Casin del Gamba

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Family, a Hill, and Thirty Years of a Michelin Star

In three names — Antonio, Daria, and Luca — the entire story of Casin del Gamba is contained. It was Antonio and Daria Dal Lago who set everything in motion in 1976, building a restaurant rooted in family devotion and the rhythms of Italian cooking. Their son Luca joined them, and together — with their staff — they earned a Michelin Star in 1992. That star has shone unbroken for over thirty years, a rare continuity that says more than any single award could.

Gambero Rosso has recognized the restaurant with 2 Forks, further affirming what diners who make the drive up into the hills already know: this place operates at a level apart.

An Old Hunting Lodge Between Two Worlds

The restaurant occupies a former hunting lodge on a hill between Vicenza and Verona, surrounded by open nature and far from urban noise. Inside, soft corners, delicate light, and candid ceramics create a room where every detail is, as the Dal Lagos put it, "total harmony." It is the kind of space that asks nothing of you except attention — to the plate, the glass, the moment.

Seasonal Italian Cuisine Rooted in Place

The menu changes with the seasons and draws deeply from the landscape around Altissimo. Two tasting menus (€125 each) anchor the offer, with an à la carte option requiring at least three courses. The ingredients read like a map of the Veneto and its foothills: Upper Chiampo salmon trout with its own caviar, Sheep Brogna lamb prepared two ways, mallard with fermented Gorizia rose, wild boar with elderberries and rowanberry. Pasta courses are equally specific — whole wheat garibaldini with garden flowers and herb tea, buttons stuffed with goat's blue cheese, morels, and figs.

Desserts follow the same logic: strawberries with basil ganache and poppy crisp, licorice mousse paired with pai mu tang white tea, hazelnut and lemon in a gianduja pebble. Nothing here reaches for novelty for its own sake; each dish is grounded in a real ingredient, a real place.

Wine Pairing and the Full Experience

A sommelier-selected wine pairing is available in two formats — a full pairing of four glasses or a half-pairing — making the Italian cuisine at Casin del Gamba accessible whether you want complete immersion or something lighter. Private parties are accommodated, and for tables of eight, a customized menu is arranged in advance.

The restaurant has also hosted collaborative dinners, including a four-hands evening with chef Giuliano Baldessari of Aqua Crua, suggesting an openness to dialogue that keeps the kitchen alive after five decades.