The hidden restaurant along the Po Delta that loses its star, where you can eat oysters, mantis shrimp, and amazing fish. For us, a place close to the heart

The 2025 edition of the Michelin guide notes the rises and falls of various restaurants, with a group of establishments—a full 35 of them—losing their stars. These are restaurants of various kinds and styles, some of them close to our hearts. The choices of the Michelin guide, therefore, sometimes leave us in disagreement, as is the case with Capanna di Eraclio.

The first time I went to Capanna di Eraclio, I was disappointed. I don’t know what exactly I was expecting, but finding a place so normal and even a little worn left me perplexed. But that feeling didn’t last long: the day after, I found myself persistently thinking about that meal, which took place at the start of a still-mild November. I felt nostalgia for it. I had the sense of having spent a few hours in perfect bliss, where everything was exactly as it should be, fané details included. Because Capanna is a magical place. You think of a painting, you think of a film, you think of anything that evokes a higher degree of beauty, simple and profound. You see it from afar, isolated in a landscape that only the Po Delta can offer, with wide stretches of fields, a few clusters of trees, and those slivers of water vying for territory, and you know you’ve entered a time outside of time. Capanna, which is really just a country house with its own veranda, has been there since the 1920s, seven meters below sea level, set a bit lower than the road, just enough to create a divide and give you the enchantment of losing any temporal bearing.

The Capanna of Maria Grazia and Pierluigi Soncini

You step in, and everything you see confirms that impression: the paintings on the walls, the tables and chairs that make it feel like the dining room of some country aunt, one who lives her days with a rhythm we no longer know, and the warm and friendly welcome from Pierluigi Soncini follows suit, with a wine list where you’re sure to find something special. Thinking of it as a trattoria, however, would be a mistake; rather, it’s a great traditional restaurant with an understated elegance and the mastery of actions repeated with rigor. These are the actions of Maria Grazia Soncini, a chef whose modernity is anchored in tradition and in the area’s food culture, to the point where you could practically study geography from her menu: the soles of Goro, the mussels of Sacca degli Scardovari, the pink oysters of the Delta, and so on, from scallops to the essential mantis shrimp, the kinds of fish you find only here, with names you hear only here. Each one is selected, prepared, and presented with loving care and absolute precision. Modernity here is all about going deep and uncovering the soul of the dishes, rather than inventing new ones. Maria Grazia Soncini renews her culinary art as one does with vows. Every preparation is calibrated to the millimeter, every cooking time measured to the second, whether it’s valley risotto or a skillet of scampi and prawns. I’m almost certain that whoever coined that admittedly unappealing but apt adjective—“millimetric”—for cuisine, probably had Capanna in mind.

What to Eat at Capanna di Eraclio

If it’s shrimp season, you can be sure they’ll be brought to your table, accompanied by a white polenta, shortly after the bread basket arrives, topped by the local Ferrara-style rolls. The rest of the menu glides fluidly between land and sea, where the queen is eel, served here “arost in umad,” first seared over embers and then oven-baked with garlic and rosemary. The grill is one of the cooking methods, along with frying and steaming, that carefully and meticulously brings out the flavor of the fish, accompanied by a homemade mayonnaise, very yellow and creamy, stirred rather than whipped, decidedly untrendy. You can choose among spider crab, soft-shell crabs, sea bass, blue crabs, and even game birds in season, although the stuffed partridge with foie gras and morels is nearly always on the menu.

The last time I went was a Monday in April, for lunch. The restaurant was full, with regulars and a welcoming atmosphere, a trifle served in a glass and a complimentary tasting of mousse, coffee in the veranda: it was too early to dine outside. The now-familiar feeling of perfect bliss and the nostalgia you carry with you as a reminder, which prompts you to ask for an exception to write about it in the first person, because that’s what you do with places of the soul.

La Capanna di Eraclio - Codigoro (FE) - Località per le Venezia, 21 -  0533 712154 - Pagina Facebook