Cracco Portofino

Cracco Portofino is the Riviera outpost of Carlo Cracco — two Michelin stars at Cracco in Milan, the most decorated chef of the Italian post-Marchesi generation — opened in 2021 directly on the Calata Marconi harbour-front. Cracco himself consults; the day-to-day kitchen runs under head chef Lorenzo Lavezzari, a Cracco Milan alumnus.

The cuisine is contemporary Italian with deep regional sourcing through Cracco's network. Signatures include the famous 'risotto allo zafferano alla Cracco' — the two-star Milan saffron risotto that has been Cracco's canonical dish since 1996; a hand-rolled tagliolino with Ligurian black truffle and 36-month Parmigiano; a slow-roasted Adriatic turbot with samphire and lemon confit; a Monterosso anchovy crudo with green olive; the famous 'soufflé al cioccolato' that the Cracco team has refined since 2001.

The wine list runs to 800 references with a serious Italian-national spine — deep verticals of Sassicaia, Solaia, Brunello — and a tightly chosen Champagne section. Sommelier Andrea Garibaldi trained at Cracco Milan and the by-the-glass programme runs a generous twelve-glass Italian-national flight.

The dining room and terrace together hold sixty covers — twenty-four in the indoor stone-walled dining room, thirty-six on the harbour-front terrace overlooking the Piazzetta. Service is Cracco-precise — the captains rotate from the Cracco Milan alumnus pool and the kitchen pacing is exact. Cracco Portofino is also the most reliable client-entertaining address in the village in the under-€250-per-person tier.

Cracco Portofino is the impress-the-client room in Portofino when the brief is contemporary Italian rather than traditional Ligurian. The Cracco pedigree settles the credibility question; the harbour-front terrace is the conversation; the kitchen's modern Italian register is genuinely distinctive against the village's more traditional rooms. Book the corner four-top on the terrace; ask Andrea for the Sassicaia-vertical pairing.