Vecchia Varenna

Had dinner there during our stay in Varenna. Lovely food and cocktails, like all places along the lake, it's a "minimum effort and maximum gain" as the location does ALL the work for them. So, the menu is all the usual Italian carbs, and hasn't changed in forever. All places have the tourist stuff you'd expect. Staff are exhausted, and short, they hop from customer to customer, everyone is so hard-working and switched on. The food is nice and fresh, speed of service hit-and-miss, location is the best, and honestly, that's all you need.

A fantastic location with the terrace overlooking the lake. No reservations possible. We were told we would need to wait an hour but it was only about 10mins. We chose this place for the location and because it has vegan options on the menu. The menu is limited but we like that. You can view it on the website and there and at the restaurant it is in Italian and English. The pasta dishes and cheese platter were both high quality delicious as were the desserts. Service was a little slow and it is quite pricey but we think justified. This is for a slow quality meal with a great view, not a rushed one.

We had the lasagna and pizza, they were both decent. We came just before it became crowded, but we were still seated at an akward table. Service was fast

This restaurant offers unrivaled views of the lake from the veranda. It is a perfect location to done and just outside the very small and busy lake front of Varenna, but close enough to feel the ambience. The food was good and it has a good varied menu. The service could have been better though. We were left several times wondering what, or if, we had ordered. We also had to ask several times for service. However, this did not detract too much from what turned out to be a lovely lunch.

We sat for a coffe and sweet desert. The view was wonderful at the afternoon. The cheesecake was horrible, stale. The spoon for the capuccino was dirty and reused. The cappuccino had something like crumbs . I woudnt recomend the place except for the view

Had a superb dinner here in beautiful surroundings. One guide book called it one of the most romantic locations on Como and I would agree. Service was perfect, the food was certainly upper end cuisine and brilliantly done. Very very good.

Lovely restaurant directly overlooking the lake. The prices are a bit steep but in line with the rest of the restaurants in Varenna. Highly recommend their goat cheese salad, I've had it twice already and will be coming back for more on my next trip to Varenna!

We were seated at a table that still had used dishes from the previous guests. The restaurant was clearly busy, so we didn’t complain—we were just glad to be seated. My husband moved the used plates and silverware to the side to make room. A waiter saw him and said, “Am I not moving fast enough for you?”—which surprised us, as we hadn’t said a word. Later, when my husband asked for a dry red wine, the same waiter snapped, “Am I supposed to just pick it for you?” The tone throughout felt unnecessarily hostile. I originally posted a review similar to this one, but it was removed - TWICE. After doing some research, I learned that in Italy, businesses can request the deletion of reviews they claim are unfair—even if they’re honest accounts. It appears this restaurant actively removes negative feedback. Still, many older reviews are visible, as they were unsuccessful in removing them - and the recurring theme is clear: disrespectful service, rude comments, and poor treatment of customers. I recommend reading through the 1-star reviews carefully—they paint a very consistent picture. Unfortunately, our experience matched theirs.