Ristorante La Pergola
Perched right on the water's edge with a vine-shaded pergola terrace, La Pergola has been serving traditional Lago di Como cuisine to locals and knowing visitors for decades. This is where you eat missoltini con polenta, risotto al pesce persico, and grilled lake fish with a carafe of house Valtellina red and a view that makes every bite taste better.
What to order
Start with missoltini — the pressed, salted and dried agone fish that is the defining flavour of Lake Como's cucina povera. They arrive grilled and drizzled with oil and vinegar, served with slabs of golden polenta. It's an acquired taste for some, but it's irreplaceable and you won't find it fresher than here.
For a main, the risotto al pesce persico (perch risotto) is the benchmark dish of the lake's restaurant culture: creamy, delicate, finished with lake butter and a whisper of saffron. The grilled lavarello (whitefish) is the lighter alternative and equally good.
The setting and booking
The pergola terrace hangs over the lake wall and on calm evenings the water is close enough to touch. Tables fill quickly on summer weekends, so book ahead by phone — the restaurant is family-run and doesn't always maintain an online reservation system.
Service is unhurried in the best Italian tradition; don't come if you're in a rush. Come for a long lunch when the light on the water is at its best and you have nowhere else to be.
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