Cancel

    Open app

    Search

    Il Cestino

    3.3 (49 reviews)
    PriceyItalian, Seafood
    Open • 10:00 am - 12:00 AM (Next day)

    Il Cestino Photos

    IL CESTINO ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Touristy
    Good for groups
    Outdoor seating

    Recommended Reviews - Il Cestino

    Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
    Yelp app icon
    Browse more easily on the app
    Review Feed Illustration

    Reviews With Photos

    Harrison W.

    Food: 4/5 Service: 3.5/5 Ambiance: 4/5 I found this restaurant from one of the food reviewer and wanted to try. When I got there I was a bit skeptical because it has all the flags for tourists trap. I sat down looking through the menu. The server came by and asked if we want something to drink but told him I m still looking through. He seems rush. Later I saw him eating. So he was rushing probably because he didn't have his lunch or dinner. I was left alone for quite some time finally I flag down other server who passed by to order. Then he became my server for the night. They should have better management for things like this. Anyway I ordered their signature beef cutlet, thinly fried with butter and linguine pasta with mixed seafood. Pasta comes with baked top, I scooped up the sauce with the that in the end. Even this place scream for tourists trap, the food has good flavor. So I won't call it tourist trap, it would be more like tourist focused.

    Vanessa K.

    We had such a wonderful dining experience here! The service was exceptional--Mauritzio made us feel so welcome from the moment we arrived. And the paella? Absolutely the bomb. Perfectly cooked, rich in flavor, and truly unforgettable. Highly recommend!

    Ashik
    Patrick K.

    Food was great. We had just landed from the US and walked around the area. The restaurant and staff were welcoming. Needed a drink and light bite to get us back to life. The outdoor eating experience was lovely. Ashik was our server and very helpful. Even hooked us up with a welcome limoncello. Or 2. Highly recommend. Especially if you're lucky enough to get Ashik. Salute!

    Items from raw bar
    Suzanne A.

    This is on a sweet little side street with some other restaurants. We had excellent raw seafood here on our first day in Italy. We ordered clams, razor clams and sea urchin. Everything was VERY fresh. The clam was still moving when it arrived at the table!! Very nice Aperol spritz as well. I would not go here seeking pizza or pasta, but the seafood, the specialty of the house was excellent.

    Oso buco
    Mallory D.

    Service was decent, although the waiter told us the meat and cheese platter was 15 euro total, not 15 euro per person. So that was a surprise, with a party of 5. Wine was decent and they had the heaters on outside. I would rate the osso buco with saffron risotto 4 stars but my husband ordered the seafood paella which had broken mussel shells (small) throughout the dish. He cut the inside of his mouth which rendered the dish almost inedible. So that is why I rated a 3 overall.

    Tiffany W.

    This place was recommended by a local so my friend and I came here for dinner on our first stop in Milan for some pizza and pasta. The seafood pasta was cooked in a iron pan with a pizza dough foil. The pizza crust had a great seafood pasta seasoning and was great to munch on with the pasta. The pizza was light and well made.

    Royal Plateau
    Alfie B.

    I was really craving another raw seafood platter while in Milan and decided on Il Cestino after reading some decent reviews of this place. From this outside this looks like a tourist trap, and the prices are relatively higher than other Milanese restaurants I've been to. However the food here was delicious! I ordered the Royal Plateau, and added on a scallop and sea urchin. Every single item on here was extremely fresh and flavorful. My favorites were the red prawns and oysters. The prawns remind me of Argentinian red shrimp: a little sweet and very tender. The oysters were as good as if not better than any of the fancier oyster bars I've been to before. I'm honestly not sure why other reviewers had issues with this restaurant. The food was great. All of the wait staff were friendly and spoke proficient English. Restaurant was in a prime location, excellent for people watching if that's your thing. I would most certainly eat here again, simply for the oysters.

    Linguine pasta with mixed sea food covered in a pizza crust
    J M.

    The food at this restaurant was good. We had the linguine pasta with mixed sea food covered in a pizza crust. This was the better dish with a decent amount of seafood. The other dish was the spaghetti with clams. The amount of clams was low and the sauce was on the bland side. I will echo the comments of another reviewer. The cover charge of 7 euro and the water charge of 3.50 euro (clearly it was tap water in a recycled unsealed water bottle), were too high if justified at all. The entree prices were on the high side, especially the spaghetti with clams. Service was good, but this definitely seemed to be too touristy for my taste.

    Phoebe A.

    My friend and I stopped by this spot as our first dinner in Milan, and of course we got pizza and pasta. Everything was absolutely delicious. The seafood pasta was particularly interesting; it was cooked in a pizza dough wrapping, which was unexpected. All in all, a solid first meal in Milan!

    Fish selection
    Catherine H.

