Restaurant in Codigoro, Italy
Worth the drive for eel and Adriatic fish.
La Zanzara holds a 2024 Michelin star and a 4.7 Google rating in Codigoro, cooking lagoon eel and Adriatic fish from a farmhouse in the Po Delta. At €€€ rather than €€€€, it is one of the better-value starred seafood meals in northern Italy — but the small room and destination location make it a hard booking that requires planning well in advance.
Book La Zanzara if you want a Michelin-starred seafood meal in one of Italy's most overlooked corners — the Po Delta, where eel and Adriatic fish are treated with the same seriousness that Emilia-Romagna applies to its cured meats. This is a hard booking that requires planning, but the combination of a 4.7 Google rating (419 reviews), a 2024 Michelin star, and a price point of €€€ (not €€€€) makes it one of the more direct decisions in northern Italian fine dining. If you can get a table, take it.
La Zanzara sits in a farmhouse outside Codigoro, reached by driving through the Po Delta Valley — a low, flat terrain of wetlands, migratory birds, and reed beds that stretches toward the Adriatic. The journey is not incidental: by the time you arrive, you already understand what the kitchen is cooking from. The Po Delta is one of Italy's most productive fishing territories, and La Zanzara's menu is a direct expression of that geography.
The dining room is small, and for a first-time visitor the scale matters. This is not a large-format restaurant built for event dining. The intimacy is structural: a compact room, limited covers, and , in colder months , a fireplace that shifts the atmosphere from restaurant to something closer to a private house. If you are expecting the high-design, architecturally ambitious rooms of Osteria Francescana in Modena or Le Calandre in Rubano, adjust your expectations. The space earns its character through restraint, not spectacle. The fireplace detail is worth noting practically: if you are visiting between November and March, request a table near it when you book.
The kitchen's focus is the lagoon. Eel appears in multiple preparations , simply cooked or grilled over embers , and the Michelin documentation confirms squid and turbot as the dominant Adriatic fish on the menu. This is not a tasting-menu kitchen that ranges freely across Italian regions; it works a defined larder and works it well. For a first visit, that focus is an advantage: you are not making difficult decisions across a sprawling menu. You are eating what the lagoon produces, prepared by a kitchen that has earned a star doing exactly that.
La Zanzara is open for lunch only on Saturday and Sunday (12 PM–1:30 PM), with dinner service Wednesday through Sunday (7 PM–9:30 PM, with Saturday dinner starting at 8 PM). Monday and Tuesday are closed. For a first visit, the practical recommendation is dinner on a weekday if you can manage it , the room's fireplace atmosphere is most effective in the evening, and the drive through the Po Delta at dusk is materially different from midday. That said, weekend lunch has a real case: the Saturday and Sunday afternoon slots are shorter windows (just ninety minutes), which concentrates the pacing and makes it a strong choice if you prefer a lighter commitment than a full dinner service. The Sunday lunch slot in particular suits visitors who are working the Po Delta as a day excursion from Ferrara or the Adriatic coast.
On value, lunch and dinner at a €€€ Michelin-starred farmhouse in this region are unlikely to differ dramatically in price structure , but lunch portions and tasting formats at starred restaurants in Italy often run slightly less than dinner equivalents. Without confirmed menu pricing, the safer assumption for budget planning is that dinner will be the higher-spend option. If you are comparing against Uliassi in Senigallia or Dal Pescatore in Runate at €€€€, La Zanzara's €€€ positioning makes either service a more accessible entry point into Michelin-level seafood cooking in the region.
Reservations: Hard to book , this is a small room in a destination location, and Michelin recognition has tightened availability significantly. Book as far in advance as possible, particularly for weekend slots. Hours: Wed–Fri 7 PM–9:30 PM; Sat 12 PM–1:30 PM and 8 PM–9:30 PM; Sun 12 PM–1:30 PM and 8 PM–9:30 PM; Mon–Tue closed. Price range: €€€. Dress: No confirmed dress code, but given the Michelin context and intimate room, smart casual is the appropriate register. Getting there: A car is necessary , Codigoro is not served by rail connections that make this accessible without one, and the farmhouse address (Via per Volano, 52) is outside the town centre. Factor in the drive through the Po Delta as part of the visit. Group size: The small dining room makes large groups a difficult fit , contact the restaurant directly before attempting a booking for six or more.
See the comparison section below for how La Zanzara sits against its regional and national peers.
It can work, but the small dining room and intimate atmosphere are better suited to pairs or small groups. A solo visit is possible, but given the booking difficulty and the destination nature of the restaurant , requiring a car, in a rural farmhouse outside Codigoro , it is a high-effort commitment for one person. If solo Adriatic seafood dining is your aim, Uliassi in Senigallia may offer more solo-friendly counter or bar seating options worth investigating first.
