Sestriere Restaurants
Where to eat in Sestriere
Order the agnolotti. The cooking here is Piedmontese and unapologetic about it — tiny hand-pinched pasta parcels in a roast-meat sauce, tajarin with butter and sage, beef braised slowly in red wine, polenta with almost anything, and pizza out of a wood oven that would pass muster in Naples. On the table, a carafe of local Barbera. Sestriere is a small town, but Turin is an hour and a half away and arrives in force most weekends with firm opinions about food, which keeps the kitchens sharper than a resort this size has any right to expect.
The bill is the other pleasant surprise. Dinner lands closer to a good city trattoria than to a resort menu, and a proper sit-down lunch at altitude costs less than you'd budget for. Eating out splits three ways: the town on the col, where everything is walkable; the old stone hamlets down the hill, which is where the best cooking hides; and lunch on the slopes, which in Sestriere means a table and a menu rather than a plastic tray.
Where you sleep decides how easily you get to dinner. Stay up on the col and it's a short walk to most of the town's restaurants; stay lower and you'll want a car or a taxi for the good ones. Still choosing? See where to stay in Sestriere.
See the mountain lunch spots
Restaurants in Sestriere town
Sestriere sits on a col at 2,035m and is small enough to cross on foot in minutes, so almost every restaurant in town is a walk from wherever you're staying. That matters more than it sounds — there's no bus timetable to work around and no taxi to book.
- Il Centro — the safe bet with the big menuThe one most groups end up at, and rightly. Pizza and pasta done properly, a specials board that changes, and a kitchen that copes with fussy eaters, vegetarians and a table of eight without falling over. It fills up, and there's usually a queue at the door, so book.
- La Cioca — for the mountain classicsThe one to pick if you do want the cheese night. Fondue, raclette and the local Alpine dishes alongside Piedmontese cooking, in a small, busy room that gets booked out on Saturdays. Reliable, well-priced and the most “ski holiday” dinner in town.
- Last Tango — grill and generous portionsA long-running grill house that's fed more skiers than anywhere else in Sestriere. Steaks, burgers, big plates of pasta, an unfussy room and a menu wide enough that nobody in the group sulks. Good with teenagers and hungry ski legs.
- Kovo — eat, then stay outHalf restaurant, half bar. Burgers, pizza and sharing plates, local wine by the glass, and a young crowd that means dinner slides into drinks without anyone having to move. If you want one venue for the whole evening, this is it — it also appears in our Sestriere bars & après ski guide for exactly that reason.
- Truber — small, local and worth squeezing intoA tiny place with a short menu and proper handmade pasta — the sort of dinner you tell people about afterwards. Only a handful of tables, so it goes early. Turn up on spec at your peril.
- Cümalé — the special-occasion tableSestriere's most ambitious kitchen, and a recent arrival, so expect a tasting-menu approach and a room that takes itself a little more seriously than the rest of the resort. Book well ahead; it's small, and it's the one place in town where you'd dress up.
Borgata, Grangesises & the hamlets below
Here's the thing most visitors never work out: the best cooking around Sestriere isn't on the col at all. It's in the old stone hamlets a few kilometres down, where the buildings pre-date the resort by a few hundred years and the kitchens are family-run. All of these need a short drive, a taxi or a lift from a friend — and all of them are worth it.
- L'Antica Spelonca — Borgata SestriereThe one locals send you to. A cellar-like room in the old village below the col, a short handwritten menu that changes with what's good, and cooking that's precise without being precious. Warm, cramped in the best way, and impossible to get into on a Saturday without booking. If you only eat outside the town once, make it here.
- Pizzeria Da Gennaro — GrangesisesProper Neapolitan pizza, made by people who came north to do it, in the little square at Grangesises a few kilometres down the valley. It's the highest-rated place for miles and it isn't close. Takeaway available if you're self-catering; book a table if you're not.