    Stopped here for lunch on a quick visit to Milan. The risotto appetizer was delicious, and the cheesecake dessert might be the best I've ever had. My husband had the sea bass ravioli and loved it.

    Dirty rim as 'bottled water'
    Jamie L.

    Terrible food, terrible service. We ordered meals from the lunch special. Pizza was a wet and soggy mess! In Italy! The bottled water was just tap water in a bottle which we paid €3.50 for. It was also warm and had a dirty rim. Service charge was €7 for crap service. What a waste of a meal in Italy. Not real chefs not real Italian.

    My first time trying the ossobucco and it was delicious! Tender and very flavorful. Generous portion too!

    See all

    1 month ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    5 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    11 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    11 months ago

    Helpful 3
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    5 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 1
    Love this 1
    Oh no 1

    5 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of J M.
    13
    318
    636

    4 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    5 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Food was delicious everything very fresh, service was top notch and ambiance was very romantic.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Dani C.
    30
    38
    104

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Peter R.
    398
    34
    39

    5 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    12 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    11 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Paul W.
    6
    10
    36

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Ken L.
    32
    31
    56

    11 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    10 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Digna C.
    13
    17
    20

    11 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    10 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Robb H.
    99
    59
    31

    9 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    14 years ago

    Lovely place, wonderful ambience and good food. Expensive? It's fashon. Try New York!

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    11 years ago

    A wonderful dining experience. Claudio served us with joy and charm. Good fish and homemade ravioli. Delicious cassata for dessert.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Josh Q.
    34
    425
    0

    13 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    11 years ago

    Although the food was good and it is in a very quiet and beautiful street it is overly touristic, overpriced and the service is a fake nice!

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    12 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    Page 1 of 2

    Il Cestino Reviews in Other Languages

    Review Highlights - Il Cestino

    “I was really craving another raw seafood platter while in Milan and decided on Il Cestino after reading some decent reviews of this place.”

    Mentioned in 14 reviews

    Read more highlights

    Verify this business for free

    Get access to customer & competitor insights.

    Verify this business

    Risoelatte - Meatball

    Risoelatte

    4.4(169 reviews)
    0.6 km•Centro Storico
    •€€

    Heard great things online, recommend by chatGPT and booked a reservation…read more Small place, friendly service, but time limit on the table, so if the service is a bit slow, you might be mid dessert and you're being asked to leave when the next party has arrived. Not a big deal, they let you know there is a time limit, but maybe they should keep the service flowing so that doesn't happen. The interior decorator here did a great job with the time warp back to the mid 20th century. Cool vibe. Food was ok. Perhaps using old recipes from the time period is not so good for a tourist? I wasn't really impressed with the food, but I don't have a cultural link to Milanese food to begin with, so I don't think I was fully able to appreciate it. If my grandmother made this when i was a kid, perhaps it would have been better, but the meal was lost on me. There are plenty of spots to grab a good meal, I'd only recommend this place if you have a fond memory of the menu items or you really want to time travel and post to social media.

    Intro: After doing a bunch of sightseeing in Milan, we stopped by Riseolatte for dinner. While we…read moredidn't have a reservation, we were seated promptly upstairs (table for three). Ambiance (3.5/5): This Italian restaurant looks like your grandma's house. Lots of old school decor and it's the exact look they're going for. Homey, just like grandma's house. Seating is a bit tight and there's no A/C so things were a bit stuffy. Service (4.5/5): Our waitress was friendly and was pretty efficient in taking care of us. Service can be a bit of a miss in Europe but our experience at Riseolatte far exceeded the norm. Drinks (4.5/5): Good drink list. I ended up splitting some house wine with my buddy. They have it in different sizes and we went with the largest option of the house red. Food (3/5): I went with the osso bucco which is served with risotto (two of my favorite dishes in one). And part of what also made the dish so attractive is that risotto Milanese is a classic Milanese dish. Unfortunately, the dish didn't live up to the hype. Osso Bucco, done right is so tender that it falls off the bone. It's a slow cook type of meal and you can taste the results of that. Here, the meat was harder than it should have been, which indicates to me that they probably cut some corners. The risotto, on the other hand, was solid. As was the portion size. I was just expecting better with the osso bucco. My friends got the veal (elephant ears). Talk about a portion size. Three huge veal cutlets and fries. You can see why they call them elephant ears! I tried a bite and enjoyed it more than my dish. Overall: There's a lot to like about Risoelatte. Some dishes are a hit and some are a bit of a miss so make sure to choose wisely!

    Photos
    Risoelatte
    Risoelatte - Ossobuco

    Ossobuco

    Risoelatte

    See all

    Il Cestino - italian - Updated September 2026

    Loading...
    Loading...
    Loading...