Restaurant in Ariccia, Italy
One Michelin star, surprisingly accessible price point.
Sintesi holds a 2024 Michelin star and a 4.9 Google rating in Ariccia, delivering contemporary Italian cooking from chefs Matteo Compagnucci and Sara Scarsella at the €€€ tier. The menu runs from classical risottos to more technically ambitious dishes, with a seasonal wine list and house-made non-alcoholic pairings. Booking is hard; plan well in advance.
Getting a table at Sintesi takes planning. This is a Michelin-starred restaurant in Ariccia with limited opening hours: lunch runs Thursday through Sunday, dinner Thursday through Saturday (plus Sunday), and the kitchen is dark Tuesday and Wednesday. With a 4.9 rating across 384 Google reviews and a 2024 Michelin star, demand consistently outpaces availability. If you are making a trip from Rome — roughly 25 kilometres south into the Castelli Romani — book well in advance and treat the closed days as hard constraints, not suggestions. The effort is worth it, but only if you plan around its schedule.
Sintesi is a contemporary Italian restaurant run by chefs Matteo Compagnucci and Sara Scarsella, who are both colleagues in the kitchen and partners in life. That dual relationship matters here: the restaurant carries a coherence and personal investment that shows in how it operates. The menu frames itself around the slogan "Tradition & Innovation" , not as marketing language, but as a structural principle. Dishes move between classical Italian technique and more adventurous methods borrowed from Eastern cooking and Northern European preservation traditions, including fermentations, marinades, and fish aging.
The menu is available à la carte or as a tasting format. Documented dishes include a risotto with peas, lemon, and raw langoustines on the more familiar end, and grilled veal sweetbreads with wild strawberries from Nemi and herbs on the more creative side. The second dish in particular signals the kitchen's confidence: pairing offal with foraged local fruit requires precision and a clear point of view. This is not a restaurant hedging between two styles; it has committed to both and made them coexist.
The wine list updates seasonally to track menu changes, which means it is curated rather than static. For non-drinkers or those avoiding alcohol, the kitchen offers house-made juices and kombucha as structured non-alcoholic pairings , a detail that puts Sintesi ahead of most restaurants at this price point, where non-alcoholic options are often an afterthought.
At the €€€ price tier, Sintesi sits below the €€€€ tier that defines most of Italy's high-profile contemporary restaurants. That positioning matters. You are paying less than you would at, say, Osteria Francescana in Modena or Reale in Castel di Sangro, while receiving a Michelin-starred experience that the 2024 guide has validated as genuinely earned. The question for a return visitor is whether the service experience justifies the price at this level , and the available evidence suggests it does.
A 4.9 Google rating from 384 reviews is not a statistical accident. At that volume, it reflects consistently positive guest experiences across lunch, dinner, weekday, and weekend sittings. The description from Michelin uses the word "welcoming" , which at a one-star restaurant in a mid-sized Italian town is a meaningful differentiator. Plenty of starred restaurants in Italy read as formal to the point of stiffness. Sintesi appears to have avoided that trap. For a regular returning guest, the expectation should be a kitchen that knows what it is doing and a room that is not trying to intimidate you into spending more.
The non-alcoholic pairing option is also a service-side signal worth noting. Offering kombucha and house-made juices as serious alternatives , rather than just sparkling water , reflects a kitchen that has thought about its full guest base. If you do not drink wine, or are dining with someone who does not, Sintesi handles this better than most comparable restaurants.
Sintesi is at Viale dei Castani, 17, 00072 Ariccia. The kitchen closes Tuesday and Wednesday. Lunch is available Monday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12:30 PM to 3:00 PM. Dinner runs Thursday through Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM. Check hours directly before visiting, as seasonal changes may apply. Booking difficulty is rated hard , plan ahead. For more options in the area, see our full Ariccia restaurants guide, our Ariccia hotels guide, our Ariccia bars guide, our Ariccia wineries guide, and our Ariccia experiences guide.
| Detail | Sintesi | Comparable Peers |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | €€€ | €€€€ (Reale, Osteria Francescana) |
| Michelin recognition | 1 Star (2024) | 2–3 Stars (leading peers) |
| Google rating | 4.9 / 5 (384 reviews) | Varies |
| Lunch service | Mon, Sat, Sun 12:30–3 PM | Often dinner-only at starred level |
| Closed days | Tue, Wed | Varies by venue |
| Booking difficulty | Hard | Very hard at higher-starred venues |
| Non-alcoholic pairings | Yes (kombucha, house juices) | Rare at this tier |
See the full comparison section below.
Yes, and it handles that context better than most restaurants at its price point. A Michelin star earned in 2024, a 4.9 Google rating, and a menu that balances classical Italian dishes with technically ambitious modern cooking give a special occasion dinner genuine substance. At €€€ rather than €€€€, it also delivers a high-end experience without the pricing pressure of peers like Dal Pescatore in Runate or Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone. The tasting menu format is the right call for a celebration; it gives the kitchen room to pace the meal, and the non-alcoholic pairing option means the table does not have to split between drinkers and non-drinkers in an awkward way.
No seat count is confirmed in available data, so large group bookings should be confirmed directly with the restaurant before assuming the space can accommodate. Given it is a Michelin-starred restaurant in a mid-sized town with limited daily covers, private group requests may require flexibility on timing and should be arranged well in advance. For groups visiting Ariccia more broadly, see our full Ariccia restaurants guide for additional options.
Sintesi is the highest-credentialed contemporary restaurant in Ariccia, so direct local alternatives at the same tier are limited. If you are willing to travel within the broader Lazio and central Italy area, Reale in Castel di Sangro offers progressive Italian cooking at the €€€€ tier with multiple Michelin stars. For a different regional approach, Uliassi in Senigallia or Piazza Duomo in Alba represent the upper end of Italian contemporary dining. Within Sintesi's own price band (€€€), it competes well; you are getting Michelin-recognised quality at a more accessible price than most comparable experiences in Italy.
