Horto – Milan's rooftop table that measures freshness in minutes

Six floors above Piazza Cordusio, inside the restored shell of The Medelan — the former headquarters of Credito Italiano, reborn as an office and retail complex on the site of Palazzo Broggi — Horto occupies one of Milan's most deliberate rooftops. It opened in September 2022, the Milanese chapter of Norbert Niederkofler's long argument for proximity cooking, the same conviction that has kept his Dolomite restaurant St. Hubertus at three Michelin stars for years. At Horto the idea has a name, L'Ora Etica: nothing fresh is allowed to travel more than an hour to reach the pass, a hundred-kilometre radius worked by twenty-five growers across the Ticino park, the Orobie valleys and the rice plains south of the city. Since January 2025 the stoves have belonged to resident chef Alessandro Pinton, trained under Massimiliano Alajmo at Le Calandre and for six years at Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia. It holds one MICHELIN Star, together with a MICHELIN Green Star for sustainability.

01The room and the setting

Horto sits on the sixth floor of The Medelan, the glass-and-stone complex that Fosun and DeA Capital Real Estate Sgr carved out of the historic Credito Italiano headquarters, with architecture by GLA Genius Loci Architettura aiming for Platinum LEED certification. The restaurant was the idea of hotelier Osvaldo Bosetti and Diego Panizza, whose first attempt at the same ethic was the Bianchi Cafè & Cycles he opened in Milan in 2014.

Inside, the dining room is built from natural wood tables, sheer curtains backlit against the glass, dried-flower arrangements and a deep blue sofa set into a window alcove — a counterpoint to the formality that rooftop dining in Milan usually implies. From May to October service moves onto the terrace itself, where the view runs from CityLife and the Gae Aulenti tower to the Torre Velasca, the Terrazza Martini, via Manzoni and La Scala, out as far as Monte Rosa on a clear day, with the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and the Duomo's spires close enough to touch.

02Two chefs, one kitchen

The culinary strategy belongs to Norbert Niederkofler, the chef whose three-Michelin-starred and Green-starred restaurant St Hubertus at the Hotel Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano made sustainable Alpine cooking a reference point years before it became fashionable. At Horto that philosophy, which he calls Cook the Mountain, is translated for the city as L'Ora Etica.

Insider tip

Closed Sundays; terrace service May–October; parking recommended at Piazza Filippo Meda.

Day to day, the kitchen belongs to Alessandro Pinton, born in Padua in 1998, who passed through Le Calandre with Massimiliano Alajmo, took the lesson of Gualtiero Marchesi, and spent six years at Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia before taking charge of the Horto brigade in January 2025, succeeding Alberto Gioè. Beside him at the pass is sous chef Manuele Garello, trained between Enrico Crippa's Piazza Duomo and Niederkofler's own St. Hubertus.

03The cooking

Pinton's style favours long broths, gentle cooking and seasonal ferments, with a deliberate taste for bitterness and acidity rather than easy sweetness. The rule that shapes the menu is strict but openly argued: whatever is fresh — fish, vegetables, herbs, eggs — must come from within that hundred-kilometre, one-hour radius, or it does not appear on the plate. Two exceptions are declared rather than hidden: wine, because no vineyard capable of real greatness sits within an hour of Milan, and the pasta, which comes from the Marche.

The kitchen lists itself as a '100% Bottle Free Restaurant' and builds its zero-waste principle into the structure of each tasting menu rather than treating it as a side note.

04What to order

The signature journey, L'Ora Etica, runs seven, five or three courses and moves from char with pollen garum and eel with anise and mugwort through fettucce with hare, porcini and thyme, a pigeon sopa coada with rosehip, and the dish most diners talk about afterwards: veal tongue braised in red wine with parisienne potatoes and cherries, before a dish from the Josper grill and a hazelnut dessert to close.

The vegetarian counterpart, Vegetali Mon Amour, treats vegetables as the main event rather than an accommodation: beetroot with Gambolò beans and tarragon, a Carnaroli Riserva San Massimo risotto with grilled leeks and lemon balm, goat's robiola ravioli with rocket and yeast, corn with redcurrant and sage, red radicchio with sea buckthorn and geranium, and fig to finish. A third, single tasting menu, La Selvaggina, is devoted to wild game — venison 'Albese' style and homemade pasta stuffed with wild duck in a bitto cheese fondue.

05Wine and drinks, when to go

Both signature menus offer a seven-glass wine pairing. Beyond the tasting menus, lunch runs à la carte with a minimum of two courses, and six guests at a time can book the Chef's Table inside the kitchen itself, its menu built in conversation with the brigade the week before service.

Horto serves breakfast Monday to Saturday from 8:30 to 11:00, lunch Monday to Friday, aperitivo from 18:30 and dinner Monday to Saturday until 21:45; the restaurant is closed on Sundays. Parking is recommended at Piazza Filippo Meda, a short walk from the entrance on Via San Protaso.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.