Victoria Grill — Restaurant in Varenna

While exploring Varenna in search of a place to eat, we happened to meet a woman on her break who warmly recommended the restaurant she works at — Victoria Grille. We decided to follow her suggestion, and we’re so glad we did.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the kitchen closed for their dinner break, but the the waiter Mauro kindly seated us anyway, which we truly appreciated he was very kind. For starters, we had the Bresaola della Valtellina con rucola e sciatt and the Parmigiana di Melanzane. The eggplant parm was a standout — light, flavorful, and beautifully prepared. While the bresaola was good, I would especially recommend the parmigiana.

For our main course, we ordered three servings of lake perch over lemon risotto, which we paired with a bottle of Opera wine. The risotto had a delicate lemon flavor and was creamy without being heavy — perfectly balanced. We also shared a Margherita pizza, which was generously sized and great for sharing.

To end the meal, we ordered both the cannoli and the tiramisu, along with three espressos. The desserts were delicious — the tiramisu in particular was airy and elegant, and the presentation across the board was excellent.

To our delight, the woman who originally recommended the restaurant, Paola, ended up serving us dessert after her break. She was incredibly kind and even brought us complimentary limoncello, then shared some wonderful recommendations for other places to visit in Italy.

Thank you, Paola, and thanks to all the staff at Victoria Grille for such a memorable and heartwarming dining experience. Highly...

My partner and I had a table booked for the wrong evening sadly, which is our fault. However, we were made to feel stupid for doing so. There was no offer of help or solution from staff and we had to enquire about takeaway food although there were free tables. My partner needs gluten free and was made to feel stupid for trying to order a gluten free pizza that it says they serve online that they no longer offer. We ordered takeaway which we watched the chef unwillingly agree to make. We then waited awkwardly for 20 minutes and was made to feel unwelcome by management and in the way by staff. The food was then cold when we received it, the pizza box was stone cold before we left the restaurant.

I've never been made to feel so unwelcome anywhere before, the rest of Italy has been amazing but avoid this place unless you are looking for appalling service.

And just to add insult to Injury, when my partner had calmed down enough to open her food, we found the enclosed (pic attached). Apparently we paid €16 euros for that.

UPDATE AFTER RESPONSE: The Restaurant had responded to say I've left three bad reviews, I haven't, I posted one and so did my partner separately.

Secondly, we were told if we wanted to wait around we might get a table but no guarantees and we were not offered any drinks while we waited, we were awkwardly stood around with no guidance from staff or offer to wait anywhere out of the way of the kitchen.

You can't write your way out of bad service, don't go here, the 3.5 stars is not low enough. They've even admitted their website...

By far the worst dining experience we have had in all of Italy, but especially Varenna. We ate here on our last night (despite the bad reviews) because it was supposed to rain and it’s a sheltered restaurant. We ordered a Langhe Nebbiolo, tuna tartare, and pizza. The tuna was disgusting…it was brown and didn’t even look like raw tuna, with undercooked quinoa on top. It seemed like it had been prepared many hours or even days before we ordered it. They didn’t seem alarmed that we only took a couple bites. A short sweaty bald man (wish I had gotten his name) brought the wrong wine to the table. We didn’t notice at first that it wasn’t what we ordered, but after a few sips realized it wasn’t a Langhe Nebbiolo, nor could we even find it on the menu. When we called them out the man was so rude, snatched up the bottle of wine, and proceeded to try to charge us over 20 euro for 2 glasses of some unrecognizable wine…when we didn’t even finish his first small pour, but he claimed we drank “half the bottle”. Total BS. We just wanted what we ordered, but they said they didn’t have it. Would have been nice to know that when he brought the wrong bottle out in the first place. He treated us like we were trying to scam him, when in fact I wonder how often he brings a cheaper bottle to the table and gets away with charging more for it. Save yourself the headache/stomachache and don’t go here. There are so many other delicious and enchanting dining...