a trend, outside as well as inside the cities.

Of the six green prawns, the new symbol that distinguishes places that operate concretely and not by slogans on the basis of environmental sustainability, two are in Milan. Which in general confirms itself as an increasingly competitive marketplace where to be truly original you often have to ride the counter-trend. This is the case of Dirty, 'brutal' rather than cocktail bar, one of the four names awarded as Newcomer of the Year. Notwithstanding the fact that pizzerias - with an ever-higher bar and the appeal of real restaurants - continue to be popular below the Madonnina, the passion for carbonara has not died out and the cuisines of the world are increasingly specialised and geographically detailed.

Food districts and rediscovered tradition

If Paolo Sarpi is already 'the' street of (oriental) food, food collectives dedicated to street food are now springing up where temporaries also arrive from other cities (most recently, in chronological order, the Retrobottega boys in Rome), and large disused areas are also being redeveloped in the name of quality catering. On the other hand, however, there is a clear return of Milanese cuisine, even in new 'situations' and proposed in latest-generation signs. See the case of Trattoria Sincera, in the heart of Lambrate (one of the most gastronomically redeveloped neighbourhoods of recent times): an osteria 'from the past' but conceived by a group of young people, which is among the five Champions of Tradition, a special prize awarded to the best interpreters of as many typical specialities, and - with double merit - among the 13 Ambassadors of the Territory, a recognition that has been awarded for several editions to the commitment of chefs and owners to presiding over, making known and treating at best both local products and the most representative dishes of their respective provinces, each with its own style and philosophy.

The best restaurants of Milan and Lombardy

Lombardy's haute cuisine counts no fewer than nine Three Forks, more than any other Italian region. And not only in the capital and its environs (where champions of rare sensitivity such as Antonio Guida at Seta by Antonio Guida and eclectic, constantly moving professionals such as Enrico Bartolini at Ristorante Enrico Bartolini Mudec and Davide Oldani at D'O in Cornaredo operate). Elsewhere in the region there are sacred monsters like the Cerea family of Vittorio Brusaporto (BG) and the Santini del Pescatore Canneto sull'Oglio (MN) alongside (elsewhere misunderstood) geniuses like Riccardo Camanini of Lido 84 in Gardone Riviera (BS).

In order of score, here are the biggest names in the region, the restaurants that have been awarded the Tre Forchette.

TRE FORCHETTE

Da Vittorio - Brusaporto (BG)

Cracco in Galleria - Milano

92

D’O - Cornaredo (MI)

Seta by Antonio Guida - Milano

91

Lido 84 - Gardone Riviera (BS)

Dal Pescatore - Canneto sull'Oglio (MN)

Ristorante Enrico Bartolini Mudec - Milano

Berton - Milano

90

Miramonti l'Altro - Concesio (BS)