Your menu in Milan, capital of business dining and Michelin stars

The reality of a restaurant in Milan

Milan is not just fashion: it is the capital of Italian business dining, and that means your diners are the most demanding in the country. A Chinese executive in Porta Nuova needs to understand your menu in Mandarin to close a deal over dinner. A French buyer during Fashion Week wants risotto alla milanese but does not know that saffron is the secret ingredient that gives it that golden color. An American tourist in Navigli orders cotoletta alla milanese and expects something similar to wiener schnitzel, not knowing that the original milanese has a bone and is cooked in butter. Lombardy has 61 Michelin-starred restaurants, more than any other Italian region, and Milan is home to 23 of them. Enrico Bartolini at Mudec has 3 stars, Seta and D'O have 2 each. This creates an expectation of excellence that reaches even the neighborhood trattoria. The tourist dining at a starred restaurant expects that the next day, at your osteria in Isola, they can also understand what they are eating. Milan receives an explosive mix of tourists, international executives, and fashion buyers that changes every week. During the Salone del Mobile, an extra 400,000 visitors arrive. During Fashion Week, the city fills with French, Americans, and Asians who eat out three times a day. Without a multilingual menu, you are losing Italy's most profitable diner: the one who comes for business and does not look at prices. And a mistake with allergens at a business dinner is not just a fine according to EU Regulation 1169/2011: it is a lost contract.