Restaurant in Villa di Chiavenna, Italy
Family-run Michelin star worth the detour.
A Michelin one-star family restaurant in Villa di Chiavenna with over 40 years of history and a 4.7 Google rating from 325 reviews. At €€€, it is one of the most accessible starred restaurants in northern Italy, combining lake fish, regional Lombard recipes, and Roberto Tonola's contemporary kitchen work. Book hard and plan for the season — the fireplace room in winter and the garden terrace in summer are genuinely different experiences.
The single most useful piece of advice for Lanterna Verde: decide your season before you book, then build your reservation around it. The dining room, warmed by a fireplace in the colder months, rewards a very different visit from the garden terrace that opens in summer. These are not interchangeable settings — they shape the mood of the meal significantly. If you can only come once, commit fully to whichever atmosphere suits your travel window. If you can come twice, you should.
Lanterna Verde holds a Michelin one star (2024) and a Google rating of 4.7 from 325 reviews , a combination that signals consistent execution rather than occasional brilliance. At €€€, it sits one tier below the €€€€ bracket occupied by much of Italy's starred competition, which makes it one of the more accessible entry points into serious northern Italian cooking at this level.
The kitchen at Lanterna Verde runs a programme that moves between traditional Lombardy and Valchiavenna recipes and more contemporary preparations, with lake fish playing a recurring and prominent role. The Tonola family has been serving this area for over 40 years, and that depth of local rootedness shows in the sourcing and in the room , this is not a restaurant that feels parachuted into a destination. The parents manage front of house with the kind of attentiveness that makes wine suggestions genuinely useful rather than performative. The wine list draws from across Italy, with a few rare bottles for those who want to go further.
Young chef Roberto Tonola handles the kitchen, and the generational handoff has worked in the restaurant's favour. His touch is modern without being alienating , the kind of cooking that respects what came before while adding technical precision. For a first visit, the path of least resistance is to let the menu's trajectory guide you: lean into the lake fish, take the wine pairing advice from the front-of-house team, and let the room do its work.
A second visit is worth planning specifically around the menu's contemporary options rather than the comfort of familiar regional dishes. The kitchen clearly has range, and you get more of it when you push past the recognisable. This is the visit where you ask specifically what's new, what's seasonal, and what Roberto has been working on. The staff's genuine enthusiasm for the food makes these conversations productive rather than awkward.
Booking difficulty here is rated hard. A Michelin-starred restaurant with fewer than 400 Google reviews suggests a room that is not large , and a room that fills fast. For a destination as specific as Villa di Chiavenna, most diners are travelling rather than local, which means the table competition is sharper than the geography might imply. Book a minimum of three to four weeks out for weekday dining; for weekend evenings or peak summer terrace season, six to eight weeks is more realistic. If your travel plans are fixed, lock the reservation before you sort the rest of the itinerary.
No booking method is confirmed in our data, so check the restaurant directly for current reservation channels. There is no online booking link in our records at time of writing. Practical summary: book as far out as your travel window allows; 4-6 weeks minimum for weekends and summer terrace.
Lanterna Verde reads as a classic-style dining room in the leading sense , warm without being fusty, attentive without being formal. The fireplace setting in winter creates exactly the kind of enclosed, convivial atmosphere that rewards a longer meal. The terrace in summer shifts the energy outward and lighter. Neither version is particularly loud or high-energy; this is a room for conversation and focus, not a destination for a rowdy celebration. If you are travelling with someone who finds intense, tasting-menu-style silence uncomfortable, the terrace visit in summer is the easier entry point. The garden setting softens the occasion naturally.
Lanterna Verde is the right call for food and wine travellers who are already routing through the Lombardy-Valchiavenna area and want a destination meal that does not require the logistical overhead of Italy's highest-profile starred restaurants. It earns its star without performing for it. The price point is honest for the level. The family-run operation gives it a warmth and continuity that many starred restaurants in Italy's northern corridor , often chef-driven projects that feel more corporate as they scale , do not consistently deliver.
It is less suited to diners looking for a provocative, avant-garde tasting menu experience. The kitchen is skilled and modern in its sensibility, but Lanterna Verde is not where you go if pure culinary experimentation is your priority. For that, the northern Italian circuit offers other options: Reale in Castel di Sangro or Piazza Duomo in Alba operate at a different level of conceptual ambition. For lake-region Italian cooking executed with genuine craft and family hospitality, Lanterna Verde is the stronger choice.
For a wider view of the area's dining options, see our full Villa di Chiavenna restaurants guide. If you are extending your trip, our Villa di Chiavenna hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the broader area.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lanterna Verde | €€€ | Hard | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Enoteca Pinchiorri | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Enrico Bartolini | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
| Le Calandre | €€€€ | Unknown | — |
How Lanterna Verde stacks up against the competition.
The dining room is classic-style and warm rather than stiff or ceremonial, so dress neatly but you don't need a jacket. Think dinner-smart: the kind of outfit you'd choose for a serious restaurant with a Michelin star rather than a formal banquet. The garden terrace in summer is slightly more relaxed in feel, but the same standard applies.
The room is on the smaller side — a Michelin-starred restaurant with a limited Google review count suggests intimate seating rather than a large floor. Groups of four to six are likely manageable, but larger parties should contact the restaurant well in advance to confirm availability and whether a private arrangement is possible. This is not a venue designed around big group bookings.
At €€€ with a 2024 Michelin star, Lanterna Verde delivers strong value relative to equivalent-tier restaurants in Milan or the Lake Como circuit. You're getting Tonola family cooking — over 40 years of regional reputation, now with Roberto's contemporary technique — plus serious Italian wine coverage including rare bottles. If you're already routing through Valchiavenna, the price-to-quality case is easy to make.
The kitchen runs between traditional Lombardy and Valchiavenna recipes and more contemporary preparations, with lake fish featuring prominently. Lean into the regional dishes over anything that reads as purely modern-Italian generic — the local and traditional options are where the Tonola family's four-decade knowledge base shows. Ask the front-of-house team for wine pairings; they manage an Italian-focused list that includes some rare bottles.
Yes, and it's a better special-occasion choice than most restaurants at this price point precisely because it doesn't feel like a performance. The fireplace room in winter and the garden terrace in summer give it a setting that reads as genuinely celebratory without being stiff. The family-run front-of-house adds warmth that larger destination restaurants often lack. Book the room that matches your season.
Given the Michelin star and the kitchen's range — traditional recipes alongside contemporary preparations and lake fish — a tasting menu is the most direct way to get across the full scope of what Roberto Tonola is doing. The wine list, including rare Italian bottles, makes pairing a strong option. Specific menu pricing isn't documented here, so confirm the format and cost when booking.
Neither is clearly superior, but the choice depends on how you're using the day. Lunch lets you pair the meal with the surrounding Valchiavenna area and leave with the afternoon free. Dinner, particularly in winter with the fireplace in use, gives the room its most atmospheric version. For a special occasion, dinner in winter is the call; for a food-focused day trip from the Lake Como area, lunch makes more logistical sense.
Location
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