Tipografia Alimentare is well positioned with outdoor tables along the Martesana canal in the north of Loreto (Nolo) area. At breakfast, the counter-service cafeteria serves whole-grain pastries like cardamom buns with coffee from top Italian microroasters. Lunch and dinner bring table service, along with a menu of seasonal comfort food: warm root vegetable salads, slow-cooked bean soups, and charcuterie boards paired with natural Italian wines. On Fridays, the shop’s talented bakers flex their talents with sweet and savory maritozzi (sweet buns).

Altatto’s ethereal spin on vegetarian fine dining is a pleasant break from Milan’s meaty fare, but don’t expect the highly conceptual menu to be a snooze. The two chef partners — Sara Nicolosi and Cinzia de Lauri — met at Joia, where they worked with chef Pietro Leemann. In the warm, spartan interior or in the hidden outdoor courtyard, you’ll find a rotating vegetarian tasting menu with dishes like crispy porcini mushrooms with wild foraged herbs, or buckwheat gnocchetti with sweet potato slow-cooked in clay. The chefs deploy an element of surprise in every course and pair meals with a selective list of natural wines.

Uruguayan chef Juan Lema, who named Trattoria Mirta after his mother, puts his own spin on traditional northern Italian dishes. In winter, try the squash in saor, enriched with raisins and pine nuts. Better yet, stop by in warmer months for the cotolette in carpione, a vinegar-marinated variation on the cult classic Milanese.

Chef Andrea Berton trained under the revered founder of new Italian cuisine, Gualtiero Marchesi, before expanding his repertoire in London and then Monaco under the guidance of Alain Ducasse. At his own restaurant, Berton earned a Michelin star in 2014 after less than two years thanks to his gorgeous dishes, flawless technique, and minimal ingredients. The chef is known for his deep passion for brodo, or “broth,” so you can expect dishes like tender grilled beef sirloin and smoked potato cannoli paired with grappa-sprayed beef broth, or cod tripe with Trasimeno beans bathed in prosciutto broth.

Close to Milan’s Centrale train station, this historic family-run osteria serves traditional northern Italian fare and an exquisite selection of Lombard cheese. The lightly adorned dining rooms welcome workers during the week and families on the weekends, when groups line up for anchovies bathed in Italian salsa verde, risotto Milanese, and traditional cassoeula (pork and cabbage stew). Stay hungry for desserts made in-house, like pistachio and hot pepper gelato or mandarin sorbet. On your way out, try to peek into the elegant Liberty-style great hall next door, an iconic events space in the city since 1898.

Anyone who’s enjoyed an aperitivo lately can thank Bar Basso, an institution that helped expand quality predinner cocktails beyond the walls of sophisticated international hotels. In 1967, Mirko Stocchetto, a barman who had worked at Harry’s Bar in Venice, took over the space, at that time a neighborhood haunt. A year later, while preparing a Negroni, he accidentally swapped gin with prosecco, unintentionally creating the Negroni sbagliato (literally “wrong”), which soon became a classic cocktail and symbol of Milanese hedonism. Bar Basso remains popular with the art and fashion crowd (especially during fashion week and design week), as well as with local retirees enjoying a predinner drink.

Porta Venezia has multiple well-established Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants, but Adulis is a local favorite for its dark, ornate interior, music, and small selection of Champagne. Choose between injera plates of lamb, beef, chicken, or fish with spicy berbere seasoning. The mixed vegetables are also hearty with cabbage, chickpeas, lentils, and cooked greens.

Third-generation chef Michele De Liguoro named Rovello 18 after the address of his family’s fine dining restaurant Da Pierino, a Michelin-starred destination in the 1950s. De Liguoro isn’t chasing a star at Rovello 18, instead offering a more casual answer to Da Pierino. The homey yet upscale osteria fare includes pasta paired with creamy broccoli rabe, clams, and bottarga, as well as crispy risotto al salto topped with Lombard taleggio. At lunch, shoppers along Via Garibaldi and nearby office workers crowd in to enjoy seasonal antipasti, including sauteed artichokes, puntarelle salad, and grilled peppers tonnati (caper-spiked tuna sauce). Rovello 18 is also a wine destination: Its collection of over 800 bottles is replete with microproducers and crucial bottles from Italy and France.

For the ultimate cheap eat just a few minutes from Piazza Duomo, check out the superlative Neapolitan pizza fritta (fried pizza) at Zia Esterina Sorbillo, among Milan’s melting pot of regional Italian dishes. The puffy, long-fermented, fried-to-order dough is best filled with meats like salami, cicoli (fried pork fat), or prosciutto. For purists, there’s tomato, cheese, and black pepper, with the simple combination of ricotta and provola di bufala that will more than satisfy. Rip off the top of the glossy pocket and squeeze up the gooey, cheesy center. Extra napkins are vital.

This Milanese aperitivo establishment sits within the historic Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, facing Piazza Duomo, and it boasts over 100 years of history. (Rumor has it Davide Campari was born upstairs.) Hungry aperitivo enthusiasts can reserve upstairs tables to taste morsels of squash, balsamic vinegar, and Grana Padano cheese, stracciatella and figs with port, and octopus and lime panella (chickpea fritters).

