Restaurant in Laveno, Italy
Lakeside tasting menus, easy to book.
La Tavola sits inside Laveno's Il Porticciolo hotel with lake-level views across Lake Maggiore and two personalised tasting menus built around freshwater fish. Holding a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, it earns its €€€€ price through setting and culinary identity rather than star prestige. Book one to two weeks ahead — availability is generally straightforward outside peak summer.
Yes — with the right expectations. La Tavola sits inside the Il Porticciolo hotel in Laveno-Mombello, and it earns its €€€€ price bracket through two serious tasting menus built around the lake itself, not through imported prestige ingredients or borrowed culinary fashion. Chef Riccardo Bassetti's kitchen works a clearly defined territory: freshwater fish from Lake Maggiore, creative and elaborate plating, and a personalised approach that distinguishes each menu from the kind of generic fine-dining tasting format you'd find at a lakeside hotel restaurant anywhere in northern Italy. If that focused, place-rooted cooking sounds like what you're after, book it. If you want the broadest possible creative Italian menu or the most decorated kitchen in the region, look elsewhere.
The arrival at La Tavola is part of the experience: you leave your car in the hotel car park and take a lift down to the dining room, which sits at water level with full-width windows facing the opposite shore of Lake Maggiore. The atmosphere is calm and contained rather than theatrical. This is not a loud room. Energy is low and deliberate, the mood closer to a private dining experience than a buzzy destination restaurant. Conversation carries easily. The views shift with the light, and the proximity to the water gives the room a quality that a city-centre restaurant at the same price point simply cannot replicate. If you are coming from Milan or the surrounding Varese province for a weekend dinner, this atmosphere is a material part of what you are paying for — it is not background decoration.
For a returning visitor, the question is which of the two tasting menus to choose and whether Bassetti's kitchen has rotated its approach since your last visit. The menus are personalised, which in practice means the kitchen tailors dishes to dietary restrictions and preferences rather than offering a fully bespoke composition from scratch , a meaningful but realistic distinction. Freshwater fish remains the structural core of the menu, and if you are returning specifically to revisit that register, the lake-sourced ingredients give the menu a consistency of identity that holds across visits. The elaborateness of the plating has been noted by Michelin reviewers across both the 2024 and 2025 cycles, which gives some confidence that the kitchen's technical ambition is sustained rather than occasional.
La Tavola holds a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, which is Michelin's recognition that a restaurant serves food of good quality without yet meeting the criteria for a star. In the context of Lake Maggiore dining, that is a useful calibration. The Plate signals consistent kitchen competence and clear culinary identity , Bassetti's focus on freshwater fish and personalised creative menus is acknowledged as a coherent and executed point of view. It does not signal the level of technical precision or ingredient sourcing rigour you would find at a starred kitchen in the same price tier. For €€€€ spending, that is a genuine trade-off to weigh: you are paying partly for the setting, partly for the tasting menu format, and partly for a kitchen that is working at a high level without yet reaching the benchmark its peers at starred addresses have crossed.
The creative approach here is worth understanding in specifics. Bassetti's menus are not fusion or globally-inflected , they are grounded in the lake's own produce and the culinary tradition of northern Italy's lakeside cooking, then pushed toward elaboration and personalisation. That is a narrower creative lane than, say, the progressive Italian kitchens you'd find at Reale in Castel di Sangro or Piazza Duomo in Alba, but it is a more specific and harder-to-replicate one. For diners who want to eat the lake rather than a generic expression of Italian fine dining, that specificity is the point.
Reservations: Booking difficulty is rated Easy, meaning you should be able to secure a table without the multi-week lead time required at starred addresses. Aim to book at least one to two weeks ahead for weekend evenings and weekend lunch, particularly in summer when the Lake Maggiore region draws significant visitor traffic from Milan and the Swiss border areas. For weekday dinners outside peak season, shorter notice is usually workable. Budget: €€€€ , plan for a full tasting menu at this tier; walk-in or à la carte options are not confirmed in available data, so contact the restaurant directly if you prefer a shorter format. Dress: No formal dress code is specified, but the setting, price tier, and Michelin Plate recognition suggest smart casual at minimum , the room has a refined atmosphere that rewards dressing accordingly. Getting there: La Tavola is within the Il Porticciolo hotel in Laveno-Mombello, Varese province. Parking is available at the hotel. The lift descent to the dining room is part of the arrival sequence.
For broader context on dining and staying in the area, see our full Laveno restaurants guide, our full Laveno hotels guide, our full Laveno bars guide, our full Laveno wineries guide, and our full Laveno experiences guide. For context on how creative Italian tasting menu cooking works at different price and prestige levels, Le Calandre in Rubano, Enrico Bartolini in Milan, and Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli in Verona all operate in the same €€€€ tier with Michelin stars, and are worth comparing before you decide where to spend at this level in northern Italy.
