Restaurant in Milan, Italy
Tasting menus with a reason to exist.
![[bu:r], Restaurant in Milan](https://cdn.enprimeurclub.com/storage/v1/object/public/images/locations/recOyu9nFucAYuzRb/hero1.jpg?width=3840&quality=80)
[bu:r] is Chef Eugenio Boer's intimate creative Italian restaurant on Via Mercalli, Milan, holding a Michelin Plate (2025) and ranked in OAD's Top 180 Europe. At €€€€, it offers two seasonal tasting menus and à la carte, with dinner Wednesday–Friday and lunch available Saturday–Sunday. Booking is easy, with two to three weeks' notice sufficient for most dates.
If you have already eaten at [bu:r] once, the question on a second visit is not whether the room or the cooking has changed in any dramatic way — it mostly hasn't, and that consistency is the point. What changes is the menu. Chef Eugenio Boer rotates his dishes around seasonal ingredients and aromatic plants, which means a dinner here in autumn reads differently from one in spring. For a special occasion in Milan at the €€€€ price tier, this is one of the more considered options: intimate without being stiff, creative without abandoning the Italian pantry. Book it.
[bu:r] opened on Via Mercalli in the Porta Vittoria district of Milan and has built a quiet reputation in the years since. It earned a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, and Opinionated About Dining ranked it among the top 180 restaurants in Europe in 2024, giving it a Highly Recommended citation when it was still classed as a new restaurant in 2023. Those are not the credentials of a flash-in-the-pan opening. For context on what the Italian creative dining scene produces at its most ambitious, you can look to venues such as Osteria Francescana in Modena or Piazza Duomo in Alba — [bu:r] occupies a different register, more personal in scale, but the OAD ranking places it in serious company.
The room itself matters here, particularly for a celebration dinner or a date. The lighting is subdued and the atmosphere is quiet enough for conversation even on a busy Friday evening , this is not a venue where noise becomes a problem after 10 PM the way it does at louder Milan openings. The energy reads as calm and deliberate rather than buzzy or theatrical. If you are bringing a partner or a small group to mark something significant, the atmosphere works in your favour. Solo diners will find it comfortable rather than isolating, though the format leans toward a seated, multi-course experience rather than a counter or bar setup.
The menu structure gives you real flexibility, which is worth understanding before you book. There is a concise à la carte alongside two tasting menus: "I Classici", which is built around meat-based dishes drawing on recognisable Italian references, and "Le Aromatiche", which places aromatic plants at the centre of each course. The second menu in particular shifts meaningfully by season , the aromatic plants available in late spring are not the same as those available in winter, so the menu you eat in May will be structurally different from the one in November. If you are planning a return visit specifically to eat something different, timing your booking around seasonal change is the most direct way to ensure that.
Boer's philosophy is grounded in 100% Italian produce, with a declared focus on small-scale producers. That constraint shapes the cooking more than any individual technique: the dishes reference familiar Italian flavours, then reframe them through his own creative lens. The result sits between tradition and invention without leaning heavily into either direction. This is not a restaurant where you come to be surprised by foam or deconstructed classics , it is one where the interest comes from how well the sourcing and the cooking are integrated. For a comparable approach to Italian creative cooking with strong regional sourcing credentials, Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico operates in a similar philosophical space, though at a higher Michelin level and in a very different setting. In Milan specifically, Andrea Aprea and Seta cover the modern Italian €€€€ tier with different sensory priorities , more formal service, more elaborate production , but [bu:r] offers something those rooms do not: genuine intimacy at the same price point.
[bu:r] is open Wednesday through Friday for dinner only (7:30–10 PM), and on Saturday and Sunday for both lunch (12:30–1:30 PM) and dinner (7:30–10 PM). Monday and Tuesday are closed. The Saturday and Sunday lunch slots are the hardest to come by for walk-in purposes, and they offer the only daytime option during the week. If your schedule is flexible, a Saturday lunch is worth considering for a special occasion: the room has a different quality in natural light, and the shorter service window creates a more focused experience. Booking difficulty is rated Easy, which means reservations are generally available without weeks of advance planning , but for a specific date around an anniversary or celebration, booking two to three weeks out gives you reasonable choice of time.
For Italian creative cooking with deeper regional ambition outside Milan, Le Calandre in Rubano, Dal Pescatore in Runate, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Villa Crespi in Orta San Giulio, and Torre del Saracino in Vico Equense each represent distinct takes on the Italian fine dining canon. But if you are staying in Milan and want a creative Italian dinner that does not feel like a production designed for international visitors, [bu:r] is one of the more honest options in the city at this price tier.
Google reviewers rate it 4.8 from 218 reviews, which is a high score maintained over a meaningful sample size , not a venue coasting on a small number of enthusiastic early visitors. For broader context on where [bu:r] fits within the city's dining options, see our full Milan restaurants guide. If you are planning a longer stay, our Milan hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the rest.
The "Le Aromatiche" tasting menu is the more distinctive choice and the one most tied to the season, making it the better option if you want to understand what Boer is doing at a given point in the year. "I Classici" is the safer bet for guests who want familiar Italian references with a creative gloss. If you prefer à la carte, the concise format means fewer decisions but also less of the narrative arc that makes the tasting menus worth their price.
Lunch is only available Saturday and Sunday (12:30–1:30 PM), so it is the less flexible option , but for a special occasion it is worth considering. The room has a different quality in daylight, the service window is shorter, and it tends to feel more relaxed than a Friday or Saturday dinner. For a weekday visit, dinner is your only choice (Wednesday through Friday, 7:30–10 PM). On pure atmosphere, dinner in the subdued lighting is the more conventionally "special occasion" experience.
