Locanda 53 Supper Club

Verdict: Book It for a Second Visit and You Will Notice What You Missed the First Time

Locanda 53 Supper Club is the kind of place that rewards return visitors not because the menu changes dramatically, but because the first visit is spent catching up with the room. On a second evening at this three-table inn on the upper floor of a building in Arco's historic centre, you stop marvelling at the fact that it exists and start paying attention to what Evelyn is actually doing in the kitchen. The verdict is direct: if you are in the Lake Garda region and serious about eating well, this is worth booking.

The Space

Three tables. Second floor. The physical constraints of Locanda 53 are not a compromise; they are the product. The room is dressed with the accumulated objects of two people who travel and cook and think carefully about both: the atmosphere reads as a private home that happens to serve tasting menus, which is exactly what Evelyn and Carl intended. The spatial intimacy means the room is never loud, never rushed, never anonymous. If you have dined at a supper club format before; whether in London or New York, you will recognise the register immediately: somewhere between a dinner party and a proper restaurant, with the service informality of the former and the kitchen seriousness of the latter. For travellers accustomed to Jungsik in Seoul or César in New York City, the scale here will feel deliberately reduced, that is the point.

The Kitchen: Sourcing as the Menu's Argument

Two tasting menus anchor the offer: one focused on meat, one on fish. Guests are asked to choose at the time of booking, which tells you something important about how the kitchen operates. This is not a kitchen that pivots mid-service or keeps a large prep team on standby for multiple directions. The ingredient sourcing decision is baked into the guest's experience before they arrive, which in turn allows Evelyn to work with precision on a focused set of materials.

The Michelin note on the venue flags the creative recipes as influenced by the Trento region, as well as the wider Italian pantry and international reference points. The dish described in the awards data, a deconstructed nigiri labelled "Nigiri in crisi di identità", illustrates the approach clearly: a Japanese classic read through a Trentino lens, where the local sourcing logic and the global culinary reference collide in something that is neither straightforwardly Italian nor straightforwardly Japanese. For the explorer diner, this is the interesting territory. The sourcing philosophy appears to hold: carefully selected ingredients, prepared with attention to what they actually are, rather than what they can be made to look like.

This matters for the price justification. At €€€, Locanda 53 is not cheap for Arco, but it is significantly less expensive than the €€€€ bracket occupied by Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico, Dal Pescatore in Runate, or Osteria Francescana in Modena. What you are paying for here is access to a genuinely small kitchen operating with care, in a room that holds almost no one, with sourcing choices that reflect real thought rather than menu engineering. That is a reasonable trade.

When to Go

Arco sits at the northern tip of Lake Garda, sheltered by limestone cliffs that moderate the climate. Spring and early autumn are the most comfortable times to visit, warm enough to explore the old town on foot before or after dinner, without the peak-summer crowds that push into the Garda region from July onwards. An evening booking in May, September, or October lets you walk through the historic centre at dusk, which adds materially to the experience of arriving at a second-floor supper club in an old building. The summer months work too, but the town is busier and pre-dinner logistics are less relaxed. Whenever you visit, book the evening well in advance: three tables means the restaurant can fill weeks ahead, particularly in high season.

Booking and Practical Details

Reservations: Book as early as possible, three tables and a tasting-menu-only format mean availability is genuinely limited. Contact the venue directly; no online booking platform is confirmed in the available data. Budget: €€€ per head, tasting menu format. Dress: No dress code is specified, but the intimate, home-like setting reads as smart casual at minimum. Dietary restrictions: The two-menu structure (meat or fish) is chosen at booking, flag any restrictions at that point, as the kitchen works to a set menu and will need advance notice. Groups: With only three tables, the venue is well suited to couples or very small groups. Large parties are unlikely to be accommodated in a single booking.

Pearl's Take on the Arco Dining Scene

Locanda 53 is one of two venues from the Brunel family that bring serious cooking to Arco, Peter Brunel Ristorante Gourmet and Peter Brunel cover different formats and price points in the same town. For the full picture of eating and staying in the area, see our full Arco restaurants guide, our full Arco hotels guide, our full Arco bars guide, our full Arco wineries guide, and our full Arco experiences guide. For Italian fine dining at a larger scale, Uliassi in Senigallia, Piazza Duomo in Alba, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, and Le Calandre in Rubano are the reference points worth knowing before you commit to a region.