Restaurant in Illasi, Italy
Regional cooking worth the Illasi detour.
A Michelin Plate-recognised kitchen inside an 18th-century citrus conservatory in the Illasi valley, Le Cedrare serves modern regional Veneto cooking at a €€ price point that consistently outperforms its tier. With a 4.7 Google rating across nearly 1,000 reviews and two consecutive Michelin Plate awards, it is the most compelling reason to eat in Illasi rather than driving into Verona.
If you're deciding between Le Cedrare and driving into Verona for a more polished mid-range dinner, stay in Illasi. Le Cedrare delivers a quality of cooking that most €€€ restaurants in the city struggle to match, at a €€ price point, inside one of the most quietly compelling dining rooms in the Valpolicella valley. Two consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions (2024 and 2025) confirm this isn't an accident. Book it for your next visit rather than treating it as a backup option.
The room was originally a limonaia — an 18th-century conservatory built to shelter citrus trees through the winters of the Villa Perez-Pompei-Sagramoso estate. Arriving, you pass through a garden before entering a space that still carries the proportions and light of its agricultural past. For a returning diner, this setting never quite loses its effect: the architecture does quiet work before a single dish arrives. It is the kind of room that makes you slow down, which is exactly what the cooking rewards.
Le Cedrare's owner-chef grounds the menu in the produce and traditions of the Illasi valley and broader Veneto region, but the presentation is precise enough to read as modern cuisine rather than rustic trattoria. That is the central proposition here: you are eating food that is genuinely of this place — including extra-virgin olive oil pressed from groves in the surrounding countryside, with a small tasting selection available , but plated with a level of care that signals ambition without pretension.
For a returning guest, this matters. On a second visit you can stop orienting yourself and start engaging more deliberately with what the kitchen is doing with local ingredients. The olive oil tasting is worth returning to specifically: it is not a gimmick but a direct expression of the farm-to-table reality that many restaurants gesture toward without delivering. Le Cedrare actually delivers it, and the Google rating of 4.7 across nearly 1,000 reviews suggests that this is a consistent experience rather than a lucky evening.
The cuisine sits at a point where careful technique meets honest regionality. Compared to the maximalist ambition you'd encounter at, say, Osteria Francescana in Modena or the refined grandeur of Le Calandre in Rubano, Le Cedrare operates in a quieter register. That is not a concession , it is the correct register for what this kitchen is trying to do. If you want intellectual provocation on the plate, those venues will serve you better. If you want food that is rooted, well-executed, and priced without the markup that attaches to destination dining, Le Cedrare is the better answer.
At €€, Le Cedrare is meaningfully affordable against the benchmark of Michelin-recognised dining in northern Italy. The Plate recognition from Michelin confirms a standard of cooking that earns comparison with more expensive venues. For context, a comparable meal at Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli in Verona , a fine choice in its own right , will cost you considerably more for a similar grounding in Veneto tradition, with a more formal register. Le Cedrare gives you the cooking without the ceremony tax.
Booking is direct. Illasi is a small town and Le Cedrare draws a mix of local regulars and visitors making the short drive from Verona and the surrounding wine country. A few days' notice is generally sufficient outside peak summer weekends, though for Friday and Saturday evenings in July and August, booking a week ahead is sensible. No phone or website data is available in our records, so check current availability through a local booking aggregator or contact the restaurant directly via the address at Via Perez Pompei, 2, Illasi.
Le Cedrare is particularly well suited to diners who are already spending time in the Valpolicella or Soave wine regions and want a meal that matches the quality of what's in the glass. It also works well as a destination in itself for Verona-based visitors looking to eat somewhere genuinely regional rather than tourist-adjacent. If you've been once and enjoyed it, a second visit is easy to justify , the kitchen's focus on seasonal and local ingredients means the menu evolves, and the olive oil program alone gives you a reason to come back with more attention.
It is not the right choice if you want a formal tasting menu experience with wine pairings and table-side theatre. For that format in the broader Veneto region, Enrico Bartolini in Milan or the precision of Piazza Duomo in Alba are more appropriate benchmarks, at a correspondingly higher price. Le Cedrare operates in a different but equally valid space: casual in setting, serious in execution, and honest in price.
For more dining options in the area, see our full Illasi restaurants guide. If you're planning a longer stay, our Illasi hotels guide, our Illasi wineries guide, and our Illasi experiences guide are useful companions. For a drink before or after, check our Illasi bars guide.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Le Cedrare | €€ | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | €€€€ | — |
| Dal Pescatore | €€€€ | — |
| Osteria Francescana | €€€€ | — |
| Quattro Passi | €€€€ | — |
| Reale | €€€€ | — |
A quick look at how Le Cedrare measures up.
Book at least one to two weeks out, especially on weekends. Le Cedrare is Michelin Plate recognised and sits in a distinctive historic setting that draws visitors from the Valpolicella and Soave wine circuits, so availability tightens faster than a typical village restaurant. For Friday or Saturday dinners in peak season, two to three weeks is safer.
The venue's format — a converted 18th-century citrus conservatory within Villa Perez-Pompei-Sagramoso — is a sit-down restaurant rather than a bar-and-dining hybrid. Bar seating is not documented for this venue. Arrive with a reservation rather than counting on a casual drop-in.
Specific dietary accommodation policies are not on record for Le Cedrare. Given the owner-chef format and regionally grounded menu, your best move is to contact them directly before booking. Smaller owner-operated restaurants in the Veneto tend to be responsive when given advance notice.
At €€, it is. Michelin Plate recognition at this price tier in northern Italy is a genuine signal — the Plate is awarded for cooking quality, not prestige or setting. For what you pay, you get regionally rooted cuisine with careful presentation and an olive oil programme that reflects genuine local sourcing. Against comparably priced dinners in Verona, Le Cedrare over-delivers on both setting and kitchen attention.
Illasi itself is a small village, so dining alternatives are limited within the commune. If you want to stay in the Valpolicella or Soave orbit, look at other Veneto restaurants with regional credentials. For a step up in format and price, Verona's mid-range dining scene is a 25-minute drive. Le Cedrare is the clear case for staying local if you're already in the Illasi valley.
Le Cedrare's specific menu structure and pricing are not publicly documented, so a direct verdict on tasting menu versus à la carte is not possible here. What the Michelin Plate recognition does confirm is that the kitchen executes at a consistent level — whichever format is on offer, the cooking meets a documented standard. check the venue's official channels to confirm current menu options before booking.
Yes, particularly for occasions where atmosphere matters as much as the food. The setting — a garden approach leading into a room originally built as a limonaia inside an 18th-century villa — is genuinely distinctive without being formal or stiff. At €€ with Michelin Plate cooking, it delivers occasion-worthy dining without the price pressure of a starred restaurant.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
