Trippa – Milan's nose-to-tail revolution in Porta Romana

Trippa occupies a quiet corner of Via Giorgio Vasari, a short walk from the triumphal arch that gives Porta Romana its name, in the trattoria heartland south-east of Milan's Duomo. Diego Rossi opened it in 2015 with his friend and business partner Pietro Caroli, a former corporate employee who had been moonlighting as a food blogger, turning a modest shopfront into one of the city's hardest tables to book. Rossi arrived already decorated: a Michelin star won in his twenties, years spent in the kitchens of Norbert Niederkofler's St Hubertus in the Dolomites, and a training ground that stretched from Venice to Piedmont. At Trippa he chose the opposite path, building the menu around the quinto quarto – offal, bone marrow, lesser cuts – served without ceremony on paper placemats. It holds a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand, the guide's distinction for cooking of real quality at a fair price, alongside Gambero Rosso's Tre Gamberi.

01The room and the setting

The dining room plays against expectation: polished Art Deco wood panelling and burnt orange walls sit over decorative floor tiles, giving the space what one international guide described as a touch of cinematic camp rather than rustic trattoria kitsch. Trattoria Trippa's interior has something of the Wes Anderson about it – the combination of polished Art Deco wood panelling, burnt orange walls and decorative floor tiles lending an air of chic with just a touch of camp.

The tables themselves stay deliberately plain. Tavoli in legno, tovagliette di carta, un Bib Gourmand Michelin e i Tre Gamberi del Gambero Rosso sum up the contrast the room is built on: a stripped-back setting carrying serious culinary credentials.

02The chef

Diego Rossi was born in Verona in 1985 and trained first in Venice before moving to the St. Hubertus of Norbert Niederkofler in 2008, a three-starred Michelin restaurant in the Dolomites. He then took his first head chef role in Piedmont, where his restaurant Delle Antiche Contrade, quickly gained critical acclaim and received a Michelin star in 2011, won together with chef Juri Chiotti.

Insider tip

Dinner only most nights, plus Friday lunch; closed weekends. Book well ahead.

Rather than stay in fine dining, Rossi chose the opposite route. By his own account, after the star he simply "Non mi emozionavo più nei ristoranti stellati" no longer felt moved by starred kitchens, and in 2015 he opened Trippa with Pietro Caroli, who lavorava in una multinazionale ma aveva una vita parallela da foodblogger before becoming his business partner. The project's reach has since grown beyond Milan: in 2022 the pair opened a sister restaurant, Testina, al terzo piano della Lyndhurst Terrace, nel distretto centrale of Hong Kong, with Marco Xodo running the kitchen.

03The cooking

Trippa's cooking is built on the quinto quarto, the offal and humble cuts that Italian trattorias once relied on and that fine dining had largely abandoned. The restaurant's own account of its approach is unambiguous: the menu is not fixed but follows the market. Trippa apre solo a cena, la prima parte della giornata è dedicata alla ricerca della materia prima e in base a ciò che si trova si costruisce il menu, prima ancora che a chilometro zero, la sua cucina è a 'spreco zero' – a zero-waste kitchen built around whatever is found each morning before kilometre-zero sourcing even enters the conversation.

That philosophy produces plates that read simple and taste anything but. Among the dishes that have defined the place are animella di vitello con carote di Polignano e salsa pazza, midollo alla brace, boudin noir con erbe amare e aceto, alongside eggplant cooked Roman-style, which Diego Rossi le propone alla romana con salsa cacio e pepe e menta.

04What to order

The dish that gives the restaurant its name remains central: fried tripe, honeycomb-cut and seasoned simply, alongside grilled bone marrow, is a near-permanent fixture. Il menù viene rinnovato periodicamente, ma alcuni classici non tramontano mai, come il midollo alla brace o la trippa fritta, quest'ultima è un concentrato di croccantezza e tenerezza, condita semplicemente con sale, pepe e rosmarino nella versione fritta.

Rossi's vitello tonnato and his tagliatelle al burro e Parmigiano became the restaurant's two most photographed dishes, so much so that in the summer of 2026 he pulled both from the menu. In July 2026, however, Rossi announced that he was removing both dishes from the menu, partly because their popularity on social media had begun to overshadow the rest of his cooking. By October, both were back in their usual place. A ottobre si torna allora al piatto che dà il nome al locale, la trippa, presenza fissa in carta, seguita dal midollo alla brace. Among the pastas, a tortelli filled with sheep's ricotta, broad beans and peas, finished with crisp guanciale and pecorino romano, has been on the menu alongside a simple butter-and-Parmesan tagliatelle.

05The neighbourhood and booking

Trippa sits in Porta Romana, the district built around Milan's old Roman gate. Porta Romana is used both to refer to the gate proper and to the surrounding district, part of the Zone 4 administrative division of Milan, located south-east of the city centre, about 2 km south-east of the city centre. The address itself is pure neighbourhood trattoria, a few streets back from the gate's triumphal arch.

According to the restaurant's own site, in October 2026 it opens Monday to Friday for dinner from 19.15 to 23.30, with the kitchen closing at 22.30, plus a Friday lunch service from 12.30 to 14.30; Saturday and Sunday it is closed. Tables are famously hard to secure, and booking well ahead through the restaurant's own channels is the only reliable route in.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.