RFK Rankings · Lake Como
Best Restaurants for Solo Dining in Lake Como 2026
Solo Dining · Lake Como · 6 tables ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published July 27, 2023 · Updated June 14, 2026 · Reviewed by Fredrik Filipsson, Editor-in-Chief · How we rank · Corrections
Sixty-three steps above the Bellagio waterfront, a single long table runs the length of one small room, and the friendliest solo seat on Lake Como is the one in the middle of it. The lake is honeymoon country, ringed with grand-hotel rooms built for two, but a solo diner who knows where to look finds a communal table, a chef's-eye counter and starred kitchens that treat a single cover as seriously as a couple. The move here is lunch over dinner, and the villages over the resort terraces. These six tables, ranked, are where a single traveller eats Lake Como well, from a 24-seat communal room to a one-star kitchen that floats on the water.
1.Dispensa 63
A communal table up 63 steps in Bellagio, the friendliest solo seat on the lake. Reserve ahead.
Dispensa 63 takes its name from the address, sixty-three steps up the Salita Cavour in Bellagio where the promenade gives way to a quieter town. It is one small room: a communal table down the centre, a few window stools over the alley, an open kitchen at the back, 24 seats in all and no walk-ins. The family behind it has run the nearby Hotel du Lac since the 1950s, and the cooking is inventive contemporary Italian that changes constantly, cacio e pepe tagliatelle with red prawns, seasonal risotti, a chestnut tart to finish. A meal runs around 60 to 80 euros. The communal table is the point for a solo diner, the rare lake room built for one. Reserve well ahead and take a centre seat.
Reserve well ahead; no walk-ins, and the room seats only 24.
2.Materia
Davide Caranchini's one-star tasting, a serious solo seat for a curious eater. Book it.
Davide Caranchini opened Materia in Cernobbio in 2016 and won a Michelin star in 2018, and the restaurant has since moved to a new room nearby on via Trieste, still in the same village. His cooking is at once deeply local and internationally minded, shaped by stages in London and Copenhagen, and it has earned a place on the World's 50 Best Discovery list. The room is spare and small, around thirty covers, the kind of focused space where a tasting menu rewards a single diner who wants to concentrate on the plate rather than the conversation. Expect around 130 euros and up for the menu. Book ahead, take the tasting, and let one of the lake's most serious young kitchens run the evening for you.
Book the tasting menu ahead; lunch service is quieter for one.
3.Crotto dei Platani
Andrea Cremonesi's lakeside cooking in a cave at Brienno, calm for one. Try it once.
Crotto dei Platani sits in Brienno, a village the lake road squeezes through, where the mountain meets the water with barely room for a dining room between them. Parts of the restaurant are built directly into the rock face, so you can touch the mountain from certain tables. Chef Andrea Cremonesi cooks creative Italian with strong local roots, lake fish and Lombard produce handled with real technique, in a room twenty minutes removed from the Como and Cernobbio crowds. A meal runs around 60 to 90 euros. The quiet village setting and the cave room make an unhurried solo lunch that feels a world away from the resort terraces. Come at midday, take a table against the rock, and order the lake fish.
Reserve a midday table; Brienno is quietest at lunch.
4.Il Sereno Al Lago
Raffaele Lenzi's one-star room floating on the water at Torno, worth the boat. Fly in for it once.
Il Sereno Al Lago occupies the dock of the Patricia Urquiola-designed Il Sereno hotel in Torno, a dining room set on the water so the lake is present beneath your table and beyond every window. Chef Raffaele Lenzi, a Neapolitan with London, New York and Rome behind him, has held a Michelin star here since 2017, cooking across regional Italian references, vegan dishes and Asian notes with unusual balance. A tasting runs around 150 euros. For a solo diner this is the lake's most cinematic single lunch, the full kitchen and the full view both turned toward your one table. Take the water taxi over from Como, book a lunch seat by the glass wall, and let the meal run long.
Book a lunch seat and take the water taxi from Como.
5.Gatto Nero
An 18th-century villa above Cernobbio with a deep cellar, for a serious solo lunch. Settle in.
