Where to eat ITALY 🇮🇹 Bern: Lorenzini

Lorenzini

Hotelgasse 10, Bern

Published January 21, 2025 · by Amanda Rivkin Häsler 

What we ordered:

For two people, one insalata verde and one small portion of vitello tonnato to start and a pappardelle Lorenzini and risotto gamberoni for main courses. To drink, two glasses of Vermentino (white wine) for an apéro and a bottle of the same wine with the meal and as an aperitif after, two limoncello.

Cost: 205 CHF / €216 / $241

We love Lorenzini so much we had our wedding party there and at the club downstairs. Our Italian Swiss global dinner marked the first time we went back for a proper dinner since we married in the spring. The food and service are both always impeccable, but once you have hosted the biggest party of your life there, you become a different kind of guest, one who celebrated a great occasion in their house.

Lorenzini was initially founded to push the wines of the Bindella vineyards. But the food was so remarkable, the restaurant became one of the largest success stories in Bern. The dining room itself is elegant, lowly lit within the old city, down the street from the famous Zytglogge clock tower. The artworks, often evocative of water, transport you somehow to another place, a coastal restaurant somewhere by the sea, even if it is not the seafood but the pasta and meat dishes that Lorenzini is really known for.

Before we get to the trademark delicious specialties of the house, let us run through the appetizers. Georg always likes to begin his pasta monstering with a salad. Since pasta is dough and meat with some tomato sauce usually, a nominal acknowledgment of vegetables at least starts things on a healthy footing. He had a simple green salad, fresh of course, with no adornments, not even the egg or bacon that make a traditional Swiss-style “nüssli” salad.

I was more exciting and had the vitello tonnato, but a small portion, as I know risotto at Lorenzini to be exquisitely rich. The vitello tonnato, served cold with some capers, was just the perfect amount. It is a dish I have not yet learned to make nor am I particularly qualified to slice veal so thin. At our wedding, we had the carpaccio but this was a thin meat dish I had yet to try at Lorenzini. Like all things Lorenzini, delicate and not disappointing in the least.

For the mains, we went for the mainstays of the Lorenzini menu, the pasta dishes. Georg had his favorite suco Lorenzini-style, which is to say the best in the world in his opinion. If he could, he would eat all his meals at Lorenzini and perhaps even live on the block as all his favorite shops are there: his local independent bookstore, French clothing brand Lacoste, even the Aesop shop where he gets his parfum. But at the center of this lifestyle, is a jewel called Lorenzini and a dish famous for its suco. He did swap the pappardelle for pici though, a thinner spaghetti that soaks up even more of his favorite sauce.

I ordered my favorite dish of theirs, the risotto with gamberoni or large shrimp. There is a lemon creaminess that makes it even more particular and rich than the risotto that comes as a side with any of the main dishes that are not pasta, like, for example, the osso buco we had served at our wedding. While the traditional side of risotto is very delicious, the main dish of risotto with large shrimp is more so.

Because Lorenzini began as a way to market the wines of the vineyard, the wines are of course exquisite as well. The Vermentino is a classic dry white wine, and really the beginning of my journey into quality Italian wines having spent far more time in France and Spain before moving to a country neighboring Italy earlier in life. Italian wines are a world yet to explore, comparatively.

We also finished not with dessert because we were so very full and still have a bit of the pastry left in our freezer for our anniversary (an American wedding tradition) from Danieli, their signature pastry supplier across town. Instead, we opted for two glasses of limoncello, house made of course.

There is not a night spent at Lorenzini that is forgettable. Maybe it is the food, maybe the company, perhaps the memories, but certainly because it may be the finest Italian restaurant outside of Italy. It is certainly as good as anything in Italy and in many cases, perhaps even better.

How to get to Italy from Switzerland: 

Italy is accessible from Switzerland by rail, with connections daily to Milan. Southern Italy and Sicily are a bit more complicated and it might be easier by car or airplane, or even by ship to the islands. From Bern to Milan, it is approximately two and a half hours, and roughly six hours to Rome, by rail. Unlike in Switzerland, rail lines are less reliable in Italy so while the Swiss part of the journey may be speedier by rail, the Italian leg of the journey could prove faster by car, though then you have to deal with Italian driving.

Swiss and ITA Airways operate numerous nonstop flights daily between Zürich and Rome that take roughly 90 minutes. To Milan, Swiss Air and Ethiopian Airlines fly direct with a flight time of approximately one hour. From Geneva to Rome, EasyJet and Ita Airways fly direct but no nonstop flights are available to Milan. 

How many Italians are in Switzerland: Almost 350,000 

Distance between Bern and Rome: 931 km 

Distance from the Lorenzini to Rome: 931 km

Learn how to make Italy's national dish, pasta con sugo, and about its origins.

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