- Grange Sax Cafè — GrangesisesSame little square, different job: a café-restaurant that does northern Italian cooking and a serious wine list in a room that feels like someone's very well-stocked front room. The grown-up dinner of the two.
- Misun La Font — Bessen HautOut in a hamlet below the resort, and the clearest expression of Piedmont on the whole list: homemade pasta, homemade puddings, local producers, a long wine list and a dining room with a fire in it. Worth the taxi fare for a proper regional dinner rather than a ski-resort one.
- Du Grand Père — ChamplasA family-run mountain house on the Cesana road, all stone walls, wooden beams and a lit fire. Traditional, unhurried and friendly — the sort of place you book once and then rebook for the last night of the week.
Note: the scene shifts a little each season — the odd place closes, a new one opens, one changes hands. We re-check this list every winter, but if something's changed since your trip, tell us below.
Mountain restaurants: lunch on the slopes
Lunch on the Sestriere slopes is a sit-down affair: you get a table, someone takes the order, and the pizza comes out of a wood-fired oven. It's the part of the day worth building a plan around, and the resort's own sector has three stops that deserve it.
- Rifugio Aquila Nera — the one to aim forReached off the Nube d'Argento chair and sitting right on a blue run, this is the best lunch on the Sestriere side. Wood-fired pizza, a full menu beyond it, table service rather than a queue, and a wine and cheese cellar they'll happily show you. It also does evening dinners with a snowcat ride up and back, which is one of the more memorable nights out in the resort. Book for both.
- Rifugio Alpette — the view, and the one non-skiers can reachBuilt into the top station of the old cable car above the town, with a bar, a sit-down restaurant and a self-service side. The reason it matters: the Garnel pedestrian chairlift runs up from opposite the Olympic village, so anyone not skiing can ride up for lunch and the view down both valleys. Evening meals with a snowcat or snowshoe ascent run too.
- Chisonetto — the pit stop everyone lovesNot the fanciest, and that's rather the point. A warm, low-key bar-restaurant on the slopes with a couple of fires going, honest plates of soup, pasta and burgers, and a terrace that catches the sun. The natural mid-morning or mid-afternoon stop, and a favourite for a bombardino before the last run.
- Or ski over and eat somewhere else entirelyYour Vialattea pass covers the whole circuit, so lunch doesn't have to be in Sestriere. Cross Monte Fraiteve and the Sauze d'Oulx side opens up — the huts around Sportinia, Capanna Mollino among them, are the classic long-lunch option. Just watch the clock and the wind: the high links are the first thing to shut, and you don't want to be two resorts from your bed. See the Vialattea lift pass and ski area guide.
What to order, and what it'll cost you
A short guide to eating like you know what you're doing — and to keeping the week's food bill sensible.
- Order the Piedmont dishes, not the international onesLook for agnolotti del plin (tiny pinched pasta parcels, usually with a roast meat sauce), tajarin (thin egg pasta, glorious with butter and sage), vitello tonnato, bagna càuda in the depths of winter, polenta with almost anything, and brasato — beef braised in red wine. For pudding, anything involving gianduia, the local chocolate and hazelnut.
- Drink local — it's cheaper and betterHouse wine here is Piedmontese and usually good: Barbera or Dolcetto by the carafe costs very little and beats anything imported. If you're pushing the boat out, Nebbiolo and Barolo come from an hour or two down the road. Ask for acqua del rubinetto if you'd rather not buy bottled water, though Italians rarely do.
- The bill: what to expectMost Italian restaurants add a small per-person coperto (cover charge) — it isn't a scam, and it stands in for the tip. Tipping isn't expected; rounding up is plenty. Portions are generous, so a shared starter and one main each is usually more than enough, and lunch menus are noticeably cheaper than the same food at dinner.
- When to book — and it isn't only the school holidaysSestriere is close enough to Turin to be a weekend town. Friday and Saturday nights fill up even in quiet weeks, which catches people out — the weekend rush has nothing to do with when the holiday changeover falls. Book the small places a day or two ahead, and book anything special as soon as you know your dates.
