Bergamo Restaurants

Donizetti is a typical enoteca with an emphasis on tasting plates and simple, robust dishes. Polenta features strongly here, with a good number of the main courses featuring it in different combinations.

Most of the starters are tasting (degustazione) platters of either cheeses or cured meat for one or more. We tried a plate of cheeses from Bergamo with jam which was excellent. They went very well with the bread basket which included the most amazing bread I've ever tasted, a white loaf with fresh green olives. At around EUR 10, this was excellent value for two people.

We chose one polenta dish and one meat for the main course. The polenta with salt cod and black truffle was a very generous portion and filled with flavour. Although polenta is a northern dish, it is not traditionally served with cod in Bergamo but this is a wonderful combination. Not a lot of truffle though. My partner's steak with fried potatoes was apparently wonderful, perfectly cooked. Mains cost from EUR 10 to around EUR 20, again great prices for such good food and such filling portions.

Dessert was not so great - a boring homemade chocolate cake served with a tasteless cold chocolate sauce. I'd go for a tart next time which looked much better. All the desserts could be ordered either on their own or with the restaurant's choice of accompanying wine.

The wine menu is - naturally - extensive, with reds and whites from all over Italy. Glasses start at EUR 2.60, although there isn't a vast selection of wines that can be ordered by the glass.

The restaurant itself consists of a couple of rooms upstairs, a terrace which opens in the warmer months and a cellar where we sat. We felt like they were keeping all of us tourists down there until a big party of locals came in! Overall, it seemed that there was an even split between visitors and local people.

The atmosphere is welcoming and the service really friendly and efficient. At EUR 60 for three courses for two including tip, we ate (and drank) very well. I recommend Al Donizetti highly.

This place does all the standard pizza varieties plus a good range of pastas, risotto and some secondi. The pizzas we tried (one sausage, one buffalo mozzarella) were well-made, although I thought the base was slightly elastic-y. Nice and satisfying, but nothing incredible. The food came very quickly, despite the fact that the place was full to bursting.

The restaurant itself is divided into two rooms: the first is more appealing than the back room where we were sat (and where the staff seem to deposit lots of loved-up teenagers). Ask to sit in the main one if you can.

Prices were average for a pizza restaurant: margheritas start at EUR 4.50, with most types hovering around EUR 6/7. Pizzas for two plus plentiful drinks came to EUR 30.

Arlecchino seems to be very popular with the locals and was packed out on the Friday night we visited, with lots of talking, gesticulating and laughter. Very much the typical Italian pizzeria experience!

This bar/restaurant is located right inside the Funicular station on top of the hill. Because of it, the view from there is outstanding, looking down the lower part of Bergamo. The wall is typical "Italian" orange. So the atmosphere is modern yet romantic. At first, it looks as though it is a tourist's trap but once you're in, you realize that there are full of local people who enjoy their local foods and drinks.

The 2 course lunch/dinner was advertised for 15 euros, that includes water, glass of wine and coffee afterwards. I had a gnochi with cheese (some local cheese I couldn't recognise) for the first course and stewed pork with polenta on the side for the second. The service (the food arrived in timely manner) and quality of the food was just outstanding.

Many others people seem to be having some strawberry drinks (young and old) so I wish had tried that.

Anyone visiting Bergamo must try this place. There are many other restaurants nearby but they seem a lot more expensive.

Favorite Dish: Gnochi, polenta, stew

Friendly and welcoming staff sat us down immediately, near the roaster of a fire which we appreciated! Air conditioned as well in the Summer of course!

Superb ravioli starter and fillets to follow, beer water coca cola and deserts with no wine saw our total no more than Eu50.

Favorite Dish: Superb all round, save for the house recipe Tiramisu was one to avoid!(Now there's a sentence I thought I might never write!)

4 more images

Brilliantly warm welcome from brilliantly warm people here, they were pouring out the prosecco for us as soon as they showed us to our seats.

Starter was a mix of local cheeses and meats platter (pictured) and sea bass and pollo arrosto followed by dolce with excelletn Acqua Panna and local whites

Favorite Dish: Sea bass a la Siciliana, but every course was a hit.

Went here on our frst night and knew that it would not be topped!

3 more images

a very nice ambience in this place they have a kind of soft/jazz background music and scruffy chic waiters,we ate there on 3 nights out of 4 and although on the saturday night the kitchen had all kinds of catastrophes and mistakes they made it good to us without any hesitation and with good grace
i would recommend it

Favorite Dish: ravioli stuffed with sage a bergamo special and very tasty
also the fillet steak served with new potatoes,very very good

I liked this place very much and you can't miss it if you like beef! You can have everything from T-Bone steaks to huge hamburgers. It's an easy reastaurant, not romantic for sure, but it's clean, bright and colorfull. Waitress are kind and quick: even if the restaurant were quite full we didn't have to wait too much. We had a beefsteak and a cheese burger (they were both huge, my cheese burger had 200gr beef inside and the beef seemed to be 400gr) with chips. Then water and beer and we spent 33euros for everything.

Favorite Dish: The Cheesburger i had was great but I will try other things in the future, so perhaps I will update this tip ;)

More than a restaurant it's a wine bar ... and more than in Bergamo it's located in Treviglio, a nice town 20 km away from the big town. This place is called Vinarium and it's kindly run by a young couple.

Favorite Dish: Just a glass of wine with typical 'crostini', baked bread with sausages & oil ... GREAT !!!!