Restaurant in Rome, Italy
Mountain detour that earns its price.
Ristorante del Lago in Bagno di Romagna is worth the mountain drive for its Star Wine List-recognised cellar — nearly 1,600 labels at a €€€ price point — and a kitchen focused on local game, mushrooms, and trout. Closed Monday and Tuesday, with short weekday lunch windows, so plan your slot carefully. Best for wine-serious diners who want a regionally grounded meal away from the city.
If you have been to Ristorante del Lago once, you already know the answer: go back. The drive up to Acquapartita — through a series of tight uphill bends to nearly 800 metres above sea level — is part of the contract, and the restaurant rewards the effort with a wine list and kitchen that hold up under scrutiny on repeat visits. This is one of the most credible regional restaurants in Romagna, and for anyone who cares about locally sourced ingredients and a serious cellar, it is worth the journey from wherever you are staying. Book Wednesday through Sunday; Monday and Tuesday the kitchen is closed.
The physical setting does the first impression reliably: the village of Acquapartita at altitude feels removed from the lowland road network in a way that most rural Italian restaurants cannot replicate. The space itself reads as grounded and unfussy rather than scenically staged, which suits the cooking. If your first visit centred on the dining room experience, a return visit is the moment to pay more attention to the rhythm of service and the way the room functions across a lunch sitting versus an evening one.
Lunch runs from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM on weekdays, extending to 2:00 PM on Saturdays, and the pace of that midday sitting is different from the dinner service that starts at 7:30 PM. The lunch window is genuinely short , 60 minutes on a weekday , which makes it a more focused, linear experience. Dinner runs to 9:00 PM most nights, 9:30 PM on Saturday, and gives more room to work through the wine list. For a first return, the Saturday lunch-to-afternoon window is the most generous slot available and the format closest to what a long regional lunch is supposed to feel like.
Front of house, Andrea Bravaccini oversees what Star Wine List recognised with a White Star in 2023, and with good reason: two volumes, close to 1,600 labels, roughly 60% Italian and close to 40% French. Star Wine List ranked it among the leading three wine destinations in its category in 2024. The list pricing sits at the mid-tier mark , not cheap, but not the kind of markup that penalises curiosity. For wine-driven diners, this list is the strongest argument for booking here over comparable regional restaurants. The depth in both Italian and French selections means the bottle you want is almost certainly on the list, whether you are looking for a local Sangiovese or something from Burgundy.
For context on what serious Italian wine lists look like at the highest level, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence and Osteria Francescana in Modena set the national standard. Ristorante del Lago is not operating at that tier of formality or price point, but the cellar is serious enough to satisfy most wine travellers without requiring a multi-hundred-euro commitment per bottle.
Chef Simone Bravaccini's focus is resolutely local: mushrooms, trout, game, and the forage-adjacent ingredients that the terrain around Acquapartita supplies. The wild boar preparation that has drawn attention slices the meat tartare-style so it cooks quickly, then serves it with mashed potato and juniper. That combination , speed of cook, textural contrast, mountain herb , is the kind of detail that holds up on a second visit when the novelty has worn off. It tells you something real about how the kitchen thinks about protein and technique rather than just sourcing.
If Romagna cooking at this level interests you beyond a single restaurant, Dei Cantoni in Longiano and Il Chiosco di Bacco in Torriana are the regional comparisons worth tracking. For Emilia-Romagna cooking at a different altitude of ambition, Dal Pescatore in Runate and Le Calandre in Rubano show the range of what the broader region produces.
Booking here is rated easy relative to comparable restaurants at this level, but the operating window is narrow. The restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday. Across the open days, the lunch service is only an hour on weekdays. That means your practical options are: weekday dinner (Wednesday through Friday, 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM), Saturday lunch (12:30 PM to 2:00 PM) or Saturday dinner (7:30 PM to 9:30 PM), and Sunday lunch or dinner. Book at least one to two weeks ahead for a weekend slot; weekday dinners are more accessible. No phone number or website is listed in our current data, so contact details should be confirmed directly with the property or through a local concierge before you travel. Given the altitude and remote village location, arriving without a confirmed reservation is not worth the risk.