Gatto Nero, the Black Cat, sits in the lane above Cernobbio in an 18th-century villa with a terrace that looks straight across to the gardens of Villa d'Este. It has received the famous and the powerful for decades, with suited waiters and a confidence that comes from a room that has always been full. The cooking is classic northern Italian and the wine list runs deep in Italian and Burgundy bottles. A solo lunch with a glass runs around 80 to 120 euros. It is a grand room rather than a casual one, but it seats a single diner with old-school care, which is exactly the point. Come for lunch, ask the floor for a glass, and settle in.
Reserve for lunch; ask the floor to open something by the glass.
6.Mistral
Ettore Bocchia's one-star kitchen with two arms of the lake in view, reborn for 2026. Pencil it in.
Mistral occupies the tip of the Bellagio promontory at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, where Lake Como divides into its two branches and the view takes in both at once, a sightline no other table on the lake holds. Chef Ettore Bocchia has run the kitchen for over thirty years, and in 2026 the room was reborn as a glass theatre open to the water. His one-star cooking is erudite and creative, built on the finest ingredients and the villa's own garden herbs, with a tasting around 150 euros. A single diner is seated with the same care as any couple, with the double-lake view to themselves. Book ahead and take a window table.
Reserve ahead and ask for a window table over the promontory.
Avoid for solo dining
Right city, wrong room for one
Alle Darsene di Loppia. The garden room at the end of a restricted lane through the Villa Melzi grounds is one of Bellagio's most romantic lunches, a terrace so close to the water it reflects in the wine glasses. It is engineered for couples lingering over a long afternoon, and a single cover at the end of that walk feels stranded. Go with company, or take your solo lunch to a room that watches the kitchen.
Al Veluu. The terraced room above Tremezzo is a destination built for the view and the celebration, the kind of place you climb to for an anniversary lunch with the lake spread below. The setting is the event, which leaves a solo diner watching a panorama meant to be shared. Save it for a trip with someone, and eat alone where the room is the kitchen rather than the view.
Solo dining strategy in Lake Como
Lunch is the solo move on Lake Como, and the room matters more than the water. The kitchens that watch themselves, the communal table at Dispensa 63 and the chef's-eye rooms at Materia and Crotto dei Platani, seat a single diner without the awkwardness of a two-top by the lake, and the starred dining rooms keep their scarce midday seats easier to land for one than at dinner. Book the small rooms well ahead, because 24-seat Dispensa 63 and thirty-cover Materia sell out fast.
Use the water. Il Sereno at Torno is best reached by water taxi from Como, and the lake-shore rooms in the smaller villages sit twenty minutes from the Como and Cernobbio crowds. Where a grand-hotel room such as Gatto Nero or Mistral feels built for couples, lean on the floor and let the staff open a glass and pace the meal.
Frequently asked
What is the best restaurant for solo dining on Lake Como?
Dispensa 63 in Bellagio is the top pick. The 24-seat room, sixty-three steps up the Salita Cavour, is built around a single communal table with an open kitchen, which makes it the friendliest solo seat on the lake. The inventive contemporary menu changes constantly and runs around 60 to 80 euros. There are no walk-ins, so reserve well ahead and take a centre seat at the shared table.
Where can a solo diner eat well on Lake Como without a grand-hotel dinner?
The village kitchens are the answer. Dispensa 63 runs a communal table, Materia is a focused one-star tasting room, and Crotto dei Platani in Brienno is a quiet cave room. All three are built around the cooking rather than the view, which suits a single diner.
Can a solo diner eat at Lake Como's Michelin-starred restaurants?
Yes. Materia in Cernobbio, Il Sereno Al Lago in Torno and Mistral at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio all hold a Michelin star and seat a single diner with full care. Lunch is the easier service to land for one, and a solo seat by the glass wall at Il Sereno, on the water at Torno, is one of the most cinematic single meals in Italy.
Which Lake Como restaurant has communal or counter seating?
Dispensa 63 in Bellagio is the standout, a single communal table for 24 with window stools and an open kitchen. Materia and Crotto dei Platani are small, chef-driven rooms where a single diner sits close to the cooking, the easiest places on the lake to eat alone.
Is lunch or dinner better for solo dining on Lake Como?
Lunch. The small rooms keep their scarce seats easier to land for one at midday, the starred kitchens are more relaxed, and the villages are quieter than at the dinner hour. A solo lunch on the water at Il Sereno, reached by water taxi, or at the communal table at Dispensa 63 beats a grand-hotel dinner built around tables for two.
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