Ristorante La Darsena, Lenno
Tucked beside Lenno's small boat dock, La Darsena serves the kind of straightforward, ingredient-led lake cooking that is increasingly hard to find on the tourist-heavy Como shore: silky missoltini (sun-dried agoni fish), golden-fried filetti di pesce persico, and a risotto al lago that changes with the season.
What to Order
The filetti di pesce persico — delicate perch fillets, lightly floured and pan-fried in butter and sage — are the dish to order. The fish comes from the lake itself, and the difference between fresh-caught and frozen is immediately apparent in the clean, sweet flavour.
Start with the antipasto di lago, a rotating selection that might include smoked trout, pickled lavarello (whitefish), and crostini spread with a pale trout mousse. The house white is a crisp Lugana from the southern shore of Garda, a reliable match for everything on the menu.
The Setting
A handful of outdoor tables sit directly on the dock, with boats bobbing a metre away and Villa del Balbianello visible across the water. In summer this terrace fills fast; book at least two days ahead for a lakeside table at lunch.
The interior is unpretentious — checked tablecloths, framed photographs of old Lenno, a chalkboard specials board. It's a restaurant that trusts its produce rather than its décor, which in this context is exactly right.
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