El Brellin

El Brellin sits on the Alzaia Naviglio Grande at the corner of the Vicolo dei Lavandai, the cobbled lane where Milanese washerwomen once knelt on a wooden board, the brellin, to scrub laundry at the canal. The premises were a neighbourhood grocery run by a woman named Maria Bambina until the 1950s, and the restaurant keeps that history in its name. Today it works as a Milanese kitchen and cocktail bar across five rooms in a house that dates to the 1700s, per the venue and MilanoToday.

This is a Navigli room for a slow evening, not a quick stop on a bar crawl. If you want aperitivo and a cocktail with a canal view and a proper plate of Lombard cooking to follow, it delivers. If you want a loud late night, the rest of the Naviglio Grande is louder.

Five rooms run across two floors of the old house, with fireplaces and coffered ceilings, and a garden that opens in warmer weather, per the venue and Eater. The seats over the Vicolo dei Lavandai are the ones to ask for. Tripadvisor reviewers single out the canal facing tables and the garden as the spots worth booking.

The evening starts with aperitivo and runs into a cocktail list, served from 5pm beside the kitchen. Take a Negroni or a spritz to the canal side before dinner, then carry a glass into the meal. The kitchen leans on traditional Milanese and Lombard plates with some reinterpretation, so order a classic to follow the drinks rather than treating this as a drinks only stop.

A Navigli mix of locals, couples, and visitors who found the lane off the main canal drag. Weekend lunch and the early aperitivo hour are the calmer windows. Weekend evenings fill the canal side first, so book if you want the view.

• Book a canal side table or the garden. They go first.
• Come for the setting on the Vicolo dei Lavandai as much as the menu, a point Tripadvisor reviewers repeat.
• Treat it as a sit down evening, not a fast crawl stop.

More to explore? Read our best bars in Navigli, Milan guide and our top 10 bars in Milan. Browse more Milan cocktail bars, find cocktail bars near you, or start at the Milan city guide.