Restaurant in Milan, Italy
Milan's serious Japanese option. Book it.
Zero Milano is Milan's most accessible serious Japanese restaurant, holding a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025 and rated 4.3 on Google. At €€€, it sits below the city's starred Italian tables in price but delivers technically grounded sushi and Japanese cooking led by Chef Hide and two specialist sushi chefs. Book it for Japanese fine dining without the booking battle.
Getting a table at Zero Milano on Corso Magenta is not the ordeal it is at Milan's Michelin-starred Italian heavyweights. Booking difficulty here is rated Easy, which matters if you are planning a last-minute dinner in the city rather than scheduling weeks in advance. That accessibility is a genuine advantage in a city where the top-tier Italian restaurants routinely require significant lead time. But easy to book does not mean low stakes: Zero Milano holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025, signalling consistent quality that the guide's inspectors have found worth flagging, even if a star has not yet followed. For a first-timer weighing up where to spend €€€ on Japanese food in Milan, Zero Milano is worth the reservation.
Zero Milano is a Japanese restaurant in the Corso Magenta neighbourhood of central Milan, one of the city's more composed, residential corridors west of the Duomo. The kitchen is led by Chef Hide, now working alongside two additional sushi specialists, which gives the restaurant a more technically grounded sushi offering than most Japanese restaurants in the city can assemble. The menu runs Japanese specialities alongside dishes that incorporate contemporary Western influence — a format that suits Milan's dining culture without diluting the Japanese technique at the core of the offer.
For a first-timer, the practical shape of the experience is this: you are coming for serious Japanese cooking with an emphasis on sushi craft, in a room that is positioned at the upper-mid price tier (€€€) rather than the full splurge of Milan's starred Italian tables. If you have eaten at Iyo or Iyo Kaiseki and want to compare what Milan's Japanese scene can produce, Zero Milano offers a different register — more sushi-focused, more technically traditional in its Japanese execution, with the Western-inflected dishes serving as a counterpoint rather than the main event.
Zero Milano's drinks program is worth thinking about before you arrive. In Japanese fine dining contexts, the pairing logic typically runs toward sake and Japanese whisky rather than the wine-first approach of Italian fine dining. Milan's better Japanese restaurants have increasingly treated the drinks side as a serious component rather than an afterthought, and Zero Milano's positioning as an ambitious Japanese restaurant in this city suggests the program should match the kitchen's intent. If sake pairings are available, they are the more coherent choice with the sushi-led menu , sake's structural relationship with raw fish is better calibrated than most European wine. For comparison, Iyo Kaiseki has invested significantly in its sake offering, which gives you a useful benchmark for what a serious Japanese drinks program in Milan can look like. If you are visiting Zero Milano specifically for the drinks experience, confirm the current program before booking, as the depth of the sake list is not confirmed in available data.
For a first visit, a mid-week dinner gives you the most settled experience. Milan's dining rooms at the €€€ tier tend to run quieter Tuesday through Thursday, which means more attentive service and a room that allows the food to be the focus. Weekends at comparable venues in Corso Magenta and the surrounding neighbourhoods fill with both locals and visitors, which is not a problem but can shift the pace. Given that booking at Zero Milano is rated Easy, you have flexibility that you do not get at places like Hazama or the city's starred Italian restaurants, so use that flexibility to choose a quieter night if your schedule allows.
Seasonally, Japanese restaurants in Milan do not carry the same ingredient-season dependency as Italian fine dining, where truffles, porcini, and particular fish define the calendar. The sushi-led format at Zero Milano is less vulnerable to seasonal gaps, which means the menu should hold consistent quality across the year. That said, any Japanese kitchen working with serious fish will track seasonal availability, so spring and autumn , when Italian fish markets are typically at their broadest , are reasonable times to visit if you want the widest possible selection.
Milan has a more developed Japanese dining scene than most European cities outside London and Paris. The reference points for a serious Japanese meal here are Iyo (the city's Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant and the clearest benchmark for the category), Iyo Kaiseki, Bentoteca Milano, Hazama, and Osaka. Zero Milano sits in this group with a Google rating of 4.3 from 199 reviews , a solid score that suggests consistent satisfaction rather than polarising opinion. Its Michelin Plate recognition puts it in the tier below starred venues but above the general restaurant population, which is exactly where you would expect a restaurant of this ambition and price point to land.
Against the Tokyo reference points , Myojaku or Azabu Kadowaki , Zero Milano is inevitably playing in a different league in terms of the raw ingredient supply chain. But that is true of every Japanese restaurant outside Japan, and the standard of cooking at Zero Milano, as the Michelin Plate indicates, is sufficient to deliver a genuinely satisfying experience on its own terms.
Zero Milano is located at Corso Magenta, 87, in central Milan, accessible from the Sant'Ambrogio or Cadorna metro stations. The price range is €€€, positioning it below the €€€€ tier of Milan's starred Italian restaurants. Booking is rated Easy. Google rating: 4.3 from 199 reviews. Michelin Plate holder 2024 and 2025. For the wider Milan dining picture, see our full Milan restaurants guide, our full Milan hotels guide, our full Milan bars guide, our full Milan wineries guide, and our full Milan experiences guide.
If your travels extend beyond Milan, the broader Italian fine dining context includes Osteria Francescana in Modena, Dal Pescatore in Runate, Uliassi in Senigallia, Reale in Castel di Sangro, Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone, and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico.
Quick reference: Zero Milano, Corso Magenta 87, Milan. Price: €€€. Booking: Easy. Rating: 4.3/5 (Google, 199 reviews). Michelin Plate 2024–2025.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zero Milano | Japanese | €€€ | Easy |
| Enrico Bartolini | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Cracco in Galleria | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Andrea Aprea | Modern Italian, Italian Contemporary | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Seta | Modern Italian | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Horto | Modern Italian, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
A quick look at how Zero Milano measures up.
At €€€, Zero Milano sits in the same bracket as Milan's serious Italian restaurants, and it justifies that positioning through technique rather than theatre. The Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 confirms consistent execution. If Japanese cooking at this level is what you're after in Milan, there are very few alternatives offering comparable rigour at the same price point.
Bar seating details are not confirmed in the venue record, so do not assume walk-in counter access. check the venue's official channels via Corso Magenta, 87 to confirm seating options before arriving without a reservation. For a first visit, booking a table is the safer call.
If you want Italian fine dining at the same spend, Seta and Andrea Aprea both operate at Michelin-starred level and represent the benchmark for that category in Milan. For a more contemporary tasting menu format, Horto is worth comparing. Zero Milano is the stronger choice specifically when Japanese cuisine is the priority.
Zero Milano's menu combines Japanese specialities with dishes that carry a contemporary Western influence, so the tasting menu format suits diners who want range across both approaches. The kitchen is led by Chef Hide with two specialist sushi collaborators, which gives the menu credibility in both directions. If you're committed to a single Japanese format such as pure omakase, confirm the current menu structure before booking.
Zero Milano holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025, signalling consistent quality without the booking difficulty of Milan's starred Italian restaurants. It sits on Corso Magenta, 87, reachable from Sant'Ambrogio or Cadorna metro. The cuisine blends traditional Japanese technique with some Western-influenced dishes, so expect a menu that is not strictly purist.
Yes, the €€€ price point and Michelin Plate standing make it a credible choice for a dinner that needs to land. It works better for occasions where the food is the focus rather than a big-group celebration. For a larger party needing a more familiar Italian setting, Cracco in Galleria or Enrico Bartolini carry more room and name recognition; Zero Milano is better suited to two to four people who specifically want Japanese cooking done properly.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
