Restaurant in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Italy
Book early. Tuscan minimalism at Michelin level.
A Michelin-starred Tuscan kitchen in a converted stable at the edge of a Chianti village, run by a young couple with a quietly serious approach to minimalist regional cooking. At the €€€ price tier, it offers better value than most starred restaurants in the area. Book four to six weeks out for summer evenings; Monday is the weekly closure.
If you are planning a quiet, occasion-worthy dinner in the Chianti hills and want Michelin-level cooking without the formality of a grand hotel dining room, L'Asinello is the right call. This is a restaurant for couples, for slow anniversaries, for the kind of evening where the meal is the whole point of the trip. It is not a good fit for groups looking for energy and noise, or for anyone who needs a Friday or Saturday table at short notice. At the €€€ price tier with a 2024 Michelin Star, it sits at a point where the cooking justifies the spend — but only if the format suits you.
The summer garden is the version of L'Asinello most worth planning around. Dining outside in a setting described by Michelin inspectors as both elegant and personally tended by the chef gives the meal a character that indoor dining in winter simply cannot replicate. If you are visiting Tuscany between late spring and early September, build your itinerary around a table here. Sunday lunch (noon to 2 PM) is the one daytime service; every other visit is an evening-only proposition, with the kitchen running from 7:30 PM.
The restaurant occupies a converted stable at the entrance to a village in the Castelnuovo Berardenga commune of the Chianti Classico zone, about 20 kilometres southeast of Siena. The setting is quiet by design. A young couple runs the operation: she manages the front of house and he leads the kitchen, and the Michelin citation makes clear that the garden , maintained to the same standard as the plates , is also his work. That kind of single-minded personal investment is exactly what the Bib Gourmand and Star programmes reward, and here the recognition is current: the Star was confirmed for 2024.
Cooking philosophy is restrained. Michelin describes it as traditional Tuscan cuisine that is minimalist in its choice of flavours, built from a small number of well-balanced ingredients rather than technical complexity for its own sake. This is not the place for avant-garde or multi-component dishes. Think clarity over elaboration , the kind of approach that Caino in Montemerano and La Sala dei Grapoli in Poggio alle Mura also pursue in Tuscan kitchens. For comparison, the high-modernist end of Italian fine dining , places like Osteria Francescana in Modena or Le Calandre in Rubano , operates in a completely different register. L'Asinello is for the reader who wants to taste the region, not to be dazzled by technique.
Given the depth of a Michelin-starred tasting format and a menu that anchors itself in seasonal Tuscan produce, L'Asinello rewards more than one visit , and the two distinct service windows make a natural structure for returning guests.
First visit: Go for dinner in summer, when the garden is open and the full experience is available. This is the flagship version of the restaurant. Evening service runs Tuesday through Saturday, 7:30 PM to midnight, which gives you time to linger after eating without feeling rushed. Use this visit to work through the tasting menu if one is offered, since that is the format that leading represents the kitchen's point of view on minimalist Tuscan cooking.
Second visit: Sunday lunch is a different proposition entirely. The service window is tight , noon to 2 PM , and it is the only midday sitting of the week. A returning diner who already knows the kitchen's language will find the Sunday lunch format a more relaxed, lower-pressure way to revisit favourite ingredients or seasonal shifts. It also pairs well with a morning exploring the Chianti Classico wine zone; see our full Castelnuovo Berardenga wineries guide for producers worth visiting before lunch.
Third visit or beyond: Come back in a different season. A kitchen built around a short list of well-balanced ingredients will change character significantly between, say, autumn truffle season and spring. That seasonal specificity is precisely what distinguishes this style of cooking from higher-concept restaurants , and it is worth tracking across visits rather than trying to capture in one meal. For context on how other serious Italian kitchens handle seasonal depth, Dal Pescatore in Runate and Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence offer useful points of reference at higher price tiers.