The menu is 100% Italian with a strong seasonal and aromatic-plant focus, which generally favours flexibility around vegetable-forward dishes. However, specific dietary accommodation details are not publicly listed, and the restaurant's phone number and website are not currently available through Pearl's data. Contact the restaurant directly before booking if dietary restrictions are a concern , do not assume flexibility, particularly for the meat-based "I Classici" menu.
Yes, though it is a seated restaurant rather than a counter or bar format, so solo dining here is about the food and the room rather than interaction with the kitchen. The intimate, quiet atmosphere makes it comfortable rather than awkward for a solo diner. At €€€€, it is a considered spend for one person, but the tasting menu format is designed to work for a single guest as much as a couple. If you want counter-seat interaction as part of a solo experience, this is not the venue , but for a serious solo meal in Milan, it works well.
At €€€€ and with a Michelin Plate plus an OAD Top 180 Europe ranking, the tasting menus are priced in line with the creative Italian tier in Milan. The value case rests on the seasonal specificity of "Le Aromatiche" , if you are eating dishes built around ingredients that are only available for a few weeks, the menu has a logic that justifies the cost. "I Classici" is the easier entry point but less distinctive. Compared to Michelin-starred alternatives at the same price in Milan, such as Seta or Andrea Aprea, [bu:r] trades formal production depth for intimacy and ingredient-led focus , worth it if that trade appeals to you.
For more Michelin weight at the same price tier, Enrico Bartolini is the reference point in Milan , three stars, more elaborate production, harder to book. Andrea Aprea and Seta sit at €€€€ with Michelin stars and more formal service. Cracco in Galleria is the high-profile option if setting matters as much as the cooking. Contraste is the closest in spirit to [bu:r] , progressive, intimate, ingredient-focused , and worth considering if you want a direct comparison. Verso Capitaneo is an option if you are looking for creative cooking at a lower entry price. For the full picture, see our Milan restaurants guide.
There is no confirmed bar-dining option at [bu:r] based on available data. The venue operates as an intimate restaurant rather than a bar-and-dining hybrid, so arrival for a drink before your table is the more likely format. If bar seating is important to your plan , for a solo visit or a casual drop-in , this is not the right venue. The format is sit-down, reservation-led dining.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| [bu:r] | At [bu:r] , Eugenio Boer’s restaurant in Milan, everything feels quietly deliberate, from the subdued lighting to the discreet elegance of the room. It’s intimate without being precious, contemporary...; Eugenio Boer offers a 100% Italian menu which focuses on local ingredients, with the aim of showcasing some of Italy’s favourite dishes while at the same time supporting small-scale producers. However, this philosophy is in no way limited to respecting traditions – on the contrary, it offers the chef the freedom to express his own creativity via a selection of dishes which combine past and present. As a result, guests can choose between a concise à la carte and two different tasting menus: “I Classici” (meat-based dishes) and “Le Aromatiche”, which changes perspective by placing aromatic plants centre stage. In short, a flexible approach which offers guests a culinary experience that will certainly make an impression!; Michelin Plate (2025); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #180 (2024); Michelin Plate (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top New Restaurants in Europe Highly Recommended (2023) | €€€€ | — |
| Enrico Bartolini | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Cracco in Galleria | Michelin 1 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Andrea Aprea | Michelin 2 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Seta | Michelin 2 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Contraste | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Go with one of the two tasting menus rather than building your own meal from the à la carte. 'I Classici' centres on meat-based dishes rooted in Italian tradition, while 'Le Aromatiche' repositions aromatic plants as the lead ingredient — a genuinely different angle. Chef Eugenio Boer's stated focus is small-scale Italian producers, so the tasting format is where that philosophy lands most clearly.
Saturday and Sunday lunch (12:30–1:30 pm) is a short window — one seating, limited availability — which makes it harder to book but a more contained commitment time-wise. Dinner runs 7:30–10 pm Thursday through Sunday. If your schedule allows, lunch on Saturday or Sunday is worth targeting for a quieter pace; dinner gives you more time to work through a full tasting menu without feeling rushed.
The menu structure — two tasting menus plus à la carte — suggests some flexibility in approach, and the kitchen's sourcing philosophy implies engagement with ingredients at a detailed level. That said, no specific dietary accommodation policy is documented for [bu:r]. Contact them directly before booking, especially if a tasting menu is your plan, since modifications at this price point (€€€€) typically need to be confirmed in advance.
Yes. The room is described as intimate rather than cavernous, and the format — tasting menus or concise à la carte — works cleanly for one person. Solo diners at €€€€ venues in Milan are not unusual, and a counter or small table configuration suits the deliberate, quiet tone of the space. Book ahead; at this price point and size, walk-ins are a gamble.
At €€€€ pricing, [bu:r] sits at the top tier of Milan dining spend, but it holds a Michelin Plate (2025) and ranked #180 in Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in Europe (2024) — recognitions that put it in credible company without the full Michelin star premium. The tasting menus earn their price if you want to see Boer's cooking as a whole argument rather than individual dishes. If you want flexibility or are price-sensitive at this tier, the à la carte is an option.
For a comparable creative Italian format with more star power, Andrea Aprea (Michelin-starred) or Contraste are the closest comparisons in ambition and register. Seta at the Mandarin Oriental is the choice if you want a more formal hotel-dining experience. Cracco in Galleria carries more name recognition but divides opinion on value. Enrico Bartolini at Mudec is the pick if you want multiple Michelin stars and a larger production. [bu:r] sits between these tiers: more personal than Bartolini, more focused than Cracco.
No bar dining option is documented for [bu:r]. The venue's format — intimate room, tasting menus, one or two seatings per service — points to a fully table-based operation. If counter or bar seating is a priority, Contraste or other Milan modern-Italian venues with open-kitchen counters would be worth considering instead.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