Across town from the team’s all-day cafe-cum-bakery/laboratory, Pavé’s gelateria churns some of the most exquisite gelato in Italy. The shop is committed to seasonal, meticulous sourcing, and sugar is applied lightly in the classic cream- and fruit-based varieties of gelato and granita. The sleek, minimal design of the shop matches the small-batch philosophy, too. Intense Piedmont hazelnut, fair-trade chocolate, and Bronte pistachio are among the traditional options, but experimental flavors, including ricotta, limone with olive, and white chocolate with lime and salt, rotate in and out.

Residents flock to Japanese-born Yoji Tokuyoshi’s restaurant for the rotating menu paired with natural wines. The chef showcases his experience as the longtime right-hand man to revered chef Massimo Bottura and at his own (now closed) Michelin-starred Ristorante Tokuyoshi. Dishes might include grilled eel glazed with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, fried veal tongue katsu sandwiches with cappuccio cabbage, and frog leg karaage.

Tucked away behind Basilica de Sant’Eustorgio, Enoteca Naturale’s large outdoor yard is full of Milanese drinking natural wine and snacking on house-made focaccia or small plates of lamb, artichoke, and creamy cicerchie beans. With over 300 labels, the natural wine collection is the largest in the city. If you need a good reason to drink more great wine, the bar donates some of its profits to its garden space cohabitant, a nonprofit organization that offers free high-quality medical treatment to the poor. Reserve online for a table at aperitivo or dinner.

Husband-and-wife duo Okhee Lee and Kihyuk Jung pull from their shared Korean and her Japanese backgrounds to create the colorful menu at Li-Sei Deli: bibimbap with black rice, orzo, farro with beef, shokupan sandwiches, and onigiri. Arrive early and order at the counter for a chance to sit inside and admire the Nordic design vibes, put together by Jung, who studied set design at Milan’s prestigious Brera Academy. The Korean fried chicken is a must.

28 Posti is a respite from the young crowds that gather on the cobblestones outside bars along the canals in Navigli. Owner Silvia Orazi’s mother welcomes guests to the small restaurant, with a delightful interior that allows the modern food and natural wines to shine. Meanwhile, chef duo Andrea Zazzara and Franco Salvatore work in the windowed kitchen in full view. Select a tasting menu of three, five, eight, or 10 dishes (vegetarians will not be disappointed if they give the restaurant advance notice). Or go a la carte with wacky yet seamless plates like guinea fowl breast with milk, honey, offal ragu, chocolate gelato, radish, kefir, and tarragon.

In 2019, Enrico Bartolini’s restaurant at the MUDEC museum became the first in the city to achieve three Michelin stars. Bartolini first made his mark abroad, in the kitchens of Paolo Petrini in Paris and Mark Page in London, before returning to work in Italy at Le Robinie restaurant, where he earned the restaurant a Michelin star at 29. Fresh spaghetti, toasted lemon, squid, whiskey, caviar, grilled artichoke, black garlic, and beef marrow are some of the highlights on the nine-course tasting menu, which will set you back.

While many Italian drinkers steadfastly adhere to terroir and agrarian tradition, Cantina Urbana’s microwinery just outside Milan’s center is successfully pushing against those boundaries. Taking inspiration from New York’s Brooklyn Winery, lively entrepreneur and founder Michele Rimpici caters to a new crop of drinkers with an alternative space for winemaking and tasting in an urban setting. With grapes from the regions of Oltrepò Pavese, Valpolicella, and the slopes of Mount Etna, Cantina Urbana ages wines in steel, amphorae, and wooden barrels. Along with bottles for purchase, the winery offers tastings and tours. There are also local snacks, charcuterie boards abundant with Lombard cheeses and salumi, and no-frills cicchetti that make for a filling aperitivo to stave off hunger before dinner.

You’ll find Erba Brusca alongside the Naviglio Pavese canal, where the city begins to blend with smaller towns. The restaurant has an expansive on-site vegetable garden and an overall radical-chic vibe to go with the hyperlocal, seasonal tasting menu that changes weekly. Chef Alice Delcourt takes influence from her youth, split among France, the U.K., and the U.S. Options might include braised octopus with preserved sweet peppers, olives, capers, and fresh chickpea pancake, or kale risotto with sun-dried tomato pesto, sunflower seeds, and lemon.

Ratanà opened in 2009 in a fin-de-siecle villa located in the middle of a once run-down neighborhood, and it has become a Milan culinary landmark since the opening of Bosco Verticale in 2015, architect Stefano Boeri’s stunning residential vertical forest just next door. Chef Cesare Battisti offers creative spins on local cuisine on a shifting menu: Think seasonal variations of Italian risotto, squash blossoms with basil pesto, and game hen accompanied by lemon-glazed scallions for summer. That said, if you are looking for pure Milanese fare, the restaurant offers that too; the saffron-infused risotto and osso buco are available year round. Don’t forget to order at least 48 hours ahead for the la costoletta, a thick Piedmontese veal cutlet breaded and fried in raw, clarified Domodossola mountain butter.

