What Osteria Sottoriva is

This is an osteria in the old Veronese sense rather than a restaurant: a wine-led house where the glass is the point and the food is small and traditional. The city's tourist office dates its opening to 1739 and describes a place that has kept the traditional canons of the osteria over the centuries. It takes its name from the street it stands on, which runs alongside the bank of the Adige river.

Treat it as a stop rather than a full evening: a glass, a small plate, the portico overhead and the church facade across the way. If you want a seated restaurant meal with a printed menu of courses, this is the wrong shape of place, and the honest trade-off is choice against atmosphere. The value is in the room, the street and the ritual of standing or sitting with a drink.

Where it is on Via Sottoriva

The address is Via Sottoriva 9/A, on the right-hand side of the street as you come from the church of Sant'Anastasia. The street is one of the most distinctive in central Verona, a narrow, porticoed lane running beside the Adige just north of the historic centre. On foot it is a short walk from the Arena, Piazza delle Erbe, Ponte Pietra and the Teatro Romano.

Because the lane is pedestrian and tight, arriving on foot is the practical choice; drivers should leave the car outside the centre and walk in. If you are mapping the walk, use the church of Sant'Anastasia as your landmark and follow the arcade north. Our Verona Attractions: 5 Visitor Guides page puts this address in the wider map of the city's food stops.

The room and the portico

Outside, the wooden tables date from the late 19th century and fill the space under the portico along much of the street's right side. Indoors there is a single room with a serving counter, wooden tables, exposed ceiling beams and a Venetian-style floor of coloured marble chips laid in the 19th century. Below, brick cellars with vaulted ceilings survive intact.

The seating split tells you what to do: 18 places inside against 40 outside under the arcade. In good weather the portico is the whole reason to come, and the outdoor tables are where you want to be. In cold or wet weather the single inner room fills quickly, so plan around it rather than assume a table.

What to order

The traditional order here is wine or water, with small plates to accompany the glass rather than a full meal. The tourist office lists polpettine di cavallo (horse meatballs), hard-boiled eggs and chicken wings alongside dishes of the Veronese tradition. If horse meat is not for you, the eggs and wings do the same job of soaking up the wine.

Veronese cooking more broadly means risotto, horse stew in some houses and dishes of the Veronese tradition, though what is on the counter on any given day is a question for the staff. Ask what is being poured by the glass and what small plates are ready, since this is a house built on the daily pour.

Berto Barbarani and the name

The poet Berto Barbarani, whose birthplace stood close to Via Sottoriva, was among the artists who frequented the osteria in the past. That local literary link is a better historical anchor than any general story about Verona: a neighbourhood poet, a neighbourhood wine house, the same few streets.

Sottoriva 23 is a different address

A few doors along the same lane, Sottoriva 23 is a separate business at Via Sottoriva 23 with its own kitchen, its own identity and its own way of describing itself: not a restaurant, not an osteria, but what it calls an ostregheteria. It describes its cooking as using quality ingredients for tasty dishes with a Veronese flavour, and keeps innovation for its drinks counter.

Do not confuse the two when you book or meet someone: one is the historic portico osteria at number 9/A, the other a modern address at number 23. Sottoriva 23 also hosts tastings and events on its own calendar, so its programme changes through the year. If you want the old benches and the wine-first tradition, you want number 9/A.

Nearby in the same quarter

Sant'Anastasia, with its striped brick facade and frescoed interior, sits at the southern end of the lane and is the obvious pairing with a drink here. Ponte Pietra and the Teatro Romano are a few minutes north across the Adige, and the Arena and Piazza delle Erbe are a short walk south. Allow a couple of hours to cover the lane, the church and the riverbank at an unhurried pace.

For something sweet after, Pasticceria Flego, Verona is a pastry shop worth folding into the same walk. Coffee before or after the osteria is best at Caffè Borsari, Verona, which sits on Corso Porta Borsari on the other side of the old centre. Both are places to stand at the counter, drink quickly and pay at the till first, as is normal in Veronese cafés.

If the portico tables are full, Gelateria La Romana in Verona is a reasonable fallback while you wait for a seat to clear. For a different kind of food stop, Mercato Coperto, Verona is the covered market where you can assemble a meal from several counters in one go.

Should you put Osteria Sottoriva on your Verona walk?

Yes, if you are walking the Via Sottoriva lane anyway and want a glass under the arcade with a small plate beside it. Come in good weather for the outdoor tables, keep the order simple, and treat it as a stop of an hour rather than the main meal of the day. If you need a full menu and a guaranteed seat indoors, this is not the address for that evening.

The easiest plan is to pair it with Sant'Anastasia and the riverbank, then move on for coffee or pastry in the old centre. With only 18 seats inside, contact the osteria ahead if you want to secure a table for a group.