Restaurant in Arezzo, Italy
Michelin-noted dining on Arezzo's finest square.
A Michelin Plate restaurant on Arezzo's Piazza Grande, Osteria Grande delivers seasonal Italian contemporary cooking with a serious wine pairing program and dedicated cocktail staff. At the €€€ price point, it is the most complete dinner option in the city for a special occasion. Book two to three weeks ahead for weekend tables in summer.
At the €€€ price point, Osteria Grande earns its place as Arezzo's most atmospheric sit-down option for a considered dinner. The combination of a Michelin Plate (2025), a 4.6 Google rating across 88 reviews, a location directly on Piazza Grande, and a drinks program serious enough to employ dedicated cocktail staff makes this a clear recommendation for anyone planning a date night, a celebratory meal, or a slow evening after a day in the Tuscan hills. If you want cheaper, Le Chiavi d'Oro delivers solid modern cuisine at €€. If you want more creative ambition, Octavin sits at €€€€. Osteria Grande lands in a practical middle ground: seasonal Italian contemporary cooking, strong wine pairing, and a cocktail list that works for aperitivo through digestivo.
Few dining rooms in Arezzo come with a view of the Loggia Vasariana. Osteria Grande occupies Piazza Grande 28, which means your backdrop is one of the most photographed squares in Tuscany, the same piazza that hosts the Giostra del Saracino jousting tournament twice a year. The ambient energy shifts across the evening: earlier in the service, the square is active and the light is still warm; later, it quiets into something considerably more intimate. For a special occasion dinner, timing your reservation for the overlap between golden hour and the start of the evening service gives you the atmosphere at its leading. Weekends will be busier given Arezzo's tourist calendar, and the piazza itself draws foot traffic, so if a quieter room matters to you, a Tuesday or Wednesday booking is the practical call.
The kitchen is led by Fatjon, who opened the restaurant in summer 2022 alongside Lorenzo, who manages the floor and the wine program. The cooking is seasonal and contemporary in orientation, not aggressively modernist. The clearest signal of the kitchen's approach is the pigeon dish: breast, leg, and fillet each prepared differently, served with sweet onion and cocoa nibs. That kind of cut-by-cut precision for a single protein is a reliable indicator that the kitchen takes technique seriously. This is not a trattoria serving crowd-pleasers; it is a restaurant making considered decisions about how to treat each ingredient. For context on the Italian contemporary category at higher price points, restaurants like L'Olivo in Anacapri or Agli Amici in Rovinj show where the format reaches its ceiling. Osteria Grande is not operating at that level of ambition or spend, but within its category and price tier in Arezzo, the Michelin Plate recognition confirms it is doing something worth noticing.
The drinks side of Osteria Grande deserves specific attention and is one of the clearest differentiators between this restaurant and its Arezzo peers. Lorenzo's wine pairing work is documented: for the pigeon, he has been noted to recommend a Maturato Tiberini 2018, a white wine made from grapes left to ripen on the vine, an unconventional pairing that signals the wine selection goes beyond the obvious Tuscan reds. The cellar is curated, not just assembled.
Beyond wine, the cocktail program is staffed by dedicated personnel, which is not standard at this price tier in a city of Arezzo's size. This means aperitivo before dinner and an after-dinner drink are genuine parts of the experience, not afterthoughts. If you are the kind of diner who wants a Negroni or a well-made Americano before sitting down, or a digestivo that has been thought about rather than grabbed from a generic back bar, Osteria Grande accommodates that. For couples on a date night or guests celebrating something, this full-evening drinks arc from aperitif through wine pairing to cocktail close makes the booking considerably more compelling than a restaurant where wine is an obligatory list and there is nothing worth ordering before or after the food.
For Arezzo's bar scene more broadly, see our full Arezzo bars guide. If wine is the priority, our Arezzo wineries guide covers the regional producers worth knowing.
Osteria Grande opened in 2022 and carries a Michelin Plate rather than a star, which means booking is direct compared to destination restaurants in the region. You are not competing with itinerary-planners who booked three months out. A week's notice should cover most midweek evenings; for weekend tables, particularly in summer when Arezzo draws more visitors and the piazza is at its liveliest, two to three weeks ahead is the sensible window. The restaurant does not have a published phone number or website in our database, so booking via a third-party platform or direct email inquiry is the practical route. Dress expectations at a Michelin Plate restaurant in Tuscany typically run toward smart casual: not formal, but not the clothes you wore hiking. A collared shirt or equivalent reads appropriately.
For group bookings, the piazza-side setting and the structured evening format work leading for smaller tables of two to four. Larger groups should inquire directly about capacity and whether a set menu format applies. The restaurant does not publish a seat count, so it is worth confirming availability for groups above four before committing to this as your occasion venue.
Quick reference: €€€ price range, Michelin Plate 2025, Piazza Grande 28 Arezzo, easy booking difficulty, smart casual dress.
