Persianissimo, Milan

Why you should experience Persianissimo in Milan, Italy.

Persianissimo is a refined Persian restaurant where Porta Romana's international dining culture, the legacy of Iran's Expo Milano 2015 pavilion, saffron-centered cookery and the charcoal traditions of Iranian kebab houses converge around a contemporary expression of Persian hospitality.

Set along Via Lazzaro Papi near Via Ludovico Muratori and just steps from the eastern reaches of Corso di Porta Romana, the restaurant occupies a residential pocket shaped by neighborhood restaurants, independent shops and the dense nineteenth-century blocks surrounding the former Spanish gateway. Soft illumination, patterned textiles, Persian decorative objects and saturated accents introduce Iranian visual references. Grilled meats arrive beside elongated grains of saffron rice as shared starters, yogurt preparations and tea extend the meal through contrasting temperatures and textures. The result is a Porta Romana restaurant where Persian decorative traditions and the aromas of saffron, grilled meat, herbs and slow-cooked stews create a concentrated introduction to Iranian dining culture.

What you should know about Persianissimo.

Persianissimo is best known for carrying experience from the Iranian restaurant at Expo Milano 2015 into a dedicated Persian restaurant that opened in Milan in late 2023. Its founder had managed the restaurant inside Iran's Expo pavilion, connecting Persianissimo with the six-month world exposition that brought Iranian food culture before an international Milan audience. The first restaurant opened on Via Polesine in the Corvetto area, occupying the former Bagdad restaurant and establishing a menu centered on Iranian rice dishes, stews and grilled meats. Persianissimo subsequently moved into its current Via Lazzaro Papi address near Porta Romana, preserving the same telephone number and Persian culinary focus through the change of location. The kitchen gives rice a structural role across much of the menu, pairing saffron-seasoned grains with chicken, veal, lamb and khoresh in combinations drawn from distinct strands of Iranian home and restaurant cooking. Charcoal grilling supplies a second pillar through koobideh, shish kebab and shishlik, connecting minced meat, skewered cuts and lamb with one of Iran's most enduring restaurant traditions. Vegetarian cooking receives comparable attention through eggplant preparations and herb-driven dishes that develop the Iranian table beyond grilled meat. Persianissimo received Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice recognition in 2025, two years after its Milan debut. The restaurant's progression from Expo Milano 2015 to Corvetto and then Porta Romana gives the project a decade-long connection with presenting Persian food in Milan, first within Iran's national pavilion and later through an independent restaurant.

The meal develops most clearly through the contrast between smoky starters, fragrant rice, slow-cooked khoresh and fire-grilled meats. Mirza ghasemi begins with eggplant and tomato, drawing sweetness from cooked vegetables and smoke from the aubergine before kashk bademjan shifts the same vegetable toward the tang of fermented dairy. Koobideh places seasoned minced meat over the grill, producing a deeply browned exterior that meets saffron rice, grilled tomato and butter at the plate. Zereshk polo ba morgh changes direction through chicken and rice scattered with barberries, whose sharp fruit acidity cuts through the richness of the meat and saffron-scented grains. Celo khoresh pairs rice with veal stew, allowing slower cooking and sauce to replace the direct heat of the kebab courses. Doogh brings yogurt and mint into the sequence as a cool, saline drink, then saffron tea returns the meal to one of Persian cooking's defining aromatics. Persianissimo develops its strongest culinary rhythm through those contrasts, moving between smoke, herbs, tart dairy, grilled meat, slow-cooked sauce, barberries and saffron while keeping rice at the center of the table.

How to fold Persianissimo into your trip.

Persianissimo works as the meal anchor for a Porta Romana itinerary tracing Milan from eighteenth-century funerary architecture through early twentieth-century market culture into one of the city's most consequential postwar theaters.

Begin at Rotonda della Besana, where the Ospedale Maggiore began constructing a new cemetery under Arrisio Arrigoni in 1695 after its earlier burial ground had become untenable. Interments began in 1697, Francesco Croce started San Michele Arcangelo ai Nuovi Sepolcri in 1719 and subsequently designed the surrounding portico after groundwater entered the tombs; silk merchant Giambattista Annone financed completion in 1731, with engineer Carlo Francesco Raffagno contributing to the raised burial solution. Continue to Palazzina Liberty Dario Fo e Franca Rame, designed by Alberto Migliorini in 1908 as the café-restaurant of the Verziere fruit and vegetable market. The pavilion survived the market's 1965 demolition and entered another cultural chapter in 1974 when Dario Fo and Franca Rame's La Comune occupied it for theater and public events until 1980; restoration followed in 1992, and Milan dedicated the building to Fo and Rame in 2017. Conclude at Teatro Franco Parenti, founded in 1972 as Salone Pier Lombardo by Franco Parenti, Andrée Ruth Shammah, Giovanni Testori, Dante Isella and Gian Maurizio Fercioni inside the former Cinema Continental. Testori's L'Ambleto opened the stage on January 16, 1973, followed by Macbetto and Edipus under Shammah's direction with Parenti performing; after Parenti's death in 1989, Shammah assumed sole leadership and the theater took his name, then Michele De Lucchi transformed the complex before its 2008 reopening. The progression moves from Croce, Annone and Raffagno's eighteenth-century burial complex through Migliorini's surviving Verziere pavilion and its reinvention by Fo and Rame, culminating in Parenti, Shammah and Testori's half-century contribution to Milanese theater.

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