The kitchen's identity is built around lagoon fish and Adriatic seafood, with eel, squid, and turbot as its core ingredients. If you do not eat fish or shellfish, this is the wrong restaurant , the menu has no meaningful pivot for non-seafood diners. No phone or website is confirmed in our data, so contact options are limited; use the reservation platform through which you book to communicate any restrictions before arrival rather than assuming accommodation on the day.
The Michelin documentation is specific: eel (prepared simply or grilled over embers) and Adriatic fish , particularly squid and turbot , are the kitchen's signature territory. For a first visit, order whatever the kitchen does with eel: it is the ingredient most tied to the Po Delta's specific geography, and it is not commonly found at this level of preparation elsewhere in Italian fine dining. Squid and turbot round out the picture. If a tasting menu is available, it will almost certainly sequence these ingredients in the kitchen's preferred order, which is the most reliable way to experience the full range on a first visit.
Dinner is the better experience if the fireplace is relevant to you , the atmosphere of a lit farmhouse room in the evening, particularly in autumn and winter, is materially different from the midday slot. Weekend lunch (90 minutes, Saturday or Sunday) is the right call if you are on a tighter schedule or visiting as part of a Po Delta day trip from Ferrara or the coast. On value, expect dinner to run slightly higher than lunch at a €€€ price point, though the gap is unlikely to be large. Neither slot is easy to book; dinner on a Wednesday or Thursday tends to be marginally less competitive than Friday or Saturday evening.
Yes, with the right expectations. A Michelin-starred farmhouse with a fireplace, in one of Italy's most atmospheric rural landscapes, is a strong setting for a dinner that marks something. The intimacy of the small dining room works in your favour for occasions where you want the feeling of a private table rather than a full restaurant floor. At €€€ rather than €€€€, it is also more accessible for a celebration meal than comparably awarded restaurants like Dal Pescatore or Osteria Francescana. Book well in advance and request the fireplace table if visiting between October and March.
If a tasting menu is offered, it is the most coherent way to experience a kitchen this focused. La Zanzara's cooking is built around a narrow, geography-specific larder , eel, squid, turbot, lagoon fish , and a tasting sequence will move through those ingredients in the order the kitchen considers logical. At €€€ rather than €€€€, the value proposition is stronger than at many starred comparators. For context, Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler and Reale in Castel di Sangro are both €€€€ operations; La Zanzara delivers Michelin-level cooking at a lower price tier. Confirm tasting menu availability when you book.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Zanzara | €€€ | Hard | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Osteria Francescana | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Quattro Passi | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Reale | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how La Zanzara measures up.
It works for solo diners who are comfortable with a destination meal as a deliberate, unhurried experience. The small dining room in a farmhouse outside Codigoro has an intimate scale that suits a solo visit — you are there for the food (Michelin-starred, €€€), not a lively room. That said, booking a solo seat in a small room that fills quickly may require more lead time than a pair.
The kitchen is built around the lagoon's catch — eel, squid, turbot, and Adriatic fish are the core of what's on the plate here. If you don't eat seafood or have a fish allergy, this is the wrong restaurant. For other restrictions, check the venue's official channels before booking; at €€€ with a Michelin star, they are likely to accommodate when given advance notice, but the format is seafood-first.
Eel is the signature, prepared simply or grilled over embers — order it. Adriatic squid and turbot also feature prominently and reflect the restaurant's lagoon-driven identity. At €€€ with a Michelin star, the menu is structured around these ingredients, so lean into the house strengths rather than steering away from them.
Dinner is the stronger booking for atmosphere: the small dining room with a fireplace in cooler months is more evocative at night. Lunch runs Saturday and Sunday only (12 PM–1:30 PM), which suits a day trip through the Po Delta. If you're making a special occasion of it, dinner on Friday or Saturday gives you more time and the full room experience.
Yes — the combination of a Michelin star (2024), a farmhouse setting, and a focused seafood menu makes it a strong choice for a meaningful meal. The journey through the Po Delta Valley is part of the occasion. It's not a city restaurant with easy logistics, so plan the evening around it rather than treating it as one stop among several.
At €€€ and with Michelin recognition, the structured format here is built to showcase lagoon ingredients across multiple courses — that's where the kitchen's skill reads most clearly. If you're travelling to Codigoro specifically for this meal, the tasting menu is the right way to experience it. If you want a lighter, more flexible meal, check whether à la carte is available when you book.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
