La Trattoria Costantin — Restaurant in Menaggio

Best meal I’ve had since coming to Lake Como! There are quite a number of good restaurants around Lake Como but so far the very best meals I’ve had is at La Trattoria. Not only the food is great but every server and the owner (mom) are super friendly and welcoming.

I was a bit skeptical about coming here since the rating is 3.9 on Google but since many of the other restaurants require a reservation, I stopped by this place to ask if they might have a table for walk in. The owner told us to just take any empty table. They are just happy customers come patronize the place. Most restaurants in the area just put out a sign indicating that the place is full. But this place seems to welcome anyone as long as they have a table available. Such a class act that other restaurants should follow.

We ordered a pizza and pasta and they both far exceeded our expectations. We’ve been coming to italy for over 30 years and have tried many wonderful restaurants across the country (not to mention we live in Little Italy back home) so we’re no stranger to wonderful Italian meals. But the pizza here has the perfect crunch and is thin crust, just the way I love it. The toppings were excellent as well. But for me, it’s all about the crust. And this places makes it perfectly. The pasta is called Tagliatelle. I’ve never had it before and decided to give it a try. It was super delicious. The texture of the pasta was also cooked to perfection, not too hard and not too soggy. I’m extremely picky when it comes to the texture of pasta and they got it just right here. Bravo!!!

We ordered the tiramisu but didn’t stay long enough for it to get here. There was a guy sitting adjacent to our table decided to light up a cigarette and share his second-hand smoke with everyone. It was blowing toward us and we couldn’t stand sitting there to wait for our dessert. I asked for a takeout but the waitress couldn’t provide that because it’s served with a glass container. So we’ll come back to try it at another time.

What makes it even better is that the prices are extremely low. 7 Euro for a Margarita pizza…it’s unreal how low they charge! Our bill came to less than 40 euro where’s we ate lunch at our hotel restaurant and the bill was 90 euro for much less food and not as great. There is no reason to eat at any other places in the area. This restaurant is hands down the best. A must try...

We were unsure where to go, so following a quick browse, gave this place a try. Tucked away from the main streets, this place was very busy and looked ok.

The issues:

€11 chicken salad, was nothing more than a bowl of iceberg lettuce, with a few very small pieces of pre cooked chicken thrown atop, along with around half of a tomato and a dollup of mayonnaise.

House white wine- I wasn't expecting much, but just for your info, it's drawn from a gas powered pump, so if you do not like wine that is Frizzante, avoid this, as it does in the first instance carry bubbles.

Small portions. Both a pizza & pasta that we ordered were of ok quality, but very small portions, which at €14 for the pasta, I thought to be poor value.

No oils/balsamic or s+p offered at any stage.

€2cover charge per person, which is neither pre warned nor seemingly optional.

Overall, for our first meal in Italy I was seriously disappointed & left feeling that I wish I hadn't bothered. Nothing exceeded at home standards of cooking and with a better back/forth dialogue I'd have been raising...

Oh this is bad. Best thing were the French fries for the children. Unfortunately without tomato sauce (Ketchup), because they took away the basket after we took out one pack. At least here they are on a par with McDonald’s.

But we didn’t come for the fries. We came for pizza - which is really bad. And I’ve done my fair share of uneatable pizza in my life. And we came for drinks - which various waitresses did not bring after an initial order, even after a friendly reminder. On the plus side - the second round did not show up on the bill. But that did not wipe out the general impression of the poor service. Waitresses were either overly snippy and/or stressed out. And we experienced a couple, because there doesn’t seem to be an assignment to the table, at least it is not recognizable.

This location is best to be avoided. Don’t fall for the busy Italian atmosphere in the romantic alleyway or even the long queue at...