Bologna - Restaurants and Food Tours

On my Best of Europe RS Tour back in May, 2018 our tour guide did an impromptu stop at this place as it was pretty new and she wanted us to check it out....it was fantastic. If you get the chance to visit I totally recommend it, quite fascinating, you could spend a whole day in the wonderful world of Italian food!! Here are a couple of links to give you an idea of what it is!

https://www.eataly.com/us_en/about-eataly/news/fico-eataly-world
https://www.eater.com/2017/11/15/16653032/eataly-world-bologna-italy-open-fico

Restaurants- Da Cesari, reservations a must!
We ate there twice. Fabulous.
We love visiting Eataly(s) in the US and Europe.

Drogheria della Rosa - via Cartoleria 10, near San Stefano. Ate there last week and are returning today for lunch. We spent about 80 euros for two, with wine. After two weeks in Bologna, we're both calling our favorite meal.

FICO - Eatalyworld will be closed next December (probably after Christmas period) for economical problems. The news are that will be completely changed/restored and opened again the 2024 Spring/Sumer, but no other news yet.
As food tour I recommend this travel agency: https://emiliaromagnatours.it/ . They do mainly tailor made tours.

Last year I went on a fantastic food tour with Italian Days Food Experience (www.italiadays.it). The van picked us up at our location in Bologna...it was an all day tour. We went on to taste vinegar, toured a cheese making facility (Parmigiano) and then a prosciutto facility...all amazing with tastings along the way. After, there was a delicious dinner provided. HIGHLY recommend. Just the best day of food and fun.

June, we are taking the Italian Days tour in about 3 weeks. Thank you (and others) for sharing the great reviews. I'll also share our experience when we return.

In August we did a food tour of Bologna, offered by secret food tours - their tours are small group and this was one of our favorite food tours to date. The guide and all of the food were excellent. Definitely planning to try another food tour with them in the future:
https://www.secretfoodtours.com/bologna/food-tours-bologna/

We just took the Italian Days all day food tour on Oct.4 and highly recommend it. Besides learning an incredible amount about Parmigiano-Reggiano, Balsamic vinegar of Modena, and Prosciutto, seeing how they are all made, and tasting all of the above, Alessandro, your guide and owner of Italian Days Tours is the most charismatic, funny, entertaining, enthusiastic and educational guide we have ever had. The tour was fantastic. And to top it all off, the tour concludes with a several hour meal at Alessandro's restaurant, which included anti pasto of Parmigiano-Reggiano from the factory with balsamic, 5 different kinds of prosciutto, 3 different all you can eat servings of pasta, 4 different wines (all you can drink) and tiramisu for dessert. Fantastic tour.

We returned from Bologna yesterday, Our favorite restaurant was Trattoria di Via Serra. If you want a reservation I would ask to see if your host will make them for you well in advance. We had luck the last three years by showing up a half hour before they open for lunch. If you're first or second in line there's a good chance you'll snag a table. We also had a nice meal at Da Cesari. We had no reservation but they were able to seat us upstairs.

For a quick bite you can't beat Mo Mortadella or Panini di Miro. Both have a wide choice of amazing sandwiches. You didn't ask about coffee but we found Mr. Coffee to have outstanding coffee and pastries.

Had a delicious lunch at Sfoglia Rina just yesterday. Not fancy and no reservations, but very well run with delicious food. Much if menu changes daily, but a big focus on fresh pasta dishes.
There is also now a branch of the famous Michelin star Naples restaurant, L’Antica Pizzaria da Michele. Much more extensive menu and restaurant than in Naples.