The price range is €€€, which places it in the same tier as La Palta for country-focused Italian cooking. For other Rome-adjacent or Italian fine dining options at €€€€, see our comparisons below.
Ristorante del Lago is not a Rome city restaurant. Bagno di Romagna is in the Apennine foothills, well outside the city, and this requires either a dedicated drive or an overnight in the area. If you are building a broader Italy itinerary, it fits naturally alongside a visit to the Romagna region rather than as a day trip from Rome. For Rome city dining, our full Rome restaurants guide covers the range, including options like Acquolina and Enoteca La Torre for creative Italian, Lazaroun, and Osteria La Sangiovesa for regional Romagna cooking closer to the city. Our Rome hotels guide, Rome bars guide, Rome wineries guide, and Rome experiences guide cover the rest of what the city and region offer.
For mountain-altitude, hyper-local Italian cooking with serious wine at a comparable level of ambition, Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico is the national reference point for what that format can achieve. Enrico Bartolini in Milan represents the urban Italian fine dining end of the spectrum for comparison.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ristorante del Lago | Cuisine from Romagna | €€€ | Easy |
| Enoteca La Torre | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Il Pagliaccio | Contemporary Italian, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Aroma | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Idylio by Apreda | Modern Italian, Italian Contemporary | €€€€ | Unknown |
| La Palta | Country cooking | €€€ | Unknown |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
The wild boar is the dish the restaurant is known for: sliced tartare-style, cooked quickly, and served over mashed potato with juniper. Beyond that, chef Simone Bravaccini's menu centres on local mushrooms, trout, and game — ingredients sourced from the terrain around Acquapartita at nearly 800m altitude. Order whatever is leading with those ingredients on the day.
The narrow operating windows (90-minute lunch sittings, two-hour dinner service) make solo dining logistically fine but pacing-dependent. The real draw here is the wine list — two volumes, close to 1,600 labels — which rewards leisurely exploration, so arrive with time rather than a tight schedule. Solo diners who want to work through Andrea Bravaccini's Italian and French selections will be well-served.
At €€€, Ristorante del Lago is priced at the upper end for the region, but the combination of a Star Wine List White Star-recognised cellar and cooking that draws on genuinely local Apennine ingredients makes it defensible. Compared to Rome city options like Il Pagliaccio or Aroma at similar or higher price points, you are trading urban convenience for a more specific, terrain-driven offer. If that trade appeals, it is worth it.
The venue data does not specify a dress code. Given the rural mountain location in Acquapartita and the regional focus of the cooking, the setting leans relaxed rather than formal. Neat, comfortable clothing suited to a countryside dinner is a reasonable call — this is not the context for black-tie.
The venue data does not confirm whether a tasting menu is offered. What is documented is a kitchen focused on local mushrooms, trout, game, and the wild boar signature — all of which suggest the cooking rewards a multi-course approach rather than a single dish. Check at the time of booking which formats are available on your preferred date.
Dinner gives you more time: Saturday dinner runs to 9:30 PM versus the tighter 1:30 PM lunch cutoff most days. Lunch at altitude has the obvious scenic advantage if daylight matters to you, but the wine list — close to 1,600 labels, with Star Wine List recognition — is better explored over a dinner sitting where you are not watching the clock. Dinner, particularly on a Saturday, is the better format here.
The restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday, and the daily service windows are short — 60 to 90 minutes at lunch, under two hours at dinner. That limits available covers significantly. Book at least two to three weeks ahead for a weekend dinner, and further out in summer or during regional holiday periods. The Star Wine List profile has raised its visibility, so availability is tighter than the remote address might suggest.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
