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Anadima
Prozac is no match for 40 bocconi perfetti (perfect bites) of cold cuts and cheeses, 60 varieties of wine, and a serotonin-laced hot-pepper-chocolate soufflé. The manic pink and green pop-art decor looks on the bright side of every day or night by the Navigli.
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Anna & Leo
Contrary to popular Milanese myth, a delightful seafood dinner is not inevitably followed by a bill that leaves you gasping like a fish out of water. Pull up a seat in the garden and enjoy the company of local art gallerists, pleasant service, pasta for around €6 and fish dishes for around €7 .
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Antica Trattoria della Pesa
A Milanese recipe for instant nostalgia: Take the landmark building where Ho Chi Minh stayed in the 1930s, add literary types from nearby Mondadori and Rizzoli publishing houses, mix with Milanese comfort food and plenty of wine, then finish with tarte tatin that would make Marcel Proust weep. Repeat as necessary.
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Artidoro
Strange but true: salami is an aphrodisiac at Artidoro, where platters of the local Milanese speciality with sides of grana padano cheese start couples cooing in the candlelight. What happens after the juicy cotoletta alla Milanese and flirty Lombard reds by the glass is your own business.
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Bar della Crocetta
Think sandwiches are nothing to write home about? Get ready to break out those postcards once you pick from the seven-page (!) menu of marvellous panini (grilled sandwiches) , from the Alé! (salami, prosciutto, scamorza cheese, arugula, hearts of palm) to the Zia (bresaola, fresh mozzarella, tomato, lettuce).
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Be Bop
Forget Chianti-bottle candelabras and year-round Christmas lights - this pizzeria is pure Milan style, with a tree growing in a glass box in the middle of the restaurant, salvaged wood flooring paving the walls and lighting that'll make a model of you yet. Go with the classic mozzarella di buffala pizza with fresh tomatoes, followed by dense, intense chocolate salami.
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Caffé Cova
Founded in 1817 by a soldier in Napoleon's army, this elegant tearoom has languished on Monte Napoleone since 1950 (the original was destroyed during WWII). A popular shopping stop, you can either shoot an espresso at the bar or relax over drinks in one of the sitting rooms.
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Da Martino
Get that new suit taken out if you must, but do not miss the Florentine steak at Da Martino. The three-inch-thick hunk of grass-fed beast arrives at your table with the bone still in, then carved with all due ceremony. Devour it with a side of roasted rosemary potatoes, but leave room for surprisingly avant-garde panna cotta with almonds and sour cherries.
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Don Carlos
Foodies get emotional about Don Carlos and not just because many head straight here from the opera. Chef Angelo Gangemi surprises even the most jaded palate in this old-world setting, with brand-new creations like tangy eel with lemons and sultanas and reinvented classics like zesty pea soup with mint.
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Emporio Armani Caffé
Ne cotton ne crudo (neither cooked nor raw) is the latest Milanese trend and naturally Armani is leading the charge with organic seasonal vegetables, fresh seafood and seared grass-fed beef served by male-model waiters. Join fashionistas kerbside with miniature schnauzers licking their faces - yes, the octopus, green bean and lemon salad is that good.
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Ex Mauri
If haute cuisine ever climbed down off its pedestal and ran off with a roguish Venetian osteria, their love child would be Ex Mauri. Pull up a schoolhouse chair at a lovingly scuffed table for imaginative Venetian-inspired seafood, and desserts made in-house - including dreamy lemon gelato.
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Fingers
When Brazilian chefs and Italian restauranteurs get together in Milan, they make sushi and beautiful music together. This trendy tatami-matted ristorante does a brisk trade in Italian carpaccio/sushi and squid ink risotto to Nobu defectors wanting less attitude and more food for their money.
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Giulio Pane e Ojo
If all the Roman restaurants in town were this winsome, Milan would probably start calling itself Mediolanum again. The wait staff dish up Roman sass when asked to help you choose between the bucatini amatriciana (tube pasta with tomato, pecorino and pig's cheek) and saltimbocca (veal with sage and bacon). At these prices, puh-lease - you can't lose.
