Locanda di Orta

Charming, but with challenges – and a mosquito nightmare in summer The hotel itself is perfectly adequate for a 3-star standard – clean, nicely decorated, with a certain rustic charm. But be warned: you can’t drive up to the hotel. Parking is far uphill, and the walk down involves uneven old stone paths. Dragging a large suitcase? Not fun. The rooms are quite small, and while that may come with the territory in a historic town, comfort is definitely limited. Now to the real dealbreaker: summer in Orta San Giulio. I’ve traveled through parts of Asia – and never have I experienced mosquitoes like this. Relentless, aggressive, and immune to repellent. It felt like a siege. Bottom line: The hotel is fine if you travel light and don’t mind a bit of a hike – but Orta in the summer? Never again. The lake and I are officially done.

Can’t comment on rooms as we did not stay. We had a reservation for the restaurant. Upon entering, chef Andrea himself was at the front door which I thought was a wonderful touch and was quite pleased - however he was rather rude and short with us, telling us our reservation was not for the restaurant but instead for the bistro and directed us to the lift. Before getting in, we decided to check with another member of staff who told us our reservation was indeed for the restaurant and directed us to our table. This irritated me first of all as we would have been charged a €200 fee if we had been “no shows”. I have to say we could not fault the food. It was incredible. Every part of the Michelin star is very well deserved in that respect. The service from the other staff was, in the most part, also incredible. They were very attentive and spoke to us in English throughout which was so appreciated as my Italian can’t quite stretch to as many courses as we received! The restaurant itself was a bit stuffy and very quiet which made conversation difficult. We felt we had to whisper and could hear other tables do the same. We ordered a very tasty bottle of wine but this then became the main cause of our issue with the restaurant. There were several fruit flies flying around our table and the wine was clearly drawing them in. My partner had to ask the staff to clear two glasses due to flies landing in them, and I had to ask for one to be removed. Eventually we gave up and asked for the wine to stop being poured as it was quite tiring and, frankly, a bit disgusting to have flies landing in our drinks. When it came to paying the bill, we asked for the wine to be discounted or removed as we had had to dispose of three glasses on top of whatever was remaining in the bottle. The staff member told us her manager had told her this was absolutely not going to happen as the wine was fine, and they “did not know where the flies were coming from”… as if we were pulling them out of our pockets?! Altogether what should have been a wonderful meal got off to a bad start thanks to the chef, and then got progressively worse due to the restaurant’s inability to prevent fruit flies from bothering diners - and then refusing to acknowledge that this would create an unpleasant atmosphere. Unfortunately, I would not recommend. We’ve eaten in many Michelin star restaurants across the world and this was, by far, the worst experience we’ve had.

We were met by Andrea himself at reception. Rather rudely he told us that we did not have a restaurant booking but instead we were in the bistro. As we approached the lift, we asked the restaurant staff and it turned out we were in the restaurant as booked. The food was very good and the staff were great. We did however have an issue with three glasses of red that had flies in. After the third fly in the third glass I asked them at stop serving the wine. We were then refused a discount on the wine when the bill came which was somewhat surprising. Overall a really disappointing experience. Andrea could learn a thing or two about how to treat customers. Perhaps he should visit a few other restaurants to see how it’s done.

Fantastic location in a fantastic little town on the Lago di Orta. A bit touristy but then again this is what we came for. Loved the room with the jacuzzi, and indeed it is a bit noisy when dinner is finishing up but we loved the dinner on the rooftop ourselves so no complaints. Service was impeccable and we enjoyed dinner at the bistro and the view! Great wine list also . Pity breakfast only starts at 08.30 as we had an early departure. Great hotel, great bistro, will be back for the Michelin star restaurant!

The hotel is very close to the lake. Our room (number 9) was quite small, but comfortable. It has a special amenity, a jacuzzi installed in the balcony. So you can relax, taking a hot bath outside looking at the mountain and lake. The real surprise is the restaurant connected to the hotel. It has a very limited number of tables (we counted 5). The service and the food are excellent. We took a tasting menu with different selection of wines. Everything was perfect. It was a very good experience. Every plate was carefully cooked, prepared and explained by the staff when arrived to the table. Cost wise is very reasonable, considering the high-level restaurant. After all the food and the wine, you can take a nice walk around the village on the lake before going back to your room. If you are around that area, I strongly recommend you this food-experience.

We had the 5 course menu of chefs choice. The whole experience was brilliant, I couldn’t recommend it enough. The staff were very pleasant and helpful. The young waiter was excellent and did the role perfectly. The food was fantastic like nothing I’ve had before. The wine pairing is worth doing and really added to the experience. Thank you.

A fabulous restaurant, nestled in a beautiful building in the center of the town. The setting is just perfect - a tiny stone staircase, open brickwork, a fireplace and tables dressed with white linen and delicate chinaware. The meal was beautiful with each dish exhibiting skills and techniques in presentation and flavour. We loved every dish and enjoyed the subtle flavours hidden in each one such as smoked beetroot, macaroons with thyme, lamb with pea and pistachio. The staff are wonderful- they spoke knowledgeably about the dishes and the specialist suppliers such as the cheese producer. All in all a wonderful meal - we are already planning a return visit.

Very delicious. Bit too expensive. Some wines were too expensive, some were acceptable. Staffs were little too careless. I visited restaurant twice. Every dish was perfectly cooked as rare. Chef must be caring to cook very carefully. There were only 2 staffs, 1 was disappearing often (maybe went back earlier?). Another was focusing to serve to all tables. So there were often nobody when we needed somebody. I often needed to serve my wine by myself from far table. Price was bit too expensive, but food quality was quite high enough. Local eel was muscular and had strong taste itself, but fresh. It must be wild eel which is quite rare in Japan. Price of wine bottles was very changing depends on bottle. Some were added 100～200$, some were added 10～20$. Not to donate too much, I recommend to choose wine carefully, wisely.