La Tavola holds a 4.2 out of 5 from 43 Google reviews , a solid score for a hotel restaurant at this price tier, though the sample is small enough that individual experiences weight heavily. Read recent reviews for the most current picture of service consistency.
One to two weeks ahead is sufficient for most visits. La Tavola's booking difficulty is rated Easy compared to starred restaurants in the same €€€€ tier, where waits of four to eight weeks are common. That said, summer weekends on Lake Maggiore attract strong demand from Milan day-trippers and regional visitors, so earlier is safer for Friday and Saturday evenings in July and August.
Yes, provided you are comfortable with a tasting menu format at €€€€ pricing. The calm, low-energy atmosphere of the dining room suits solo diners well , this is not a noisy room where eating alone feels awkward. The lakeside setting and the personalised menu format mean solo visits can be a considered, reflective experience. Contact the restaurant directly to confirm solo seating arrangements, as table configuration data is not available.
At €€€€, La Tavola sits at northern Italy's leading price tier without carrying a Michelin star. That means you are paying for the combination of setting, tasting menu format, and a kitchen with genuine creative identity built around Lake Maggiore's freshwater fish , not for the validation of a star. If the lakeside atmosphere and a personalised menu focused on local produce justify the spend for you, the value is real. If you are primarily paying for kitchen prestige at this price tier, starred alternatives like Enrico Bartolini in Milan or Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli in Verona deliver more on that specific criterion.
Within the wider Lake Maggiore and northern Italy region at the same €€€€ tier, the comparison set widens quickly. Dal Pescatore in Runate offers three Michelin stars and a deeply traditional Italian contemporary register. Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico brings a starred, alpine-focused creative approach. Both are harder to book and carry higher prestige. For creative tasting menus with more technical ambition than La Tavola at the same price, those are the benchmarks to consider. See our full Laveno restaurants guide for a broader local picture.
No dress code is formally specified, but smart casual is appropriate given the price tier, the Michelin Plate recognition, and the refined setting inside the Il Porticciolo hotel. The room has a calm, considered atmosphere , jeans and a clean shirt work; activewear does not fit the room's register. Dressing up slightly is unlikely to feel out of place here.
Yes , this is one of the stronger special occasion choices on Lake Maggiore's Varese shore. The lift-down arrival, lake-level dining room, views of the opposite shore, and a personalised tasting menu format all give the evening a clear sense of occasion. It is quieter and more intimate than a bigger-name destination restaurant, which suits celebrations where conversation matters more than spectacle. For milestone occasions where Michelin-star credentials are part of the expectation, consider Uliassi in Senigallia or Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence as alternatives in Italy's top tier.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Tavola | €€€€ | Easy | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Osteria Francescana | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Quattro Passi | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Reale | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between La Tavola and alternatives.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy, so you are unlikely to need more than a few days' notice in most seasons. That said, summer weekends on Lake Maggiore draw more visitors, so booking a week or two out is a sensible precaution. This is a meaningful advantage over starred alternatives like Dal Pescatore, which require considerably more lead time.
Probably not the strongest fit. La Tavola's format centres on two tasting menus in a hotel dining room oriented around couples and small groups enjoying the lake views. A tasting menu at €€€€ solo can feel like a lot of commitment, and the setting skews romantic rather than counter-casual. If solo tasting is your preference, look for restaurants with bar or counter seating rather than a hotel dining room format.
At €€€€, it sits at the upper end of the Lake Maggiore dining market, and the Michelin Plate recognition for 2024 and 2025 confirms the kitchen is producing food of genuine quality. The value case is strongest when you factor in the setting: the lift-down arrival and lake-facing windows are part of what you are paying for, not incidental. If you want a Michelin-starred guarantee at this price, Dal Pescatore or Quattro Passi deliver that — but neither offers the same lakeside access.
Within Laveno-Mombello itself, alternatives are limited, which is part of why La Tavola draws diners willing to pay €€€€ for it. For higher Michelin recognition on or near Italian lakes, Dal Pescatore (Canneto sull'Oglio) and Quattro Passi (near Lake Garda) are the comparison points. For avant-garde Italian cooking without a lake setting, Osteria Francescana in Modena is the benchmark, though booking there is a different undertaking entirely.
The venue data does not specify a dress code, but a hotel restaurant at €€€€ with a formal tasting menu format in northern Italy generally calls for smart dress: no shorts or trainers, and most diners will be dressed for a special occasion. Err toward neat and polished rather than overly formal — a jacket for men is unlikely to feel out of place.
Yes, this is where La Tavola makes its clearest case. The arrival sequence — car park, lift, lake-view dining room — gives the evening a sense of occasion before food arrives, and Riccardo Bassetti's two personalised tasting menus are built for a long, deliberate meal. At €€€€ with a 4.2 Google rating and two consecutive Michelin Plates, it delivers enough to justify the spend for an anniversary or milestone dinner on Lake Maggiore.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
