The Restaurant
Forget whatever you have read calling Il Moderno a fusion fine-dining room. The truth is better. Livia Coarelli opened it in 2015 at Via del Carmine 1, in Perugia's centro storico, and she cooks the whole menu herself in a small open kitchen you can watch from your table. Everything is organic, seasonal and largely sourced from local Umbrian farms or fair-trade suppliers. This is a one-woman kitchen with a point of view, not a brigade chasing Michelin.
The cooking crosses Umbrian tradition with French and North African influences, the result of Coarelli's own background, and it leans hard on vegetables because she is vegetarian. Local products carry the menu — roveja, the black celery of Trevi — and the desserts, including a ricotta, coconut and chocolate plate, run about €6. A full dinner lands around €44 a head, which for cooking this careful is the most honest bill in the city centre.
Here is the contrarian point. Perugia has flashier rooms and pricier tables, but few that over-deliver the way this one does. You are not paying for white-glove theatre or a two-hundred-bottle cellar; you are paying a fair price for organic food made by the person who designed it. For value and honesty, Il Moderno is the sleeper that the trophy listings keep getting wrong.
Why This Is Perugia’s Close a Deal Pick
Closing a deal does not require a loud trophy restaurant, whatever the expense-account cliché says. It requires a quiet table where both sides can actually hear each other, and Il Moderno delivers exactly that. The room is small and calm, the cooking is interesting enough to signal you put thought into the choice, and the modest bill keeps the focus on the conversation rather than the spectacle. If your counterpart values substance over peacocking, this is the smarter room.
Not For
Skip Il Moderno if you want a grand room, an extensive cellar or a meat-heavy blowout: it is a tiny, vegetable-leaning organic kitchen run by one chef, and a steak-and-status crowd will be disappointed.
Diner Reviews
Share your experience with the Restaurants for Kings community.
Register to Write a Review