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Il Coriandolo
Like a little black dress, Il Coriandolo is the classic choice to accompany gallery openings or business meetings - and in the right company, it hints at other possibilities. The house spumante is a worthy prelude to house-made truffle ravioli with butter and crispy sage, whether you've come for a power lunch in a leather banquette or scintillating dinner conversation in the covered garden.
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Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia
Milanese like their food like they like their clothes: artful, inventive, in season and suitable for any occasion. No wonder everyone adores Aimo and Nadia Moroni's place, with memorable seasonal fare like fresh tagliolini pasta with truffles and turnips in winter, pistachio-encrusted prawns with artichokes for spring and a wine list that won't quit year-round.
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Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone
Prosecco and pesto linguine in an ivy-covered courtyard surrounded by Gucci, Stella McCartney and Dior: yep, you're in Milan. Enjoy your arugula salad among models trying not to appear terminally bored by their banker husbands, and inspire envious glances with the decadent tiramisu.
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Il Teatro
Slow and steady wins gourmet glory for this slow food restaurant, which brings taste-bud-boggling bounties of artisanal cheeses, wines and other regional specialties to the table. Recently Sicilian cuisine brought down the house with a seven-course €100 tasting menu including tuna salami, Sicilian fish couscous, Modica chocolate eggplant ratatouille and Palermo lemon sorbet.
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Italian Bar
Flattery gets you everywhere at Peck's blush-pink lunch bistro that gives everyone a healthy glow, with help from superb wines by the glass. The bow-tied wait staff will be pleased to recommend a Barolo to accompany your tortellini Peck and bresaola (dried salted beef) with arugula, capers, oil and lemon.
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Joia
After one too many servings of leaden cotelletta alla Milanese , you'll be jumping for Joia, thanks to chef Pietro Leeman's way with fresh vegetables and light, clean flavours. Vegetarians have choices here that strip away the meat stock (what, you thought rich Milanese risotto was vegetarian?), and even vegans may be tempted by the artisanal cheese plate.
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La Brisa
Whether you've come to this garden hideaway for work or play is irrelevant, because once the tenderloin with pomegranate seeds and arugula arrives, it's pure pleasure. Watch as Lombard wines loosen the power ties of fellow patrons here with the around €20 fixed-price lunch - or better yet, join in.
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Le Vigne
Blindfold yourself and point at the menu, because that's the only way to choose among zucchini flowers stuffed with artisanal herbed ricotta, risotto with shrimp and nasturtium flowers, and a salad of octopus, artichoke and zucchini. Get them all with a glass or two of the house wine and enjoy the stupor of the culinarily blessed.
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Luca e Andrea Café-Bar
An embarrassment of riches at starving-artist prices, with generous pasta and risotto specials served canalside. The gnocchi with gorgonzola washed down with a quarter-carafe of the house red could inspire your next performance art piece, if you could only move off your chair.
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Luini
Stockbrokers and student radicals, models and their harried hairdressers might get together here and sing Kumbaya, if they didn't all have their mouths full. Panzerotti is Milanese for yummy at this popular purveyor of pizza-dough pastries stuffed with cheeses, spinach, tomato, pesto and prosciutto.
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Nobu
A dozen years and as many restaurants later, chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa still mixes continents and cuisines with whimsical flair, as though a lovesick slab of hamo sashimi might return from a rainy weekend in Paris drenched in foie gras, before it faints in a puddle of truffle oil on your plate. The prices and the people-watching are better in the sultry bar downstairs, where the orange glow turns men wearing bronzer into Oompa Loompas.
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Osteria del Binari
Crashing an Italian wedding is the only other way you'd come by such heaping platters of handmade pasta, select cuts of meat and home-baked pastries. With Tuscan wine and loved ones gathered around, someone's bound to feel a toast coming on - quick, duck out back and join the lawn bowling already in progress.
