Osteria Manciana Ristorante

For our hostess Simona and her team it will be a pleasure to tantalize the tastebuds of their guests with seasonal and regional recipes and dishes that are always prepared with local products.

In keeping with the Ticino tradition, the kitchen recommends the ever popular “Ossobuco” from Piera with polenta from “Mulino di Bruzella”, as well as the braised beef (“Brasato”) and the the flat or tall “Formaggini” that is produced in the valley. Cheeses can be enjoyed including the Ticino cheese “Formagella”, that is made nearby on the slopes of Monte Generoso. Finally, you can taste the local sausages with the excellent bread baked in the valley, as well as the wines of Mendrisiotto.

The tradition of typical dishes will also be carried on by Simona according to family recipes including the famous osso buco with polenta “della Piera.” This and more await you in a typical and cozy environment.

We have carefully selected for you different wines at reasonable prices from the different wineries in the Mendrisiotto. Of course, the Merlot dominates, but there are also various assemblages and wines that are stored in barriques to emphasize the bouquet of the wines. Our wine list also contains some representative wines from neighboring Italy, from Barbaresco to Sangiovese and finally Prosecco and Spumanti, made according to the classic method (Champagnoise), as well as, of course, with the common aperitifs, our grappas and nocinos (walnut liqueurs).

The name of the Osteria refers to the family name Manciana, the maiden name of the grandmother “nonna Agnese”, who has run the Osteria since the 1950s when she took over the work that her mother Giuditta had started in the 1930s. From 1970 until today, her daughter-in-law Piera has taken care of the entire management of the restaurant; she has always welcomed all visitors warmly and has cooked for thousands of guests with passion over the years. The “osso buco con polenta della Piera”, a dish whose recipe remains a secret and has now been continued by four generations, remains famous.

Simona, Piera’s daughter-in-law, will take over the management of the Manciana after the renovation, maintaining the direction and traditions that have shaped this historic osteria of the Valle di Muggio and Monte Generoso region over the years.

From 2021 the Osteria will be able to offer its guests a large room for 40 people and two terraces for around 15 people, including a new one with a view of the valley.

The Osteria is a typical mountain inn, which has adapted to the progress and changes of the visitors over the years but has retained its character as a daily meeting point for the residents of the Muggio Valley and those passing through. In the Osteria, farmers, bricklayers, hikers and seasonal workers who returned from central Switzerland after the Second World War, border guards who lived in the village and soldiers in times of war always enjoyed meeting each other. In the 1960s smugglers who carried their goods in “bricolle” (jute sacks full of cigarettes) to Italy, also took a stop there. Even today the adventures of the “spalloni” (smugglers) are told who tried to escape the border guards in order to bring their “bricolla” to safety.

For almost 100 years the MANCIANA was a reference point for the village and the visitors, who once traveled for commercial and now for tourist reasons, between Switzerland and Italy, Como Lake (Italy) and Lugano Lake (Switzerland). Hospitality and tolerance were and will remain a hallmark of the Manciana.