Restaurant in Maranello, Italy
Maranello's seafood answer, ingredient-led.
MikEle is Maranello's strongest seafood option — a Michelin Plate holder (2024 and 2025) with a 4.6 Google rating across 380 reviews. The kitchen prioritises ingredient quality over technical display, the room is calm and conversation-friendly, and the €€€ price sits well below the region's tasting-menu heavyweights. Book for a date night, anniversary, or post-Ferrari Museum dinner.
If you're spending time in Maranello and want a proper seafood dinner rather than another plate of Emilian pasta, MikEle is the right call. It's a good fit for a date night, a post-Ferrari Museum celebration, or any occasion where you want a dining room that takes the meal seriously without demanding the full formal-restaurant performance. At €€€ pricing, it sits a tier below the heavy-hitting tasting menu destinations in the region, which makes it the practical choice when the occasion calls for quality over spectacle.
The dining room reads as contemporary and considered. The porthole-shaped windows are the architectural signature of the space, and they do something useful: they signal the kitchen's direction before a single dish arrives. The atmosphere is calm rather than buzzy, which makes it work well for conversation-led meals. This is not a loud room, and that's a point in its favour for special occasions or business dinners where you need to actually hear each other. The energy is composed without being stiff — the kind of room that works on a Tuesday anniversary dinner as well as a Friday evening with colleagues.
MikEle holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025, which in Michelin's framework means the inspectors found cooking worth noting but not yet at star level. The kitchen's focus is seafood, and the Michelin commentary is direct about what drives the experience: the quality of raw ingredients is the priority. Dishes arrive with moderate creativity , this is not a kitchen chasing technique for its own sake. If you come expecting transformation and conceptual plating, you may find it understated. If you come for genuinely sourced seafood handled with respect, the Plate recognition and a Google rating of 4.6 across 380 reviews suggest the kitchen delivers consistently on that promise.
For context among Italian seafood destinations in this price range, MikEle occupies a clear lane: ingredient-led, contemporary in presentation, and without the theatrical ambition of a tasting-menu-focused house. That is not a criticism. It means the kitchen is making a deliberate choice to let the produce speak rather than narrate around it.
MikEle rewards return visits more than a single deep-dive meal, precisely because the kitchen's strength is in sourcing rather than in a fixed menu of signature dishes. On a first visit, the smart move is to let the seafood-forward menu guide you toward whatever is freshest that day rather than anchoring to a specific dish. Ask the team what came in that morning.
On a second visit, the value of the room's calm atmosphere becomes clearer. You know the pace, you know the tone, and you can give more attention to the wine list alongside the food rather than orienting yourself to the space. Maranello is not a city with a wide bench of comparable seafood restaurants, so if you are returning to the area , whether for the Ferrari Museum, the circuit, or regional travel , MikEle is the kind of place that holds up across visits rather than exhausting its interest after one. For a third visit, consider building around a specific occasion: a milestone, a longer tasting order, or a private arrangement if the restaurant accommodates it. The room's atmosphere and the kitchen's consistency make it suitable for that kind of repeat anchoring.
For other dining options across the city, see our full Maranello restaurants guide. If you're pairing dinner with wider local exploration, our Maranello hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the broader picture.
The strongest local comparison for MikEle is Cavallino, the Emilian restaurant with a Ferrari heritage connection. Cavallino operates in a different register , Emilian tradition rather than seafood-focused contemporary , but the two venues represent the leading of the Maranello dining tier at similar price points. If your preference is for regional pasta and meat-forward Emilian cooking, Cavallino is the better fit. If you want seafood with a contemporary approach and a quieter room, MikEle is the call. You don't need to choose between them on a longer stay: they cover different ground well.
For Italian seafood at a higher ambition level in the broader region, Uliassi in Senigallia and Alici on the Amalfi Coast are the benchmarks, though both involve a different trip entirely. Within the Emilia-Romagna orbit, Osteria Francescana in Modena is the obvious prestige destination, but at €€€€ and with booking difficulty that requires planning months ahead, it serves a different need entirely.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| MikEle | €€€ | Easy | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Osteria Francescana | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Quattro Passi | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Reale | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how MikEle measures up.
Go with whatever the kitchen is sourcing that week — the Michelin Plate recognition is tied to raw ingredient quality, not a fixed showpiece dish. Ask the front of house what arrived fresh rather than defaulting to a printed menu standard. This is a kitchen that rewards the question.
The kitchen's strength is ingredient sourcing, which plays better across a multi-course format than a single à la carte plate. At the €€€ price point, a tasting menu gives you the clearest read on what makes MikEle worth the detour. If you're only passing through Maranello for one meal, the tasting format is the more honest test.
Cavallino is the obvious local alternative — it has a Ferrari heritage connection and operates in a different register, leaning Emilian rather than seafood-focused. If you're willing to travel further into Emilia-Romagna, Osteria Francescana in Modena raises the ceiling considerably but is a different category and booking challenge entirely. For a seafood-specific comparison outside the region, Dal Pescatore in Mantua is worth the drive.
Bar seating specifics are not confirmed in available venue data. Call ahead or check directly with the restaurant at Via Flavio Gioia, 1, Maranello — the dining room is described as a considered contemporary space, but informal counter options are not documented.
At €€€, MikEle sits at a price point where ingredient quality has to carry the meal — and according to Michelin's 2024 and 2025 Plate recognition, it does. The inspectors flagged the sourcing as the kitchen's real argument. For Maranello specifically, where the dining scene skews toward Emilian comfort food, this is the most credible seafood option at this price level.
The contemporary dining room and Michelin Plate credentials make it a reasonable call for a celebratory dinner in Maranello. It fits occasions where you want a considered meal rather than a party atmosphere. If the occasion demands something closer to star-level cooking, Osteria Francescana in nearby Modena is the stronger case — but that's a different booking difficulty and price conversation.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
