For all the attractions of the hotel, the restaurant of Villa Principe Leopoldo is one of its main draws. Both the main restaurant of the hotel and the bistro at the hotel's three star younger brother across the street are run by Chef Dario Ranza, an Italian by ancestry, but Swiss by family, training and spirit.
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Inside dining room of Villa Leopoldo.
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Breast of duck with potato pancake.
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Squid Pasta served outside on the terrace
with its magnificent view of Lac Lugano.
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Dining "al fresco" and under cover of the indoor and outdoor dining tents..
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© 1998-2002 photos Peter D'Aprix
If mouse arrow turns into a hand over a photo,
you can click on the photo for a "large" version
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Chef Dario caters to an international clientele that is typical of Lugano today. Once a backwater, Lugano with its freeway and rail access and the airport less than an hour away in Italy, is today a hot bed for international banking and high tech industries not to mention its tourist appeal. So Dario has created a cuisine that is at once modern and traditional. He has taken recipes from the past and modernized them, he makes full use of the marvels of transportation for his many fresh fish dishes. He mixes and matches elements from many culinary sources, but throughout he demands the respect of his sous chefs for the freshest and most pure ingredients which he can now obtain with ease in Lugano.
Every Tuesday and Saturday he can be found at the market in the central square in Lugano checking vegetables, squeezing fruit, sniffing mushrooms and taking a glass of the local white wine in the cafe with his suppliers both maintaining a genuine friendship and keeping track of what is doing well and when it will become available. Then he goes off to the fish market with lake fish as well as fish still wiggling from the Adriatic trucked in over night.
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Scallops with fresh, young vegetables
and new potatoes.
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Back view of the hotel with dining room to the right as well as the outdoor dinging tent.
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His salad of thin sliced filet of rabbit preserved with herbs and balsamic vinegar was light and delicious as a starter. The black noodles with zucchini and clams with pine nuts was perfect. He serves a very pleasant rendition of breast of duck tucking thin sliced hearts of artichokes between each slice and serves it with a crisp potato pancake. The desserts were not as good for their part although the chocolate mouse was rich and velvety, but here there was not much inventive attempts or successes.
The local wineries are experimenting with interesting new methods as well. Try the crisp local white wines vinified from red Merlot grapes. Ask the maitre d'hôtel to guide you in this as he is an enthusiast and will not lead you astray.
The interior dining room is a very intimate place to dine, but the outside eating is also a great choice. Either you can eat under the stars, relaxing under an awning or a bit more formally, you can take your meals in the glassed in on all sides outside dining room.
Whether you are in Lugano on business, active holiday or just to let go, this hotel and restaurant will give you all things.
Hotel Villa Principe Leopoldo
5 via Montalbano
Lugano
CJ-6900 Switzerland
tel: 011-41-(091) 985.88.55
fax: 011-41-(091) 985.88.25
eMail:info@leopoldohotel.com
eMail:leopoldo@relaischateaux.fr
WebSite: http://www.relaischateaux.fr/leopoldo
Latest accolades:
• Chef Dario Ranza has been nominated the best Chef for year 2002 and 2003 by the very serious business magazine "Bilanz"
• In the "Veronelli Gastronomie Guide (Italy)" Villa Principe Leopoldo has gone up from 97 points to 100. The first time that a hotel gets over the 100 prints' limits.
• The VPL & Residence is now on the 8th position of the Swiss Business Hotel according to "Bilanz" rating.
• The very best: The VPL & Res. will be nominated "the Hotel of the Year 2002/2003" by our friends "Gualt Millau".
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For a link to the Relais & Châteaux Group of hotels and restaurants own site, click on the button left.
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Click map below to see larger version.
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Map.
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Driving Instructions;
Leaving the freeway-autoroute-motorway-autostrada, enter using "Lugano-Sud" and take the direction "Lago". Stay on the left handside in reaching ghe first traffic light. Turn left towards "Ponte Tresa-Stazione". Thed to the second traffic light, turn left again, follow the direction "Ponte Tresa" and the placard for "Villa der Principe Leopoldo".
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Click map below to see larger version.
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Driving Map.
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