It is a reasonable choice for solo dining, particularly at lunch on a Saturday or Sunday when the pace is more relaxed. The à la carte option gives a solo diner more control over spend and course count than committing to the full tasting menu. No bar counter or chef's counter is confirmed in available data, so solo positioning in the room is unknown , worth clarifying when booking. If solo dining at starred restaurants appeals to you more broadly, Jungsik in Seoul and César in New York City are worth comparing for format and price.
The documented dishes give a clear read on the kitchen's range. The risotto with peas, lemon, and raw langoustines represents the classical-Italian side of the menu and is likely the safer entry point for a first-time or returning visitor who wants to understand the kitchen's technical baseline. The grilled veal sweetbreads with wild strawberries from Nemi and herbs is the more ambitious dish and a better indicator of how far the kitchen is willing to push. On a return visit, the tasting menu is worth the commitment , it shows the full arc of what Compagnucci and Scarsella are doing, including the Eastern and Northern European technique work that does not always appear in à la carte selections. Pair with the seasonal wine list or ask about the non-alcoholic kombucha pairing if you want something different.
Lunch is the easier booking to get, but dinner is the stronger format for the full Sintesi experience. Lunch runs Monday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12:30 PM, which gives you flexibility across the weekend. Dinner on Thursday through Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 PM tends to be when tasting menus read leading , the pacing works better over an evening than a midday sitting. That said, a Sunday lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Castelli Romani hills, with the seasonal wine list and the room to eat slowly, is not a compromise. It is a different kind of meal, and a worthwhile one.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sintesi | Contemporary | A modern and welcoming restaurant that finds in its slogan “Tradition & Innovation” the truest expression of its cuisine. On the menu – à la carte or tasting – you’ll find classic dishes such as “risotto with peas, lemon, and raw langoustines” alongside more creative offerings such as “grilled veal sweetbreads with wild strawberries from Nemi and herbs,” presented with modern precision, sometimes incorporating Eastern techniques and Northern European preservation methods (fermentations, marinades, fish aging). The wine list evolves with the seasons and menu changes, and is complemented by a line of house-made juices and kombucha offered as non-alcoholic pairings. Work colleagues and partners in life, chefs Matteo Compagnucci and Sara Scarsella know how to win over their guests.; A modern and welcoming restaurant that finds in its slogan “Tradition & Innovation” the truest expression of its cuisine. On the menu – à la carte or tasting – you’ll find classic dishes such as “risotto with peas, lemon, and raw langoustines” alongside more creative offerings such as “grilled veal sweetbreads with wild strawberries from Nemi and herbs,” presented with modern precision, sometimes incorporating Eastern techniques and Northern European preservation methods (fermentations, marinades, fish aging). The wine list evolves with the seasons and menu changes, and is complemented by a line of house-made juices and kombucha offered as non-alcoholic pairings. Work colleagues and partners in life, chefs Matteo Compagnucci and Sara Scarsella know how to win over their guests.; Michelin 1 Star (2024) | Hard | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Italian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Italian, Italian Contemporary | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Osteria Francescana | Progressive Italian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Quattro Passi | Italian, Mediterranean Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Reale | Progressive Italian, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Sintesi and alternatives.
Yes, and it punches above its price point for the occasion. Sintesi holds a Michelin star (2024) and offers both tasting and à la carte menus, giving you flexibility on format. Dishes like grilled veal sweetbreads with wild strawberries from Nemi reflect real kitchen ambition. At €€€ rather than €€€€, you get a credentialed special-occasion restaurant without the top-tier price tag that most comparable Italian spots now charge.
The venue data doesn't confirm private dining or group capacity, so contact Sintesi directly before planning a large booking. What is clear is that it operates on limited hours — closed Tuesday and Wednesday, with lunch only on Monday, Saturday, and Sunday — so coordinating group availability requires advance planning. For parties wanting more flexibility, a restaurant with documented private dining facilities would be a safer choice.
Sintesi is the only Michelin-starred contemporary restaurant documented in Ariccia, so there's no direct local equivalent at this level. The town is better known for porchetta and traditional Roman trattorie, which serve a completely different purpose. If you want Michelin-calibre contemporary Italian in the Lazio region without travelling to Rome itself, Sintesi is your practical option in the Castelli Romani area.
The à la carte option makes Sintesi more workable for solo diners than tasting-menu-only restaurants, since you can pace and spend at your own discretion. Nothing in the venue data suggests a dedicated counter or bar seating, so confirm the solo booking experience when reserving. At €€€, a solo meal here is a reasonable use of the price point compared to Rome's Michelin restaurants, where the same tier often costs considerably more.
The menu includes both classical and creative directions: the risotto with peas, lemon, and raw langoustines represents the lighter, technique-led side, while grilled veal sweetbreads with wild strawberries from Nemi and herbs shows the kitchen's more ambitious range. The wine list rotates seasonally, and house-made juices and kombucha are offered as non-alcoholic pairings — worth considering if you're skipping wine. If you want the full picture of what Compagnucci and Scarsella are doing, the tasting menu is the more informative choice.
Lunch is only available Monday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12:30 PM to 3 PM, making it the harder slot to secure but a practical option for a day trip from Rome. Dinner runs Thursday through Sunday from 7:30 PM to 11 PM, giving you more days to choose from. For a relaxed meal with time to explore Ariccia beforehand, weekend lunch makes sense; if you're already in the area on a Thursday or Friday, dinner is your only option.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
