We just spent the last four days in Lugano, Switzerland, exploring the city, visiting Lake Como in Italy, doing some hiking and eating a lot of great Swiss food that was really what we think of as Italian food.

It’s so amazing that you can drive three hours from Zurich in Switzerland (where everyone speaks German and the food is more robust, Germanic) to Lugano (where everyone speaks Italian and you can get great pizza, pasta, risotto and polenta) AND still be in the same country.

We loved Lugano. It’s a beautiful city with amazing food. Our two favorite restaurants were Cafe Argentina and La Tinera. Cafe Argentina is in the main square and is more casual with great pizza, pasta and salads. (We went there three of the four nights). Our favorites were the Estate pizza and the Cafe Argentina salad. Other great options were pasta bolognese and breaded chicken cutlet with fries:

Estate pizza: fresh tomatoes, arugula, fresh mozarella, parmesano cheese

Salad Argentina

The other restaurant, La Tinera, is a little more special. It specializes in cuisine from Ticino, which is also very much what we think of as Italian, but more on the Northern Italian side: polenta, risotto…. It is also a cool space, downstairs from the main square. It is not only downstairs but surrounded by huge wine barrels and racks of wine. It also serves as a more traditional type of restaurant instead of just pizza and pasta. The place seemed VERY authentic, a true hidden gem. It seemed as if most of the crowd was local, a good sign at any restaurant. We ordered polenta with fried eggs, risotto with mushrooms, pork cutlet with spaghetti and fresh raviolis. Everything was delicious but really the polenta with fried eggs was the best.

Polenta with fried eggs

Risotto with mushrooms

Mom and Dad also said the wine was really good (Alex had a sip or two:) and reasonable and they served it in traditional ceramic jars.