L’Orso Cafe Hostaria

Totally accomodating and so helpful. Friendly service generous pours.
Happy welcoming owner. Great pizza!

We stopped here for a quick lunch before our ferry. Its behind Olivedo hotel in front of the ferry landing, so great location for a café. And it happened to be open in the off season in February when most shops and eateries were closed.
I ordered the spaghetti with bell pepper sauce as I felt like spicy that day, which the bar owner warned me would be very hot, but I grew up in Bombay so I told him to bring it on… and it was hot hot hot… like eye watering, mouth burning HOT! Definitely more spicy than I wanted, ha ha!
But I ended up liking it anyway, for the first time ever I ate something outside India which was worthy enough of being called hot. One star is just for being in a great location and quick service. The pizzas here were great, and oh, just try the hot chocolate… you MUST!!!

11÷4÷2013
It was raining on 1 of our days at Lake Como, and we were trying to find a place that was reasonably priced and close to our hotel. Given that it was already «off-​season» and winter was upon on, most eateries on Varenna and other villages were closed.
We came across this restaurant and decided to venture in, as someone told us it had decent food.
Super cozy and warm inside. :) There’s downstairs and upstairs seating available, but since there were barely any customers, everyone sat downstairs.
We ordered:
(1) Spaghetti ariabiatta — basic pasta sauce w/​tomato
(2) Pizza Napoli — can’t go wrong w/​pizza anywhere in Italy
(3) Beer — my husband ordered this and drank half.
Did it help that this restaurant was one of the few open in the winter? Yes.
Was the food relatively good in cold weather? Yes.
Would you have come here if other restaurant options were available? Prolly not.
Customer service was friendly, although a bit slow… maybe that’s just the lifestyle of Lake Como, slow and relaxing!