Ristorante Malga Ces
Perched at 1,750 m on the gentle alp above the village, Malga Ces is a working dairy farm and restaurant where the cheese on your plate was made that morning from the milk of cows grazing 50 metres away. It is the most honest, delicious and scenically situated meal you will eat in the Primiero valley.
What to Order
Start with a tagliere di malga — a wooden board loaded with fresh Trentingrana shavings, aged Primiero cheese, speck from the Primiero valley and pickled vegetables. Follow it with strangolapreti (spinach-and-bread dumplings) in brown butter and sage, a dish so specific to this valley that you will struggle to find it done better anywhere else.
The house dessert is a warm apple strudel made with apples from the orchard below the farm, served with a cloud of whipped cream. Pair everything with the local Vino dei Dogi white or simply order the house water — it comes from the spring behind the barn.
The Farm Experience
Arrive between 17:00 and 18:00 on any weekday in July or August and you can watch the afternoon milking in the adjacent barn — the farmer is accustomed to curious visitors and will usually explain the cheese-making process in Italian (and often in German or English).
The malga also sells vacuum-packed cheeses and small jars of alpine honey to take home. They are excellent, and the provenance is as transparent as it gets: the cow whose milk made your cheese is visible through the barn window.
Getting There
Malga Ces is reachable on foot from the village in about 90 minutes via trail CAI 347, or by mountain bike on the gravel track from Passo Rolle road. In summer a 4WD shuttle sometimes runs from the village — ask at the tourist office for the current schedule.
There is no mobile signal at the malga, which is either a bug or a feature depending on your outlook. Reservations are strongly recommended for dinner; walk-ins are usually welcome for lunch before 13:00.
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