- Self-catering, and eating well for lessPlenty of Sestriere's beds are apartments, and there's a supermarket and a bakery in town for the basics — but the better shop is down in the valley if you're driving up. Buy the cheese, salami and bread locally rather than the branded stuff, take a picnic up in a rucksack on a bluebird day, and save the money for one proper dinner in the hamlets.
Table booked? Sort the skis next
Sestriere ski hire is something we sell ourselves, not an affiliate link. We work directly with Maison Clataud in town, so booking through us gets you 15% off the shop's own counter price on skis, boards and boots — picked up in resort, from people who'll actually fit them properly.
See Sestriere ski hire →
Sort the rest of your Sestriere trip
Dinner's the easy bit. Here's everything else worth booking before you go — including the pages that save you money.
Ski hire in Sestriere
Booked directly with Maison Clataud in town — 15% off the shop's counter price, collected in resort.
Where to stay in Sestriere
Compare hotels, apartments and chalets on the col and in the villages, and pick a base you can walk home to.
Airport transfers to Sestriere
Turin is the closest airport to any major Alpine resort — motorway most of the way, then a short run up the valley.
Lessons in Sestriere
Group or private tuition with local instructors, chosen on reviews and price rather than whoever's nearest.
Sestriere restaurants: common questions
Where should you eat in Sestriere?
In town, Il Centro is the dependable all-rounder, La Cioca does the Alpine classics and Last Tango handles big appetites. The best cooking, though, is down the hill: L'Antica Spelonca in Borgata Sestriere, Pizzeria Da Gennaro and Grange Sax Cafe at Grangesises, and Misun La Font out at Bessen Haut. For lunch, head up to Rifugio Aquila Nera on the slopes.
What's the best mountain restaurant in Sestriere?
Rifugio Aquila Nera, reached off the Nube d'Argento chair and sitting on a blue run. It does wood-fired pizza and a full menu with table service rather than a canteen queue, and has a wine and cheese cellar worth asking to see. It also runs evening dinners with a snowcat ride up and back. Rifugio Alpette, in the old cable-car top station, is the other one worth planning a day around.
Can non-skiers get up to a mountain restaurant in Sestriere?
Yes. The Garnel pedestrian chairlift runs from opposite the Olympic village up to Rifugio Alpette, so anyone not skiing can ride up for lunch and the view down both valleys. Wrap up warm, and check the lift is turning before you set off.
Is eating out in Sestriere expensive?
Less than you'd expect from a major ski resort. Dinner is closer to Italian city prices than resort prices, and mountain lunch is genuinely good value. Expect a small per-person coperto, or cover charge, on the bill in place of a tip. Lunch menus cost less than the same dishes at dinner.
What food is Sestriere known for?
Piedmontese cooking. Look for agnolotti del plin, tajarin, vitello tonnato, polenta, and beef braised in red wine, with gianduia chocolate and hazelnut for pudding. The house wine is usually a local Barbera or Dolcetto. Fondue and raclette do turn up on menus, but they're the exception here rather than the rule.
Do you need to book restaurants in Sestriere?
Yes, and not only in the school holidays. Sestriere is close enough to Turin to fill up at weekends, so Friday and Saturday evenings are busy even in quiet weeks. Book the small places a day or two ahead, and reserve anything special as soon as you have your dates.
Eaten out in Sestriere? Tell us your pick
The scene shifts a little each season — the odd spot closes, a new one opens, one changes hands. If something's gone, reopened or reinvented itself — or you've found a hamlet trattoria we've missed — let us know. We read and check every tip before anything goes live.
Get your ski hire booked
We sell Sestriere hire ourselves, direct with Maison Clataud — 15% off the shop's own counter price, ready to collect in resort.
See Sestriere ski hire →Image attributions & copyright
- Via Lattea – DSC_6718: © Vialattea
