Lampadina — Restaurant in Bologna

Lampadina is a rare spot in Bologna for those craving for a more international breakfast or brunch.

The cafe has both indoor and outdoor seating, although the streets those face is highly trafficked and can get jammed: an NO2 flavoured meal is surely not on anyone’s schedule 😅.

Sadly, the indoor seating area is not a/c’d and I’ve noticed both tables and chairs not thoroughly clean, so careful of where you rest your butts as you might find unpleasant gifts once back to your lodging 🤭.

Moving on to the food now, I took an avocado on toast, which has a fried egg on top and strips of crunchy bacon (sorry 🐷s).

The toast itself was good, not shockingly good but just plain good. Not extremely flavoured, a pinch of black pepper or chillies would have done the trick.

My drink was iced coffee, which was ok too.

The staff is courteous but be careful is you are traveling alone: there’s no table service, which means you have to go back and forth between counter and table for ordering, taking your order and bringing back your stuff once tucked in.

In summary, Lampadina gives you a labour intensive fair breakfast or brunch in the old town of Bologna.

If the weak spots I’ve highlighted were fixed, this place could get more...

We were fortunate enough to find this little gem right at the end of the street where we were staying, but I know I would travel across town to go back here if I had to.

Lampadina is a queer friendly and inclusive café and we certainly felt safe and welcome here. It's slightly off the beaten path from the hustle and bustle of the main square but it doesn't fail to attract the crowds at the weekends.

All of the staff members were so friendly and allowed us to practice our Italian.

If their merch was in the café we'd have definitely have spent a few Euros!

We were fortunate enough to try the following:

Lucio bagel - stracchino cheese, cherry tomatoes, pesto, and toasted pine nuts. Deliziosa!

Elettra bagel - this consisted of local mortadella ham, squaquerone cheese and Sicilian pistachios pesto. Aleks looked rather content after trying some of the local specialties.

Freshly squeezed orange juice - look at that COLOUR.

Cappuccinos - the froth was to die for.

Hazelnut filled croissant - Aleks said this was incredible and that she could really taste the hazelnuts. She had to do a serious mop up afterwards.

Plains croissant - flakey goodness.

Chocolate chip biscuits -...

Welcome to the most pretentious place in Bologna! If you’re looking for second rate food and cardboard-tasting fake American coffee, I think you’ve found the place. Ask for an americano: you’ll get an espresso with hot water, no thanks. If you take the chance for a second opinion and ask for filtered coffee, wait 15mins and receive the result of putting a piece of cardboard in hot water. Brunch is an idea they’re not able to realize properly and it’s overpriced. Tramezzini, sandwiches and paninis have one thing in common: they cost A LOT, the bread is horrible and almost no taste cause there’s quite nothing in it. I went there several times cause it’s close to home and I like to have more than a single experience. Today has been definitely the last time. Slice of cake (like the one you can make yourself with Cameo): 5€, espresso: 1,3€. I’ll definitely walk more and reach for a better place to have something good. Won’t be...