Lunch at altitude has its own logic. Your legs stop, the landscape opens up, and what arrives on your plate is made from what grows a few kilometres from where you’re sitting. In Val di Fassa this logic works particularly well, because the density of mountain huts, alpine farms and agritourisms around Moena is among the highest in the Dolomites – and the average quality is surprising.
Hotel Cavalletto serves dinner every evening. Lunch is your chance to explore the valley.
Five minutes’ walk from the hamlet of Sorte, reachable from Moena in ten minutes on foot or by car, Malga Panna is an old alpine hut turned into a restaurant in the 1950s by the Donei family. It has held a Michelin star since 1993, with chef Paolo Donei reinterpreting local flavours in a contemporary key.
Booking essential, closed on Tuesdays. The walk from Moena to Sorte takes about thirty minutes on a forest path, and many Cavalletto guests include it in their morning, have lunch there and walk back in the afternoon. The combination works well.
Continuing from the Sorte plateau into the forest, you reach the family-run Malga Peniola: cooking without creative twists and a terrace from which you can see Moena lit up in the valley.
Traditional local dishes: tagliatelle with speck and porcini mushrooms, apple fritters, cream with berries. Nearby there is a small mountain chapel worth a stop. It can also be reached by car from Moena – the lane gets narrow towards the end, which is useful to know before setting off.
The Fuciade hut deserves a food description separate from the hiking articles, because its cooking is worth the trip on its own, regardless of the trail.
Built in the 1960s by three priests and renovated in 1983 by the current owners, it stands at 1,972 metres in the green Fuciade basin – the name comes from “fauciade”, the place where hay is mown – at the foot of the Costabella range, with views of the Pale di San Martino and Col Margherita.
The cooking respects Ladin tradition with creative touches: polenta gnocchi with mountain cheese, potato ravioli with smoked butter, venison fillet with blueberry reduction, warm strudel with vanilla cream. Bread and desserts are homemade in the hut’s own pastry kitchen. The wine list favours small local producers and Alpine wineries.
From the San Pellegrino Pass it’s a 45-minute walk on a dirt road, easily passable even with pushchairs and closed to private traffic beyond the car park. Booking strongly recommended at weekends and in August.
In an elevated position above the centre of Moena, Agritur El Mas serves local dishes and zero-km cooking in a farmstead with an all-wood, modern and clean restaurant, with an internal window looking directly into the cowshed. It’s a working farm – you eat what is raised and grown right where you’re sitting, with the animals just a few metres away.
Reachable on foot from Moena in twenty minutes or by car. It’s also one of the natural stops on the walk to Soraga – those who discover it tend to come back.
To have lunch at altitude without tackling a trail, the Vigo di Fassa cable car – ten minutes from Moena by car – takes you up to the Ciampedie plateau at 2,000 metres.
Ciampedie means “God’s field”: the 360-degree view of the Dolomite peaks is spectacular in every season. At the top station there are several huts, including the very well-kept Rifugio Negritella and Baita Checco.
From Ciampedie, trails lead towards the Vajolet Towers and the Catinaccio – you can have lunch and then walk in the afternoon towards one of the most iconic sceneries in the Dolomites.
On Col Margherita, at the top of the cable car from the San Pellegrino Pass, the InAlto hut changed register in winter 2022: its kitchen was entrusted to Trentino chef Alfio Ghezzi – Michelin-starred with his Senso Mart restaurant in Rovereto – who created the InAlto Alfio Ghezzi Dolomites project, the first mountain hut in the area to bear the signature of a starred chef.
The philosophy Ghezzi brings to altitude follows a clear logic. As the chef put it: “Cooking at 2,500 metres requires a sense of limits, essential to offer cuisine that is shared with the landscape and with good food practices. Dishes conceived and cooked responsibly, respecting the seasons and the short supply chain.”
In summer the hut offers food all day – from breakfast to lunch and aperitifs – including the Peak-Nic: a picnic basket to enjoy outdoors on the summit of Col Margherita, with a first course, main course and dessert by Ghezzi, on a blanket spread at the highest point of the mountain.
The wine cellar, curated by restaurant manager Marco Donazzolo, favours artisan winemakers, local beers and traditional Italian Alpine spirits. Reachable in five minutes by cable car from the San Pellegrino Pass, it is also open in summer, with access on foot or by e-MTB, with charging points on site.
Booking: Malga Panna always requires a reservation. For the Fuciade hut it is strongly recommended at weekends and in August. The other places usually accept walk-ins, but at peak times it’s worth calling the day before.
Opening times: at most huts the kitchen closes between 2 pm and 2:30 pm. If you arrive after 1:30 pm you’ll often find the kitchen partly closed. For an afternoon snack – cake and a view – times are much more flexible.
What to order: canederli in broth are the benchmark. If they are good, the rest usually is too. Barley soups and spelt broths hold up well to the temperature swings typical of eating outdoors at altitude.
Dinner stays at the Cavalletto: every evening Chef Lele works with local ingredients, serving Ladin and Trentino cuisine with a care you recognise at the first bite. Lunch out is for exploring the valley; in the evening you come back.
| Place | Altitude | How to get there | Speciality |
| Malga Panna | 1,400 m | On foot from Sorte (10 min from Moena) | Chef’s cuisine, Michelin star since 1993 |
| Malga Peniola | 1,400 m | On foot or by car from Moena | Traditional alpine hut cooking |
| Agritur El Mas | ~1,250 m | On foot (20 min) or by car | Zero-km food, view over Moena |
| Fuciade hut | 1,972 m | 45 min walk from the San Pellegrino Pass | Refined Ladin cuisine, homemade desserts |
| Ciampedie | 2,000 m | Cable car from Vigo di Fassa | 360° view, Rifugio Negritella and Baita Checco |
| InAlto Alfio Ghezzi Dolomites | 2,514 m | Cable car from the San Pellegrino Pass (5 min) | Starred cuisine, Peak-Nic, panoramic aperitif |
Want to know which place goes best with today’s hike? Contact Hotel Cavalletto – at reception we’ve known these places for years.
