Trattoria da Elia e Ugo — Restaurant in Comunità Montana Valli del Verbano

We were more or less „greeted“ at 21.30h, 1.5h before the closing time by a waitress and the super annoyed-looking cook who didnt want to serve us at all initially because it was „already too late“, the oven and the grill were allegedly already off in the middle of the evening. Eventually we got a table in the empty basement. Then we waited there for another 15 minutes before my friend finally managed to attract the attention of the waitress. We were then informed by another waitress that they had been discussing for 15 minutes (?) and that we would only be able to order a pasta dish because „they had too many dishes to wash“ and would then be given another 10-15 minutes to finish it. After that time, the most bland and uninspiring pasta with vongole and cozze of my life came to our table, swimming in a mixture of soup and oil as demonstrated in the pictures and with multiple mussles refusing to open up. We then got out of there asap and the waitress asked „no coffee or dessert?“, but we told them we didn‘t want to take away any more of their time and called it a night. The desserts in The tray didn‘t look particularly appetizing anyway and on the way out we saw the 6 tables full of the patrons who were already there when we were entering earlier, still not having had their half-empty plates removed (most of them were also remains of the same pasta swimming in the same concoction so apparently noone entering after 2 hours of closing time was allowed anything else than pasta because of „washing dishes“), so I guess it was a long night for the staff to „wash dishes“ after that. Cannot recommend under any circumstances, food as horrible as the service and they seem to not want to have to serve paying customers anyway. I truly cannot understand how they got such a...

Food portions were huge and taste really great! Menu had a lot of options to select from. They have a pasta cooked with Sea Urchin!

We had: Octopus with Baked Potato - a little vinaigrette in this appetizer in which that opens up the taste palette. Seafood Pasta - as the picture shows, super a lot of ingredients and the taste mix was awesome. Mussels with Sea Urchin - an awesome find! The strong taste of urchin blends nicely with the herbs and mussles and the linguine was cooked to perfection (imo). Pistachio Biscuity Cake - Very nice homemade cake with generous serving of pistachio on it and in the cream. Sweet top off to the meal we had :)

In short, a great find off a small alley from the main road. Topped off the experience with extremely helpful and friendly staff to us...

A Hidden Gem in Luino!

We stumbled upon this incredible family-owned Italian restaurant in Luino and were absolutely blown away. From the moment we walked in, the staff made us feel like part of the family—so welcoming, so genuine. The chef even came out to show us the fresh tuna that was part of the day's special, which was a lovely personal touch and made the meal feel extra special.

They were fantastic with children—patient, kind, and clearly used to making little ones feel at home. The portions were enormous (come hungry!) and every dish was bursting with flavor. You can taste the love and tradition in every bite.

If you're anywhere near Luino, do yourself a favor and eat here. Highly recommended—we’ll be dreaming about that meal for...