Restaurant in Olivola, Italy
Offal, tasting menus, serious Monferrato wine.
A Michelin Plate–recognised restaurant in the Olivola hills of Monferrato, I Due Buoi delivers serious Piedmontese cooking at €€ under chef Marco Molaro. The menu spans a distinctive offal-focused Quinto Quarto option, a vegetarian tasting menu, and a broad à la carte rooted in local specialities, backed by a wine list centred on Asti and the Langhe.
A small village in Monferrato is not where you expect to find a kitchen this considered. I Due Buoi in Olivola — a hamlet of fewer than 200 people in the Alessandria hills — earns a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025 under chef Marco Molaro, and delivers Piedmontese cooking that punches well above what the €€ price range would suggest. If you are planning a special occasion meal in the Monferrato wine country and want serious food without a three-star bill, this is where to go. Book it.
Arriving at a restaurant in a village this small, you register immediately how deliberate the choice to eat here must be. Nobody ends up at I Due Buoi by accident. The space reflects that intimacy: a room scaled for focused dining rather than volume, where tables are set with enough distance to hold a real conversation and the atmosphere tips toward occasion rather than neighbourhood drop-in. For a celebratory dinner or a serious date meal, the physical setting carries its weight , compact enough to feel personal, not so tight that you are sharing your evening with the next table.
What makes I Due Buoi worth the journey is the range Molaro offers alongside that regional seriousness. The menu operates on two tracks: a tasting menu format (including a dedicated vegetarian option) for guests who want Molaro's sequenced version of Piedmont, and an à la carte that gives you breadth across local specialities. The vegetarian tasting menu is a meaningful differentiator , in a region where meat and game dominate the conversation, having a structured vegetarian path rather than a couple of improvised substitutions matters for groups with mixed dietary needs.
The kitchen's most discussed thread is the Quinto Quarto menu, built around offal. This is not a novelty offering. Offal cookery in the Piedmontese tradition runs deep, and presenting it as a dedicated menu strand is a signal about the kitchen's priorities: Molaro is working from the whole animal, engaging with Piedmontese peasant cookery rather than decorating it. If offal is part of your repertoire as a diner, this is one of the more committed expressions of it you will find in the region at this price tier.
Seasonality is the operative logic at I Due Buoi, and it is the main reason to plan your visit with some intention. Piedmontese cooking is as calendar-driven as any regional cuisine in Italy: truffles from the Langhe define the autumn window, spring brings wild herbs and lighter preparations, and the colder months push the kitchen toward the braises and richer cuts that suit the Monferrato hills. If you are building a trip around white truffle season (October into November), the area's proximity to Alba makes I Due Buoi a strong lunch anchor before or after a market visit. The à la carte, precisely because it offers range, will shift most noticeably across seasons , what you can order in July will look meaningfully different from what is available in November. Checking what is current before you go, or simply trusting the tasting menu to reflect the moment, is the practical approach.
The wine list deserves specific mention. The focus lands on Asti and its surrounding area as well as the Langhe, which means you are drinking from the same landscape that produced the food. For Piedmont wine drinkers, this is a well-curated house list rather than a catalogue exercise. Expect strong Barbera d'Asti and Dolcetto representation alongside the Nebbiolo-based wines of the Langhe. The €€ price positioning means the wine list should remain accessible rather than trophy-focused, which suits the style of the cooking well.
Hours follow a traditional Italian schedule: lunch service runs Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 12:30 to 2:30 pm; dinner runs Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 7:30 to 10 pm. Tuesday and Wednesday are closed. If your visit falls on a weekend, both lunch and dinner are available. For a weekday visit, note that Thursday is dinner-only. This rhythm rewards planning ahead, particularly for visitors combining the restaurant with a broader Monferrato or Langhe itinerary.
Booking is rated easy, which is consistent with a restaurant of this size in a village location , but that should not be taken as a reason to leave it to the last minute on a Saturday in truffle season. A week or two of lead time for a regular Saturday is reasonable; during October and November, give yourself more runway. For context on the broader area, see our full Olivola restaurants guide, and if you are building a wider Monferrato trip, our Olivola hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the surrounding area.
At €€ for this level of cooking , Michelin-recognised, regionally rooted, with genuine range across tasting and à la carte formats , I Due Buoi offers direct value for a special occasion meal in northern Italy. The combination of the Quinto Quarto menu, the vegetarian tasting option, and a wine list anchored in the local appellations gives it more substance than most restaurants at this price point in the region. If you are making the drive to this corner of Monferrato, it earns the detour.
