A table set for a long lunch under the olive trees of a Chianti countryside restaurant

Where to Eat

Tables Worth
the Journey

From legendary meat feasts in Panzano to remote trattorias between the vines.

Destination Dining

Tables that justify the drive

Panzano in Chianti

Solociccia

Dario Cecchini — Italy’s most famous butcher, showman and Dante-reciter — hosts communal feasts at long shared tables at Solociccia, Via XX Luglio 11, on Panzano’s main street. There is no menu. A fixed price — €50 per person, wine included — buys a sequence of Florentine beef preparations, from offal and lardo to slow-cooked cuts and dripping-soaked bread, served at theatrical pace with Chianti flowing.

Cuisine: Traditional Florentine meat — communal, theatrical
Price: €€ · Set menu €50 per person, wine included
Good to know: Lunch · Via XX Luglio 11, Panzano · Dario’s Officina della Bistecca is also €50 per person

A sun-lit dining room within the Castello di Brolio estate, table set for lunch with estate wines

Brolio · Gaiole in Chianti

Osteria di Brolio

Eating within the grounds of Castello di Brolio — one of Italy’s oldest wine estates and the birthplace of modern Chianti — is an experience few dining rooms can rival for sheer historical context.

Cuisine: Traditional Chianti · farm-to-table
Price: €€€ · À la carte, approximately €45–65 per person
Good to know: Combine with a castle visit and cellar tour

Greve in Chianti

Il Guardingo

Il Guardingo is the restaurant of Villa Bordoni, on a hilltop above Greve among ancient olive groves, vineyards and medieval hamlets — the kind of place that takes a little effort to reach and rewards it completely.

Cuisine: Traditional Tuscan · precise seasonal cooking
Price: €€€ · À la carte approximately €40–60 per person
Good to know: Cooking classes available · Lunch April–October only

Gaiole in Chianti

Il Pievano at Castello di Spaltenna

1 MICHELIN Star

The MICHELIN-starred restaurant within the walls of the 12th-century Castello di Spaltenna is one of the most atmospheric dining rooms in Chianti — stone vaults, candlelight and a cellar of extraordinary depth.

Cuisine: Refined Tuscan · modern technique
Price: €€€€ · À la carte approximately €70–100 per person
Good to know: One MICHELIN star · chef Antonio Iacoviello · book ahead

Badia a Passignano

Osteria di Passignano

1 MICHELIN Star

Under the walls of the medieval abbey of Passignano, on the Antinori estate, the Osteria has held a MICHELIN star every year since 2007. Chef Matteo Lorenzini cooks from the Tuscan repertoire with a light, precise hand and is not afraid of fish; the inspectors single out a crab salad with caviar and citrus from the estate’s own trees. Much of what reaches the plate grows in the Orto della Badia beside the abbey walls.

Cuisine: Modern Tuscan
Price: Fine dining

COMO Castello Del Nero · Tavarnelle

La Torre

1 MICHELIN Star

La Torre is the gastronomic restaurant of COMO Castello Del Nero, set in the twelfth-century castle with long views over the Chianti hills. Executive chef Giovanni Luca Di Pirro holds a MICHELIN star for cooking that takes Tuscan ingredients somewhere more inventive; the inspectors praise its technique, creative flair and depth of flavour, and presentation that lives up to the setting.

Cuisine: Contemporary Tuscan
Price: Fine dining · tasting menus

Castel Monastero

Contrada

1 MICHELIN Star

Contrada sits on the little piazza at the heart of Castel Monastero, the medieval castle hamlet near Monastero d’Ombrone. Chef Davide Canella holds a MICHELIN star for refined, elegant cooking with a seasonal menu built on the surrounding land. There is a tasting menu and an à la carte, both leaning towards meat with some well-chosen fish; the inspectors mention prawns with panzanella and duck breast with hosomaki.

Cuisine: Modern Tuscan
Price: Fine dining

The Club House · Pievasciata

Il Visibìlio

1 MICHELIN Star

At the end of a dirt road near Pievasciata, the village of contemporary art in the hills above Siena, Il Visibìlio is the MICHELIN-starred restaurant of The Club House. There is no à la carte and no printed menu in advance: a single blind tasting menu moves between land and sea, makes generous use of vegetables and plays on contrasts of flavour and temperature. The inspectors remember the pigeon with rhubarb and absinthe sauces.

