Buon Appetito: Inside Milan’s Hottest Culinary Destinations

From a listening bar to a hotel bistro, Greek to Japanese, culinary destinations throughout Milan—all designed by local talent—provide literal and aesthetic nourishment.

Savor These Chic Eateries In Milan

Mogo by Giorgia Longoni Studio

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In the South African language Sotho, mogo means union, and this 3,700-square-foot Isola establishment, dubbed a hi-fi bar and restaurant, unites music, culinary, craft-cocktail, and design aficionados in a cinematic environment inspired by Japanese jazz kissa cafes. Milan native Giorgia Longoni has interwoven exposed concrete and ductwork with rose-toned oak millwork, aquamarine resin flooring, custom chairs—some patterned with Brochier upholstery fabric—lighting, and Alpi burl tables, and site-specific tapestries by Andrea Marco Corvino, resulting in a hushed, intimate environment that’s a medley of the softly industrial and warmly mid-century.

Vasiliki Kantina & Gastronomia by Joy Herro

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Under a ceiling hand-painted with an interpretation of the myth of Persephone and Demetra is a contemporary 430-square-foot space in Porta Romana that tells the story—and serves the food and wine—of Greece subtly, authentically, and with refinement. Joy Herro, who has both an interiors studio and an art/ design consultancy, tapped such Greek talents as Terps (aka Terpsichore Tερψιχόρη ερψιχόρη) for the ceiling, goddess-adorned linen curtain, and ceramic door handle, and Tino Seubert for the raffia-topped stools lining the Kavalas Greek marble counter, and arranged them amid crisp, Santorini-white plaster archways. 

Caruso Nuovo Bistrot by Dimorestudio

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Inside the venerable Grand Hotel in Centro Storico, this duomo to Milanese and Neapolitan cooking celebrated its 20th anniversary with an interior refresh by Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci of Dimorestudio. With their signature restrained maximalism, the designers have tastefully blended notes of Northern Italian aristocracy with bohemian glamour, evident in walls and benches upholstered in a Prelle jacquard, seven custom chandeliers of silk jersey the color of Brunello, Murano glass sconces, and, for the outdoor veranda, custom wallpaper and Mathieu Matégot–inspired furnishings, including Antica rattan chairs by Mario Bonacina and Renzo Mongiardino for Bonacina 1889.

Odachi by Studio Urquiola

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Among the myriad highlights of Interior Design Hall of Famer Patricia Urquiola’s conversion of a 1950’s former office building in Brera into the luxury, 116-room Casa Brera, a Marriott hotel, is this lobby-adjacent, 48-seat restaurant serving Japanese-inspired dishes. But her concept is far from cliché Asian: Custom opaline-glass pendant fixtures illuminate the sophisticated mustard colorway of Dedar’s Perfect Flower banquette upholstery, framed cast-stone architectural fragments by fellow Spanish architect Marià Castelló, and Urquiola’s own production pieces, including her abstracted-floral Rooms collection wallpaper for Jannelli&Volpi and her Oru chairs for Andreu World.