Reservations: Book as far in advance as possible , at minimum four to six weeks for a Saturday dinner, and further out in peak summer. A Michelin Star with a limited seat count and a single-service format means availability is genuinely constrained. Monday is the weekly closure. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday dinner from 7:30 PM (kitchen closes midnight); Sunday lunch noon to 2 PM and dinner 7:30 PM to 10 PM. Budget: €€€ price tier , expect a meaningful per-head spend at the Michelin-starred level, though this sits below the €€€€ restaurants in the immediate area. Dress: Smart casual is appropriate for the setting and price tier; this is not a black-tie room, but jeans and trainers would read as underdressed. Location: Via Nuova, 6, Castelnuovo Berardenga , at the entrance to the village. Getting there: A car is the practical choice; public transport to this part of Chianti Classico is limited. For where to stay, see our full Castelnuovo Berardenga hotels guide.
For anyone building a Tuscan food itinerary around this area, the local dining scene is unusually dense for a small commune. Our full Castelnuovo Berardenga restaurants guide covers the range, and it is worth checking bars and experiences in the area to fill out the trip. Within the Italian fine dining circuit more broadly, L'Asinello sits in good company: the restrained regional approach it practices connects it to kitchens like Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico and Enrico Bartolini in Milan , different regions, same respect for ingredient integrity over spectacle.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| L'Asinello | €€€ | — |
| Il Poggio Rosso | €€€€ | — |
| Il Visibilio | €€€€ | — |
| Contrada | €€€ | — |
| Borgo San Felice Resort | — | |
| Il Convito di Curina | €€ | — |
How L'Asinello stacks up against the competition.
The kitchen is built around traditional Tuscan cooking with minimal ingredients and deliberate flavour balance — which means the menu does the selecting for you. Opt for whatever reflects the current season; the approach favours restraint over abundance. Given the Michelin Star format, a tasting menu or chef's selection is the way to experience the kitchen at its intended depth rather than ordering à la carte if that option exists.
Yes, clearly — a Michelin-starred restaurant in a converted stable at the edge of a Chianti village, with a garden for summer evenings, is a strong setting for a celebration dinner. The husband-and-wife operation keeps things personal rather than corporate, which suits anniversary dinners or intimate occasions better than large group events. Book a Saturday dinner and request garden seating if you are visiting between late spring and early autumn.
At €€€ pricing with a Michelin Star, L'Asinello sits in a bracket where the tasting format is the point — the kitchen's philosophy is built on minimalism and balance, which plays out properly across a sequence of courses rather than a single plate. If you want à la carte flexibility or a quick meal, this is not the right venue. For a deliberate dinner with wine and time to spare, the format justifies the price.
The setting — a converted stable in a small Chianti village — signals quiet elegance rather than black-tie formality. Smart dress is appropriate: think well-put-together rather than formal. The garden setting in summer leans relaxed, but this is still a Michelin-starred restaurant at €€€ pricing, so jeans and trainers would be out of place.
Book four to six weeks out at minimum for a Saturday dinner; longer if you are visiting in peak summer, when Chianti tourism is at its highest and Michelin-starred tables in the region fill quickly. Sunday lunch is the only midday service, which makes it a slightly easier booking than weekend evenings. Do not assume last-minute availability at a one-Star property in a small village with limited covers.
At €€€ with a 2024 Michelin Star, L'Asinello is priced in line with its recognition and delivers a focused, seasonal Tuscan menu in a setting — converted stable, private garden, small village — that is hard to replicate at lower price points in this region. If you are comparing value against other Michelin-starred options in the Chianti Classico zone, the intimate scale and garden make it more personal than larger hotel dining rooms. It is not a bargain, but the combination of food quality, setting, and occasion-worthiness holds up against the price.
Dinner is the core offering — the restaurant operates Tuesday through Saturday evenings from 7:30 PM and is closed Monday entirely. Sunday lunch (12–2 PM) is the only midday service and offers a rarer, quieter way to experience the kitchen, particularly appealing if you want to see the garden in daylight. For a full occasion dinner with the atmosphere of a Chianti evening, Saturday dinner is the stronger choice; Sunday lunch suits those who prefer a more relaxed, unhurried format.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
