La Bottega Numero 5

The pastas and the desserts are excellent! Even though we don’t speak Italian, the waitress try her best to introduced the dishes patiently and carefully to us. Also, the environment is also good!

Absolutely fantastic & authentic regional Italian food. This restaurant is a gem & they clearly really care about what they’re doing here. Fresh high quality local/regional produce, fresh home made pasta, locally caught fish (actually from a nearby smaller lake with no boat pollution). The Pappardelle Ragù & the Maccheroncini Ossobuco were simply outstanding. They have a good & varied wine list, and all of the prices (food and wine) are reasonable. We’ve been staying in Arona for the last 8 months and have visited many towns & places around the lake - and this is certainly the best restaurant we’ve been to. It could easily hold its own against any restaurant in Italy (& that’s no exaggeration). We can’t wait to visit again!

The food was fine, but we felt like we came earlier than the waiter expected to start real work and got on her nerves. Or maybe it's just the general attitude.

As far as the food and the premises are concerned, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. Italian "classics" in full swing, and of course local dishes. However, I have reservations about the unfriendly service, which, despite the half-empty restaurant, showed a somewhat minimalistic and disregardful "interest" towards the customers. Therefore, I cannot give a full score, unfortunately. Compared to other restaurants in the locality, a big difference in the approach to the customer.

Pastas with ossobuco and wild boar were good, and restaurant is nice looking and cozy but a bit on a pricier side and there was only one waitress who was not too friendly

A bit of a mixed bag. The food is delicious, portion sizes are excellent, wine selection is good, and it has a pleasant atmosphere. Something I would recommend is that contorni are listed on the menu since some dishes were completely missing vegetables so it would have been good to know that veg was extra (without having to ask) and we would have ordered some and brought the restaurant a few more €. Unfortunately though as tourists we weren't made to feel particularly welcome. We can communicate at a basic level in Italian and are very familiar with Italian culture but perhaps there remained some awkwardness around language. But we weren't attended to very well, mostly ignored, and had to ask for salt and pepper as well as forks to be replaced with our mains. We felt too awkward to ask about cheese with the pasta or about vegetables with mains. These things should have been offered rather than leaving us to ask. Other restaurants that we ate at in Angera were extremely welcoming and helpful despite some struggles with communication. With more focus on service, including those who aren't locals and possibly won't be coming back soon (but who could still influence other tourists), this could be a great restaurant! Everything else is there. Oh and as another reviewer said the aforementioned forks need to be replaced: they're very uncomfortable to eat with!

Good overall food. Plenty of healthy options with locally gathered supplies. The pasta and seafood dishes are excellent. We just did not love the garnishing side dishes that had too much salt. We also did not appreciate the design of the fork - it favoured form over function and felt awkward to hold and maintain grip. The restaurant had an incredible variety of regional wines with excellent pricing. Both the chairs and music kept the atmosphere comfortable and pleasant, and one could stay sitting and eating for hours without complaint.

Dropped in without a reservation, they squeezed us in.. the food was really good, I would say the best I had in a while...