Cuisine: Creative
Price: Fine dining · single tasting menu

Villa a Sesta

L’Asinello

1 MICHELIN Star

Villa a Sesta is a small hamlet south of Castelnuovo Berardenga, and L’Asinello has been here since 2011, in a carefully converted old stable. It is run by two people: Senio Venturi in the kitchen and Elisa in the dining room. Senio’s cooking starts from the Tuscan tradition and local farmers, then goes its own way with bold flavours and a contemporary touch; it holds a MICHELIN star.

Cuisine: Creative Tuscan
Price: Fine dining

Borgo San Felice

Poggio Rosso

1 MICHELIN Star· Green Star

Poggio Rosso is the gastronomic restaurant of Borgo San Felice, the Relais & Châteaux hamlet among the San Felice vineyards. Since July 2025 the kitchen has been led by Stelios Sakalis, part of Enrico Bartolini’s group, who brings experience from leading European kitchens to Tuscan ingredients; his cooking is technical and balanced, with a Mediterranean lightness. It holds one MICHELIN star and the MICHELIN Green Star for sustainable gastronomy.

Cuisine: Creative, modern
Price: Fine dining

Local Favourites

Trattorias & Hidden Gems

No stars, no tasting menus — just honest cooking, house wine, and the particular pleasure of stumbling upon somewhere good.

Greve in Chianti €€

Enoteca Ristorante Gallo Nero

Enoteca & ristorante · Greve Cooking School

Established in 1984 in a historic building dating to 1802 — originally stables, later the telegraphic relay for the Grand Duchy — this family-run enoteca and ristorante sits just off Greve’s Piazza Matteotti. All the pasta is still made fresh in-house daily, carrying on the tradition of grandmother Duilia; the menu moves with the seasons: pumpkin ravioli in autumn, chestnut noodles with white ragù, Chianti risotto with pistachios and pecorino cream. The wine list is a love letter to the Gallo Nero consortium.

Lucarelli · Radda in Chianti €€

Osteria Le Panzanelle

Remote rustic trattoria

Bib Gourmand

Worth seeking out. Set in a converted farmhouse on a minor road between Radda and Panzano, Le Panzanelle rewards those who find it with one of the most honest meals in Chianti, and the MICHELIN Guide lists it with a Bib Gourmand.

Badia a Passignano · Barberino Tavarnelle €€€

Ristoro l’Antica Scuderia

Historic restaurant · Passignano

The name tells its history: this was once the place where riders rested and changed horses, in the shadow of the ancient abbey of Badia a Passignano. The Puliti family has run it for decades with the quiet conviction of people who know exactly what they are doing.

The Renaissance villa and vineyards of Vignamaggio between Greve and Panzano

Greve in Chianti €€

Vignamaggio — La Fattoria

Historic wine estate · La Fattoria

Vignamaggio is one of the historic estates of the Greve valley, its Renaissance villa set among vineyards between Greve and Panzano. Since September 2024 its restaurant has been La Fattoria, opened by the estate’s new owners, Patrice Taravella and Emmanuelle Sebillet.

The walled garden of Badia a Coltibuono abbey restaurant, tables set beneath ancient stone arches

Badia a Coltibuono · Gaiole in Chianti €€€

Badia a Coltibuono Restaurant

Abbey restaurant · cooking school

The restaurant of the 11th-century abbey estate draws on the kitchen garden, the estate’s own oil and wine, and the Tuscan culinary tradition championed by Lorenza de’ Medici, who made Coltibuono’s cooking school world-famous — the school is still running today.

Volpaia · Radda in Chianti €

Bar Ucci

Village bar & lunch spot

The only bar in the tiny fortified hamlet of Volpaia — itself one of the most beautiful villages in the Chianti zone. Bar Ucci doubles as a lunch spot serving simple plates: bruschetta, panzanella, cold meats, cheese and soups.

San Donato in Poggio €€

Antica Trattoria La Toppa

Bib Gourmand · Family trattoria in a medieval village

Bib Gourmand

Inside the walls of San Donato in Poggio, one of the best-preserved medieval villages of the western Chianti, La Toppa is a family trattoria that has no interest in fashion. The MICHELIN Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand for good cooking at fair prices: mixed crostini, ribollita, pici all’aglione and slow-braised beef with vegetables, with game in season, wild boar stew above all.

Tables Worththe Journey

Tables that justify the drive

Trattorias & Hidden Gems

Tables Worth
the Journey