Bertram Malle
Google
If you are in Varese, stay here over night and enjoy a fabulous dinner! Send email to Stefano, co-owner and chef, and you will be well taken care of! They have three guest rooms, well priced and clean, but I will focus on my restaurant experience. The dining room is elegant, not stuffy, they have a great wine list, and lots of tempting food choices. I started with a glass of Friuli white and then had a half bottle of Le Difese, from the same winery that makes the insanely expensive Sassicaia. The first bottle was subtly corked, my waiter agreed, and the second one was amazing. On the food side I had a delicate asparagus flan (from white asparagus), then amazing house-made Tortelloni, carbonara style (tasteful, perhaps slightly too salty), and a to-die for Canadian Bison, served rare (by design and request) and so soft that it was like eating beef tartar. It was accompanied by a few well-chosen vegetables (one piece each of grilled fennel, zucchini, melanzani, potato), Irish sea salt, olive oil, and pepper — powerful simplicity that, somehow, the real Italian chefs get right, but most US Italian chefs don't.
