We visited Hostaria da Ivan in March 2014. We stayed in two of their quaint rooms, and enjoyed a wonderful meal! My Tar Tar was excellent! The breakfast we were offered included so many choices! It was above and beyond any of my expectations! I...hope our travels allow us to visit Hostaria da ivan again in the future! Definately a hidden gem!!More

Difficult place to find, but it was worth the search. It was a cold day when we visited, but sunny, and our table in the covered patio had a beautiful view of the garden. Food was delicious, and included a great app of various local...hams and cheese, polenta with two flavored lardo choices, and delicious pastas. Excellent choice--don't miss it!More

Having read the recommendation from chowhound we booked the restaurant one month ago before our departure to Parma. We booked a table for 4 and two rooms on a Tuesday evening so that we could fully enjoy our dinner and wine. But on that day...one of my friend told me that they are closed on Mon-Wed, We arrived at the town at about 4:30pm to find that the restaurant was closed. So we called Ivan. We talked in English and he in Italian. But from our communication we gathered that our booking was valid and so we wandered around the town till 7:15pm. And there he was!!!! It was really a day off for them and he opened the restaurant for the four of us who came form miles away from Hing Kong. We were immediately touched by their passion for food as one won't do this just for a few customers if not for the passion. Despite the language barrier, we communicated well through the body language. And he was so nice to ask his friend Giuseppe the wine maker to travel all the way to the restaurant to do the translation for us. Though by the time he arrived we were already having the dessert but we were very grateful. Giuseppe made exceptionally good wine and the wine was a good companion to our dinner. So Barbara was busy cooking I the kitchen and Ivan has to assist Barbara and do the serving as there were just the two of them. We had a wonderful grilled one day old Parmasean cheese for the appetizer, delicious culatello, lard with spring onion with went extremely well with the grilled polenta. We had the best lasagna we had in Italy. The pasta was still al dente despite being naked with the meat sauce. The strawberry purée and the sabayon ended our delightful dinner. After taking a good sleep in the cosy room we wake up the next morning only to discovered that Ivan has prepared a rich breakfast for us. Sadly we had not quite digested the dinner last night and so whave to skin the ham and cheese. Before our departure Ivan took us to the cellar where he kept his wine , culatello, Parma ham etc. he even showed us his favourite photos with his good friends. we felt that he did not regard us as customers but as friends who share the passion in food. And we even arranged us a visit to the vineyard of Giuseppe before we left. This is really a highlight of our trip to Italy and we could not thank Ivan enough for his hospitality.More

visited the hostaria for a dinner and stayed over night during our trip to Lake Como and Milan last month. The location was difficult to find without a GPS, but it was a fantastic experience. The food/wine were great. Ivan and his partner Barbara were...very hospitable. We managed to have a great time together even though their English and our Italian were limited.More