I Due Buoi is at Via Vittorio Veneto 23, 15030 Olivola AL, Italy. Lunch is served Monday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. Dinner runs Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 7:30 to 10 pm. The restaurant is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Booking difficulty is rated easy, though weekend bookings during white truffle season (October to November) should be made further in advance than usual. No website or phone number is currently listed in our database , search for the venue directly to confirm current booking channels.
Lunch is the stronger choice if you are combining the meal with a broader Monferrato or Langhe visit , it fits cleanly into a day that might include a winery stop or a market in Alba. The same full menu applies at both services, so you are not sacrificing anything on the food side by eating at midday. Dinner has the edge for a dedicated special occasion where you want to linger. Lunch runs 12:30 to 2:30 pm on Monday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; dinner runs 7:30 to 10 pm on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Yes, comfortably. A Michelin Plate restaurant at €€ in northern Italy is a genuine value proposition , you are getting recognised cooking at a price tier well below the region's starred options. For comparison, Piazza Duomo in Alba or Dal Pescatore in Runate operate at €€€€. I Due Buoi gives you serious Piedmontese cooking, a thoughtful wine list focused on Asti and the Langhe, and both tasting and à la carte formats at a fraction of the cost of the region's starred rooms.
There is no bar seating information in our current database for I Due Buoi. Given the restaurant's village scale and the style of service implied by a dedicated tasting menu operation, the experience is designed around table dining rather than counter or bar formats. Confirm directly with the restaurant when booking if this matters for your visit.
The vegetarian tasting menu is a strong signal that the kitchen is set up to work with dietary constraints rather than just accommodating them reluctantly. A dedicated vegetarian menu path, rather than improvised substitutions, is meaningful in a region where meat cookery dominates. For other dietary needs , allergies, gluten intolerance , no specific information is available in our database. Contact the restaurant directly before your visit, particularly if you are considering the Quinto Quarto offal menu, which is built around a specific ingredient focus.
The Quinto Quarto menu is the most distinctive thing on offer , a dedicated offal menu in the Piedmontese tradition. If offal is in your repertoire, it is the reason to choose I Due Buoi over a comparable restaurant in the region. For groups with mixed preferences, the à la carte offers the widest range of local specialities. The vegetarian tasting menu is the right call for non-meat eaters who want a structured experience rather than assembled substitutes. Timing matters: if you are visiting in autumn, the kitchen will be working with seasonal Piedmontese ingredients including, potentially, truffle. The tasting menu is the leading way to eat what is most current at any given time of year.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Due Buoi | Choose between tasting menus (including a vegetarian menu) and an à la carte at this restaurant, where the chef prepares creative dishes, including various types of offal on his Quinto Quarto menu. The à la carte offers an extensive choice, featuring an array of local specialities and excellent bread options. There’s also a superb wine selection with a focus on Asti and its surrounding area, as well as on the Langhe region.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | €€ | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Osteria Francescana | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Quattro Passi | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Reale | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Lunch is the more relaxed format and runs Friday through Monday from 12:30 to 2:30 pm, which suits the rural Monferrato setting well — arriving in daylight makes the drive out to Olivola feel like less of a commitment. Dinner runs Thursday through Monday from 7:30 to 10 pm and is the better call if you want to work through the tasting menu properly without watching the clock. Tuesday and Wednesday the kitchen is closed entirely, so plan around that.
At a €€ price range with Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025, I Due Buoi offers strong value for the level of cooking. Chef Marco Molaro runs tasting menus alongside a full à la carte, and the wine list focuses specifically on Asti and the Langhe, which means you're getting genuine regional depth rather than a generic Italian list. For a kitchen this deliberate in a village this small, the price-to-effort ratio is hard to argue with.
Bar seating is not confirmed in the venue data for I Due Buoi. Given that this is a small, destination-focused restaurant in a hamlet of under 200 people, the experience is built around the dining room and its menus rather than casual counter eating. check the venue's official channels before assuming that format is available.
Yes — a dedicated vegetarian tasting menu is listed alongside the main tasting menu and à la carte, which is a concrete commitment rather than a token gesture. The Quinto Quarto menu centres on offal, so carnivores with specific preferences should factor that in when choosing between menus. For other dietary needs, contact the restaurant in advance; the à la carte's range of local specialities gives the kitchen room to work with.
The Quinto Quarto menu is the most distinctive thing on offer here — a dedicated offal tasting menu is rare even in Piedmont, and it's the clearest signal of what Marco Molaro is doing that other kitchens aren't. If offal isn't your thing, the à la carte features an array of local Monferrato specialities and is described as extensive, so you're not forced into a set format. Either way, the bread and the regional wine list centred on Asti and the Langhe are worth paying attention to.
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