In Viaggio - Claudio Melis

In Viaggio occupies the ground floor of Palazzo Pock on Piazza della Mostra, a fifteenth-century building in the centre of Bolzano's old town. Chef Claudio Melis — Sardinian by birth, formed in some of the great Italian kitchens — has held the Michelin star here since 2018, and the room is exactly as serious as that suggests: warm wood panelling, a small open kitchen, no more than thirty covers an evening.

The cooking sits at an unusual crossroads. The base is Alto Adige in its produce — Lagrein-marinated venison, mountain trout, foraged herbs from the Dolomites — but Melis's southern hand brings a brightness that the local kitchens rarely show. A typical tasting opens with a fennel and citrus broth, builds through a stunning ravioli of Alpine cheese with sea urchin, and ends with desserts that play on Tyrolean apple traditions in a wholly new key.

The wine pairings are a serious part of the meal. Sommelier Davide Lo Schiavo handles the cellar with restrained brilliance, and the list reaches deep into both South Tyrol and Italy at large. The lunch tasting at €85 is one of the better-value Michelin offerings in the country.

For closing a meeting that needs gravity, impressing a client who has dined widely, or simply making the case for what Bolzano can do at the top end, In Viaggio is the unambiguous answer.

The serious room and the level of cooking signal exactly the right thing for a meeting that needs to land, and the pace of the tasting allows for the kind of conversation business dinners actually require.