Best Restaurants in Cortina d'Ampezzo: Where to Eat

What eating in Cortina d'Ampezzo is like

Cortina sits in Belluno province, in the Veneto, but the cooking leans north: restaurants here pair Mediterranean plates such as risotto and pasta with Tyrolean dishes, and dumplings turn up on nearly every menu. The local restaurant scene is built for people coming off the mountains, so portions are generous and the cooking is hearty rather than delicate. Expect a mix of smart dining rooms and plain lunch spots within a few streets of each other.

The town's history as a host of the 1956 Winter Olympics and a film location explains the designer boutiques and the polished edge to the centre, but locals still eat at homestyle places in walking gear. That mix is the useful thing to know: you can spend a lot on a refined dinner, or eat well and simply for far less a few doors away.

Il Vizietto di Cortina on Corso Italia: modern comfort and the tagliatelle della nonna

Il Vizietto di Cortina sits at Corso Italia 53, on the main pedestrian street, and is the easiest of the town's restaurants to build a dinner around. The room is a modern reading of a cosy trattoria, balancing fine-dining polish with homestyle recipes rather than choosing between them. It is the pick if you want one memorable dinner in the centre without leaving the street where you are probably staying.

Order the tagliatelle della nonna, a slow-cooked meat ragù with red wine and wild game folded through ribbons of pasta. If you want to understand the local pasta tradition more broadly, the casunziei of the Dolomites are the other plate to seek out: half-moon ravioli traditionally filled with beetroot and dressed with butter and poppy seeds.

Croda Cafe: the homestyle lunch where locals eat

Croda Cafe is the lunch stop the local guide singles out as where locals eat: homestyle cooking, no frills, and a dining room full of people who live in Cortina rather than visit it. It suits a midday break between mountain time, when you want a proper plate of pasta rather than a performance.

The plate to order is the beetroot-filled ravioli in a poppyseed sauce, a sweet, light dish that reads as mountain cooking rather than dessert. It is also the clearest example in town of how the Dolomites treat beetroot, the same vegetable behind the region's casunziei.

Pizzeria Ai Due Forni on Via Cesare Battisti: the pizza in town

When the table wants pizza, Pizzeria Ai Due Forni on Via Cesare Battisti 18 is the named address in the centre. In a town where the smart dining rooms take the attention, a straightforward pizzeria is the practical fallback for a family or a first night when nobody wants to commit to a long dinner. Tables in Cortina can be hard to get year-round, so call ahead for dinner at weekends.

El Camineto, Tivoli and Al Camin: refined cooking outside the centre

Three of Cortina's more ambitious kitchens sit away from the pedestrian core: El Camineto at Rumerlo, Tivoli at Lacedel and Al Camin at Alvera. El Camineto and Tivoli need a car or taxi, which is the real decision to make before booking; if you are staying in the centre without a car, a taxi both ways is the price of the best food in the valley.

Of the three, Al Camin is the one to choose first if you want a single big dinner: the food is an elegant take on local ingredients and it draws visitors and locals alike. El Camineto sits at Rumerlo and Tivoli at Lacedel, both outside the town, so plan transport before you plan the menu.

Rifugio Scoiattoli at the Cinque Torri: lunch on a mountain day

Rifugio Scoiattoli, at the Cinque Torri, is the table to build a hiking day around: a mountain rifugio where the point is the setting as much as the cooking. Treat it as lunch, not dinner, and go with the mountain rather than travelling up for the food alone.

Menus at this altitude run to the same Tyrolean staples you meet in town, so it is a good place to try canederli, the bread dumplings served in broth or with butter. Check how the rifugio is reached from the road or the lifts before setting out, since access shapes the whole day.

Pasticceria Alverà: breakfast, panini and chocolate to take away

Pasticceria Alverà is the pastry counter to know for a quick breakfast before the lifts open, for sandwiches to carry on a hike and for chocolates to take home. It is on the pricey side, which fits the town, so treat it as a quality stop rather than a budget one.

The strategy that works: eat a pastry standing at the counter in the morning, and come back later to pick up panini for the trail rather than buying a mountain lunch at rifugio prices.

What to order: canederli, Spätzle and gnocchi explained

Canederli are bread dumplings, served in broth or tossed with butter and cheese; Spätzle are small, soft egg noodles, often topped with melted cheese or browned butter; the local gnocchi are potato dumplings in the same hearty style. For the full picture on the first of these, see Canederli: What They Are, What's In Them and How to Eat Them. Learn these three and every Cortina menu becomes readable.

Beyond dumplings, a risotto or a plate of pasta will anchor the Mediterranean side of the menu, and pasta is where the town's kitchens show their range, from the tagliatelle della nonna at Il Vizietto to the beetroot ravioli at Croda Cafe.

Booking, seasons and weekend tables

Call ahead for dinner, especially on weekends: Cortina can be hard to get a table in at any time of year. Spring and autumn are low tourism seasons in the mountains, when fewer restaurants are open, so a short trip outside the ski and summer peaks needs more planning than a January weekend.

For a lunch rather than a dinner, walk in instead: the homestyle spots such as Croda Cafe and the pizzerie are built for people coming off the mountain at unpredictable times. Save the calls for the dinners.

The trade-off: resort prices versus local cooking

Cortina is expensive for Italy, and the centre is lined with designer shops that set the tone. The honest split is this: pay for the view and the room if that is the evening you want, or eat the homestyle cooking that locals eat at lunch, where the same mountain ingredients cost less.

A quick panino from a pastry shop covers a hiking day for a fraction of a seated mountain lunch, and pitch your splurge on one good dinner instead of three. As a starting point, the casunziei of the Dolomites are worth seeking out on any mountain menu: half-moon ravioli traditionally filled with beetroot and dressed with butter and poppy seeds.

Which Cortina table should you book first?

Book Il Vizietto di Cortina for the one dinner you want in the centre, add Al Camin if you have a car or a taxi budget, and use Croda Cafe and Ai Due Forni for everyday eating. Put a rifugio lunch at the Cinque Torri on the day you hike, and start the morning at Pasticceria Alverà.