For a small city, Lincoln has a lot of excellent independent Italian restaurants. Whenever we’re craving some homemade pasta with a glass of chianti, we’re never short of great options! After eating our way through the best Italian restaurants in Lincoln, we’ve put together this guide to our favourites for any occasion, whether you’re after a casual lunch with friends, an occasion with work colleagues or a romantic dinner date.
We’re not including any chain restaurants here. I’m sure you already know about places like Zizzi and Prezzo! This guide is all about those family-run Italian restaurants in Lincoln that bring so much character to the city’s dining scene.
Best Italian restaurants in Lincoln
Caffè Portico
📍 Where? The Terrace, city centre, a short walk from Lincoln High Street
⭐ Best for: Relaxed date nights, informal meals with colleagues
🍕 Highlight: Handmade pizzas from the outdoor wood-burning oven
You might have already read about Caffè Portico in our guide to the best pizza in Lincoln. This family-run restaurant with a classy yet casual vibe has become one of our favourite places in the city centre for a lunch date or casual meal after work.
Lisa also sometimes comes here for lunch with work colleagues, as her team is based at Mosaic coworking space just a couple of minutes’ walk away.
Caffè Portico is run by a local entrepreneur with roots in Italy. Simon, the owner, has strong family heritage in Turin and a passion for pizza-making.
There are lots of tasty pasta dishes on the menu – we have tried the “Spaghetti Amatriciana” with bacon and chilli, which is superb! And Lisa has raved about the salads when she’s had work lunches here. But it’s the pizzas that are the real star of the show.
Simon and the team prepare their pizzas by hand in seconds – a very impressive process to watch – before cooking them in a huge outdoor wood-burning oven. Because of the proximity to office buildings, the oven only operates from 5pm to 10pm on weekdays (and all day on Saturdays).
I tried the “Parmigiana Speciale” with aubergine, pancetta and smoked provolone and was blown away by the flavours and the texture of the freshly rolled and flame-baked dough. The antipasti is delicious here too. We had a salami plate, mixed olives and bread, which worked great as a combined sharing starter.
While Caffè Portico is an independent restaurant, its setting in a modern office-style building gives it a feel that’s somewhere between formal and classy. With beautiful artwork of Italian cities on the walls and ambient music playing, it definitely has strong first-date appeal too.
By day, you can also grab homemade cakes from the deli counter, and since it opens at 9am Monday to Saturday, it’s a great alternative spot for breakfast.
La Bottega Delitalia
📍 Where? West Parade, just off Lincoln High Street in the city centre
⭐ Best for: Laidback lunches and cosy early-evening dinner dates
🧄 Highlight: Incredible buttery garlic bread!
La Bottega Delitalia began its life as an independent delicatessen café where you could grab a quick lunch panini or cake to take away, but has evolved to become an ambient restaurant as well.
The glass deli counter is still the first thing you see when you walk through the bright red entrance, while the restaurant area occupies a cosy space at the back, spilling out onto a sun-trap little garden.
The decor is bright, humble and understated, and the service friendly without being over-attentive. This creates just the kind of atmosphere we like for a low-key lunch when Lisa is on break from work, but there’s also an elegant charm about the place that works for an intimate dinner date.
I have to give a special shout-out to the homemade garlic bread at La Bottega Delitalia, which we ordered as an appetiser. It’s buttery, herby, crispy and delicious. It’s so good I’d happily go there just for this alone!
You’ll see a selection of specials on a chalk-board inside the restaurant. When we finally popped in for lunch (after putting it off for far too long!), we opted for some staple pasta dishes from the main menu.
We tried both a creamy pasta dish (penne primavera, with added chicken) and a spicy tomato-based pasta dish (penne arrabbiatta), each sprinkled with lashings of parmesan. They came piping hot from the pan in generous portions, full of flavour.
We haven’t tried the highly rated house tiramisu yet, but that’s high on our hit-list for next time!
La Bottega Delitalia opens at 12–3pm on Wednesdays to Saturdays, and 5–9pm on Thursdays to Saturdays. Read our full review of La Bottega Delitalia for some more detailed insights.
