Passalacqua restaurant: Viviana Varese’s cooking, the prices and how to book as a non-resident

Viviana Varese, whom the hotel calls its “chef di casa”, was born in Maiori on the Amalfi Coast in 1974, opened Alice in Milan in 2007 and took her first MICHELIN star there, which the hotel dates to 2009 and she, in an interview, to 2012 (Voices, Identità Golose). She has led Passalacqua’s kitchen since 18 March 2024 (Identità Golose).

The hotel calls it “grand villa cuisine”: the monsù tradition and 18th- and 19th-century aristocratic recipes beside her own dishes, such as her mother’s pasta e patate (Taste, Voices). The printed dishes include lobster with Marsala, sole meunière, a timballo of maccheroni “alla Bellini” and a Beef Wellington carved from the trolley (CiboToday, Scatti di Gusto).

Much of it comes from the grounds: eggs from the hens that scratch about by the lake, jams from the orchard, tomatoes from the kitchen garden beside the bocce court (2026 article, gardens). In autumn a menu follows the Alba white truffle; in 2024 the game and truffle dinner cost €210 a head, plus truffle by the gram (autumn, menu).

Until autumn 2024 the restaurant was for residents only; CiboToday reported its opening to outside guests on 16 November 2024 (CiboToday). Several sites still give a “smart and elegant” dress code, Google’s summary among them, while the hotel answers that none is required (Alotea, hotel’s answer).

Of the 6, only Il Sereno Al Lago, across the water at Torno, holds a MICHELIN star, since 2017 (MICHELIN); its October 2026 tasting menu costs €220 (menu). Villa d’Este’s Veranda, 7 minutes away, is open to all, prints a €210 autumn tasting menu and asks men for a jacket at dinner (menu).

Passalacqua is the only one with no menu online and no published hours, booked only by email or phone, and the only one whose dress code is “none”. Its last printed tasting prices, €190 to €250, sit in the same band as the others: €240 to €280 at La Terrazza in Tremezzo, €250 at L’Aria, €295 at Mistral.