Restaurant in Milan, Italy
Serious wine list. Serious pizza. Book it.
Ranked second in 50 Top Pizza Italia 2025 and recognized by Opinionated About Dining, Confine pairs a genuinely serious wine cellar with gourmet-register pizza in a polished Milan room. It is the strongest choice in the city when you want a celebratory dinner that does not force you to choose between great wine and great pizza. Booking is relatively easy, making it accessible without advance planning stress.
Confine is not a pizzeria that needs defending against fine-dining comparisons — it invites them. Ranked second in the 50 Leading Pizza Italia 2025 list and recognized by Opinionated About Dining's Casual Europe 2025 guide, this is the address in Milan where the wine list competes with the food for your attention, and that is entirely the point. If you are looking for a celebration dinner that does not require choosing between serious wine and serious pizza, book here before anywhere else on Piazza Cardinal Massaia.
Confine arrived in Milan with a clear thesis: pizza and a cellar-depth wine program belong together, and neither should be an afterthought. The concept comes from pizzaiolo Francesco Capece and sommelier Mario Ventura, and the division of labour shows in the result. The menu is structured around what the kitchen calls the "1+13" framework — a format that blends tradition with a gourmet-register approach to slices, padellino, and oven-baked options. The result sits somewhere between a neighbourhood pizzeria and a destination restaurant, which is exactly where Confine wants to be.
The interior reinforces that positioning. Marble-effect surfaces and considered design give the room a polish that reads as celebratory without being stiff. Service is described as sleek and professional , attentive enough for a date or a milestone dinner, relaxed enough that you are not performing formality. For a special occasion in Milan where the bill should not feel like a compromise, this is a more interesting choice than another white-tablecloth tasting menu.
The wine program is where Confine pulls furthest away from the field. Ventura's list is built to the standard of a serious restaurant, not a casual pizza spot, and that changes the calculus of the meal entirely. The sign outside reads "Pizza e Cantina" for a reason: the cellar is not decorative. Expect depth by Italian region, bottles chosen to work with the char and crust of Neapolitan-influenced dough, and a sommelier who treats the pairing conversation as seriously as a fine-dining counterpart would. For anyone who finds the wine list at most pizzerias an afterthought, this alone justifies the visit. Comparable wine seriousness in Milan sits at addresses like Seta and Andrea Aprea, but both operate at a significantly higher price point and tasting-menu format. Confine gives you that wine conversation in a more accessible, less ceremonial setting.
Food side earns its place in the 50 Leading Pizza Italia ranking. The menu runs across traditional formats and more composed, gourmet-style slices , the kind of output that OAD's casual Europe recognition reflects. Capece's approach to the padellino and the oven-baked options adds range beyond the standard round, and the fried selections broaden the menu further. This is not a one-note pizza destination. First-timers should expect a meal with more decisions than a standard pizzeria visit, which is a feature, not a complication.
On logistics: Confine sits at Piazza Cardinal Massaia in the 20123 postcode, within reach of Milan's central areas. Booking difficulty is rated easy, so you are unlikely to need weeks of advance planning , but given the 2025 rankings and OAD recognition, do not leave it to the night before on a weekend. A reservation a few days out should be sufficient for most timing. No price range is published in available data, but the positioning between casual and fine-dining, combined with the wine program, suggests spending at the higher end of what Milan's serious pizza category asks. For the full picture of where to eat in the city, see our full Milan restaurants guide.
If the wine dimension is what draws you, Italy's most wine-serious dining rooms are benchmarked against addresses like Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence and Osteria Francescana in Modena. Confine is not in that tier, nor is it trying to be , but within the pizza category specifically, the gap between its wine ambition and the competition is substantial. For Milan stays and wider planning, our full Milan hotels guide and bars guide round out the picture.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confine - Pizza e Cantina | Easy | — | |
| Enrico Bartolini | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Cracco in Galleria | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Andrea Aprea | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Seta | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Contraste | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Think polished casual rather than jeans-and-a-t-shirt. Confine's marble-effect interior, professional service, and wine-forward positioning put it firmly above a neighbourhood pizzeria in atmosphere. A shirt or neat outfit fits the room; formal attire is unnecessary.
The concept is built around the '1+13' format, combining traditional pizzas with padellino, fried, oven-baked, and gourmet-style slice options — so this is not a standard margherita-and-beer dinner. Co-founded by pizzaiolo Francesco Capece and sommelier Mario Ventura, the wine list is a serious part of the offer, not an afterthought. Ranked second in 50 Top Pizza Italia 2025, the room and service lean fine-dining even if the format stays pizza.
Yes, more so than almost any other pizzeria in Milan. The combination of a high-end wine program, gourmet-style tasting slices, and a designed interior makes it a credible special-occasion venue. If you want a full fine-dining progression with a conventional menu, somewhere like Contraste or Seta fits better — but for a dinner that feels celebratory without the formality, Confine is the stronger call.
Book at least two to three weeks out, particularly for weekends. A listing in both the Opinionated About Dining 2025 Casual Europe guide and second place in 50 Top Pizza Italia 2025 means demand from both locals and visitors is high. Earlier is safer if your date is fixed.
For a purely fine-dining experience with no pizza format, Contraste or Andrea Aprea are the sharper picks. For a high-profile splurge in a landmark space, Cracco in Galleria delivers the setting. Seta and Enrico Bartolini at Mudec are better suited to longer tasting menus with table-service formality. Confine is the right choice specifically when the pizza-plus-serious-wine format is what you want.
Small groups of two to four fit well with the counter-and-table setup and the tasting-oriented format. Larger groups should check the venue's official channels to confirm availability and seating arrangement, as the intimate, designed interior may have constraints. The shared, exploratory nature of the menu works well for groups willing to order across multiple formats.
The menu spans traditional pizzas, padellino, fried and oven-baked options, and gourmet-style slices — the gourmet slice format is the most distinctive thing on offer and the clearest expression of the '1+13' concept. Pair with the wine list: sommelier Mario Ventura's involvement makes this a rare pizzeria where wine pairings are worth taking seriously. Avoid defaulting to a single pizza if the full format is available.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