La Trattoria da Vincenzo
📍 Where? West Parade, just off Lincoln High Street opposite La Bottega Delitalia
⭐ Best for: Date nights or small group meals in an authentic Italian atmosphere
🍝 Highlight: Outstanding homemade pasta
Set in a once-residential Victorian townhouse, La Trattoria da Vincenzo has the most authentic feel of a traditional family-run Italian restaurant that we’ve tried in Lincoln. It is named after its owner and chef, Vincenzo Tragni, who has lived in the UK since 1996 and first opened the restaurant’s doors here in 2011.
The downstairs rooms of the old house have been transformed into a homely restaurant space, with tables neatly laid out with red and white tablecloths. When its warm and dry enough, there’s a secluded outdoor courtyard space with a couple of tables too.
Add the calming tones of Italian music, cabinets displaying dozens of red wine bottles, and neatly hung paintings of medieval citadels on the walls, and you’ll feel as though you’ve stepped into a remote Puglian village.
The menu revolves around classic Italian cuisine, with a pasta, pizzas, meat and fish dishes, and rich desserts. It’s flexible, too. For example, you can order the pasta dishes as starters if you like.
When we came in for a lunch date we were feeling in the mood for pasta, and – as we often do – we tried both a creamy option and a tomato-based option. This time with a large glass of wine each, as it was a Saturday!
The fresh pasta here really is excellent. Lisa had pasta con ragu di cinghiale (wild boar ragu), while I indulged in pasta boscaiola, with chicken, bacon, garlic and mushrooms.
La Trattoria da Vincenzo is open Monday to Saturday, Lunch begins at 12noon with last orders at 2pm, while dinner is from 5:30pm with last orders at 9:30pm.
Gino’s
📍 Where? On the corner of Bailgate and Gordon Road in the Cathedral Quarter
⭐ Best for: A treat meal after some uphill sightseeing
🍝 Highlight: Italian meatballs in Gino’s Napoli sauce
Gino’s is probably the best-known of the independent Italian restaurants in Lincoln, occupying a prime spot along Bailgate in the Cathedral Quarter. It’s also the oldest, having operated in the same spot for more than 25 years.
Walk past here on a weekend at midday and it’s always busy inside, but with plenty of space, you can usually get a walk-in table. The atmosphere inside leans into a classic Italian theme, perhaps a little more deliberately than some of the city’s other independent spots, with a green, white and red colour scheme and suitably traditional music setting the tone.
One weekend when Lisa was away seeing her best friends for what she calls a “girly brunch date”, I finally decided to quench my curiosity and try Gino’s for a solo late lunch. Despite it being a Saturday, I arrived in the mid-afternoon to find the place almost empty, which was actually quite nice. The service was very friendly and attentive, perhaps especially so because of the quiet spell.
As you have probably noticed in this guide, we often go for pasta dishes, pizzas or salads when visiting Italian restaurants in Lincoln. This time, I took a different route, tempted by the polpette alla napoletana on the hot starters menu – beef and pork Italian meatballs in Gino’s Napoli sauce. They were a real treat, and the portion was generous enough to almost work as a light main.
For my actual main course, I naturally gravitated towards the options on the “specialities” section of the menu. If a restaurant claims to do something best, then I’m always keen to try it!
I went for the pollo colosseo, chicken breast with bacon, cracked black pepper and garlic in a creamy sauce, with a side of steamed vegetables. The chicken was beautifully tender, and the sauce was rich and flavourful.
Here’s a little Instagram reel I made from my solo lunch adventure at Gino’s:
Gino’s is open 12–10pm, seven days a week.
Map of Italian restaurants in Lincoln
Take a closer look at the locations of the Italian restaurants in Lincoln we’ve featured in this guide by clicking to open the map below:
Have you tried any Italian restaurants in Lincoln? Let us know about your experiences in the comments below.
Find more of our foodie inspiration by browsing the food and drink section of the blog.
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