This 126-year-old wine shop is located on Chinatown’s bustling main thoroughfare. Although Cantine Isola sells more than 1,500 wines by the bottle, it’s best to stop in and savor the by-the-glass selection while snacking on crostini, charcuterie, and aged cheese passed around by the friendly bar staff. Go early to guarantee a seat before the Milanese masses spill out of the bar into an entire sidewalk scene. Tuesdays are poetry nights.

Third-generation butcher Walter Sirtori and textile entrepreneur Hujian “Agie” Zhou joined forces to open this ravioleria (literally a “dumpling shop”) right next to Sirtori’s butcher shop. They prepare all of the Chinese dumplings on the premises, filling them with whatever cuts of beef or pork Sirtori’s supplier has handy. Their version of jianbing is the ultimate snack after a few glasses of wine across the street at Cantine Isola.

This high-end restaurant has a well-rounded menu of Japanese dishes, but is primarily known for its sushi and sashimi selection, which is best appreciated at the counter. There, chef Yoshinobu Kurio is happy to offer off-menu suggestions of nigiri or maki, such as langoustine tempura or temaki made with raw red shrimp and avocado. Yoshinobu’s fish-to-rice ratio in the nigiri deserves a mention, too: The fish always completely cloaks the rice base.

Langosteria is a temple to seafood, especially crustaceans. Since the first location opened in 2007, followed by a bistro nearby in 2012 and a cafe in the city center in 2016, Langosteria has established itself as a stronghold in the Milanese seafood scene, and rightfully so. With raw fish platters (make sure you choose the one with shrimp from Mazara del Vallo), seafood-topped pastas, and Catalan-style main courses, Langosteria manages to deliver an upscale experience without the cold formality usually associated with high-end seafood restaurants.

Trippa (tripe) comes up a lot on the menu by chef Diego Rossi, who trained with Dolomites-based chef Norbert Niederkofler. The menu changes according to availability, but, as a general rule, the chef repurposes “peasant” cuisine: a risotto comes topped with silene, an herb known for its sweet and mild flavor, or a soup with nettle and cicerchia (a local legume that used to be a pantry staple but fell out of favor). Simplicity is key: Rossi never uses more than four ingredients for a dish. Trippa may be the hardest reservation to get in town, though, and online reservations open at midnight CET a week in advance. Set your alarm.

Aurora Zancanaro, a chemist turned celebrated baker, opened this second location of Le Polveri, on Via Vespri Siciliani, as a small all-day cafe and “bread laboratory.” Come for specialty coffee alongside flaky laminated pastries, yeast-leavened buns, and olive oil slicked focaccias, the last often topped with stracchino cheese and bitter greens. At lunch, a short, ever-changing menu includes baked eggs and slices of Zancanaro’s award-winning bread smothered with whipped butter and house-made jam.

Located a few steps from the bustling, touristy Piazza Duomo, Horto provides an ethereal escape, nestled on a rooftop with a view of the dome of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Chef Alberto Toè, under the guidance of Norbert Niederkofler, gained one Michelin star less than two years after opening the place. Outdoor tables are surrounded by a garden that provides the kitchen with plenty of ingredients, furnishings and finishes are made of natural and recycled materials, and a hyperlocal ethos drives the kitchen team, who source ingredients within an hour of Milan. A la carte selections and tasting menu highlights include pumpkin and beet carpaccio, pine-marinated beef with barbecued sunchokes, and oxtail raviolo in celeriac broth and parsley oil. Don’t miss the yogurt with persimmons, carrots, and Campari for dessert.

Mercato Centrale is a two-story wing of the train station that includes over 30 restaurants, bars, and shops, complete with ample space for dining in. Visit master baker Davide Longoni for the best pizza al taglio (by the slice) in the city: a warm rectangle of anchovy, cucumber, and burrata topped with fresh sage. You could also consider the Chinese dumplings by Agie Zhou or a cocktail at the counter of Mag, the sister outpost to 1930, Milan’s celebrated speakeasy on the World’s 50 Best Bars list. Upstairs, Marco Bruni sells Genovese classics including farinata (chickpea pancakes) and gooey focaccia di Recco, thin layers of unleavened dough stuffed with fresh crescenza cheese.

Chef Diego Rossi of Trippa (also on this list) shares his love for offal and cucina povera (peasant food) at Osteria Alla Concorrenza. Beef cartilage, pastissada di cavallo (horse meat stew), caponata, and a handful of crostini are some of the simple Italian dishes that jovial servers deliver on paper plates. The restaurant joins a wave of new natural wine bars in Milan, which serve a large variety of small dishes to fill you up from aperitivo hour to midnight. Osteria Alla Concorrenza is located in the heart of Via Melzo in Porta Venezia, a hotbed of new restaurants and bars where customers spill out onto the sidewalks on weekends.