Tips on booking restaurants in Italy

When I lived in Milan, there was one Chinese restaurant my husband and I ate at regularly. I’d love to be able to recommend it but we didn’t eat at this place because of our love for Chinese food. We’d end up in the it’s-Saturday-night-and-there’s-no-food-in-the-house-and-we’re-hungry-NOW boat. We hadn’t made reservations anywhere, yet we wanted something nearby, not fancy, not too expensive. We lived right in the center of Milan, and we knew two things to be true:

1) Any restaurant that was buzzing would be impossible to get into without a reservation

2) We wouldn’t eat anywhere that had a menu translated into 4 languages

The lesson for travelers to Italy is that it’s worth spending a bit of time researching places to eat so that you can choose where to eat, rather than ending up wherever will have you.

A few suggestions….

– if you’re using reviews as a criteria for choosing a place, make sure the reviews are plentiful and recent. If there are fewer than about 20 reviews or they’re not recent, they don’t count.

– Unless it’s a Michelin-starred restaurant you want to eat at during high season (in which case call several months in advance), don’t book earlier than about a week in advance. They’ll very potentially lose your reservation.

– Don’t assume a restaurant will be open for lunch, in August, on Sundays, on Mondays, or at the end of December.

– Don’t assume any restaurant has parking

– Many of Italy’s best restaurants are outside major cities. If you have a car or will be touring smaller towns of Italy, you may eat better than in the cities.

– Definitely look at sagre or food festivals

– if you understand Italian, read the Italian reviews on 2spaghi.it or iristoranti.it or gamberorosso.it

– if you understand Italian, and are comparing Italian and English reviews, remember that in general Ameircans are very effusive. Remember that Italians do not have as high expectations for level of service. Remember that Italians are much more picky about quality of food.