Acquarello

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Philosophy Built on Genuine Pleasure

At Acquarello on Mühlbaurstraße in Munich, chef Mario Gamba has spent more than three decades pursuing a single idea: that great food must touch something deeper than the palate. "To experience pleasure, we must open our hearts" — the words are his own, and they frame everything about this restaurant, from the way dishes are composed to the atmosphere in which they are served.

Gamba's path to Munich was anything but conventional. He began his working life as an interpreter for Spanish and French at an architecture firm in Bergamo, before deciding, still young, that he wanted something entirely different. He travelled, staged in some of Europe's most serious kitchens — the Hotel Palace in St. Moritz, with starred chef Alain Chapel in France, and at the legendary Tantris in Munich under Heinz Winkler. Together with Winkler he helped open Restaurant Tristan in Puerto Portals, Mallorca, which earned two Michelin stars under his management. A further stop with Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan completed a formation that few chefs can match. In 1994, Gamba opened Acquarello in Munich.

Mario Gamba and the Cucina del Sole

The kitchen at Acquarello is guided by what Gamba calls Cucina del Sole — a sun-facing, Italian fine dining sensibility rooted in memory, season and craft. The accolades that have followed speak for themselves: a Michelin star awarded in 2000 and held since, repeated recognition from the Feinschmecker and Bunte as the best Italian restaurant in Germany, inclusion in Forbes USA's list of the 100 best restaurants in the world, and a top-five ranking among Italian restaurants worldwide by 50 Top Italy in 2019. In 2021, Gambero Rosso named Gamba Chef of the Year — and for 2025, Acquarello holds Gambero Rosso's 3 Forks, placing it among the ten best Italian restaurants globally.

Heinz Winkler calls him the "Foreign Minister" — a nod to Gamba's restless curiosity and the network of chefs and producers he has built across decades of travel, cooking classes and gala dinners around the world. That openness feeds directly back into the kitchen in Munich.

The Experience

Acquarello offers fine dining in a setting designed to put guests at ease rather than impress them into silence. Private events, a chef's table, catering and cooking courses extend the restaurant's reach beyond the main dining room, but the core remains the same: Italian fine dining at a level that has made Acquarello a fixture on the international stage for thirty years.

Gamba's own philosophy is worth taking seriously. He argues that pleasure is not a function of complexity alone — that a plate of spaghetti aglio e olio, eaten in the right moment, can move a person as deeply as any elaborate tasting menu. What his kitchen aims for is that rarer thing: food that meets the highest technical expectations and creates a memory. Judging by the consistency of recognition Acquarello has earned, he comes close.