Explore more options in the city with our full Arezzo restaurants guide, and check our Arezzo hotels guide and Arezzo experiences guide if you are planning a full stay. For Italian contemporary cooking at the leading end of the national category, reference points include Osteria Francescana in Modena, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, and Uliassi in Senigallia, all of which show what the format delivers at Michelin star level. Osteria Grande is not in that conversation, but for Arezzo, it is the most complete dinner option at its price tier.
Other Italian contemporary benchmarks worth knowing: Atelier Moessmer in Brunico, Dal Pescatore in Runate, Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone, and Reale in Castel di Sangro.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osteria Grande | This restaurant overlooking the magnificent Piazza Grande and the Loggia Vasariana that takes up one whole side of the square was opened in the summer of 2022 by the enthusiastic Fatjon and Lorenzo (if you ask, they’ll happily share their knowledge of Arezzo’s history with you). The former is at the helm in the kitchen where he expresses his passion for cuisine in seasonal, contemporary-style dishes such as pigeon breast, leg and fillet (each cut is prepared in the appropriate way) served with sweet onion and cocoa nibs, while the latter oversees the wine selection and recommends suitable pairings to guests. For the chef’s pigeon speciality, he may, for example, suggest an original Maturato Tiberini 2018 (a white wine made from grapes that are left to ripen on the vine). Cocktail staff are also hand for guests keen to choose an aperitif or an after-dinner drink from the extensive cocktail list.; Michelin Plate (2025); This restaurant overlooking the magnificent Piazza Grande and the Loggia Vasariana that takes up one whole side of the square was opened in the summer of 2022 by the enthusiastic Fatjon and Lorenzo (if you ask, they’ll happily share their knowledge of Arezzo’s history with you). The former is at the helm in the kitchen where he expresses his passion for cuisine in seasonal, contemporary-style dishes such as pigeon breast, leg and fillet (each cut is prepared in the appropriate way) served with sweet onion and cocoa nibs, while the latter oversees the wine selection and recommends suitable pairings to guests. For the chef’s pigeon speciality, he may, for example, suggest an original Maturato Tiberini 2018 (a white wine made from grapes that are left to ripen on the vine). Cocktail staff are also hand for guests keen to choose an aperitif or an after-dinner drink from the extensive cocktail list. | €€€ | — |
| Octavin | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Saffron | €€ | — | |
| Le Chiavi d'Oro | €€ | — | |
| ‘O Scugnizzo | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Osteria Grande is a piazza-side restaurant rather than a large-format dining room, so it suits small groups better than large parties. Tables of two to four are the natural fit here. If you're organising a group of six or more, check the venue's official channels in advance — Piazza Grande 28, Arezzo — to confirm capacity and configuration. For a big group dinner in Arezzo, Le Chiavi d'Oro may offer more flexible space.
Yes, and it's one of the clearer cases in Arezzo for a celebration dinner. The combination of a Michelin Plate (2025), a setting overlooking the Loggia Vasariana on Piazza Grande, and a drinks program that runs from considered wine pairings to an extensive cocktail list gives the meal a genuine occasion feel. For a birthday or anniversary dinner in Arezzo at the €€€ price point, this is the most atmospheric sit-down option available.
Osteria Grande holds a Michelin Plate rather than a star, so booking pressure is lower than at a starred destination. That said, the Piazza Grande setting makes it a draw for visitors to Arezzo, and the restaurant has been open since summer 2022 with a growing following. Booking one to two weeks ahead is a reasonable target; for weekend dinners or peak summer dates, push that to three weeks to be safe.
At €€€, Osteria Grande is priced at the upper end for Arezzo, and it justifies the spend if you're after precision cooking and a strong wine program in a genuinely memorable setting. The kitchen's approach — seasonal, contemporary dishes where each cut and technique is treated individually, as with the pigeon preparation — reflects care that cheaper Arezzo options don't match. If you want straightforward Tuscan trattoria food, you'll overpay here; if you want a considered dinner on one of Tuscany's great squares, it's fair value.
Osteria Grande is a Michelin Plate restaurant on a historic piazza, so the setting calls for something more considered than casual day wear. Think neat, polished clothing — what you'd wear to a quality restaurant in any Italian city. There is no formal dress code documented for the venue, but the room and price point (€€€) set an informal expectation that trainers and shorts would feel out of place.
The kitchen's strengths — seasonal, technique-led cooking and individually prepared cuts, as the pigeon dish illustrates — suit a tasting format well, and the wine team led by Lorenzo is positioned to make pairing worthwhile. However, specific tasting menu availability and pricing are not confirmed in Pearl's current data. Ask at booking whether a chef's menu is offered; if it is, the combination of food and guided wine pairing is the clearest route to getting full value from an Osteria Grande visit.
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