Jenkins and I took a day trip boat ride to the small town of Menaggio one day during our stay in Lake Como. Menaggio was slightly larger in size than Varenna and our ferry ride only took about 20 minutes. When we arrived at Menaggio, we took a nice stroll around town and ended up at Bar Constantin Pizzeria around lunch time. It was located on a small street just off the city square and was along a row of small restaurants. Bar Constantin seemed to be one of the busier restaurants so we decided that would be a good place to go.

I tried to order our customary orange Fanta but they only had aranciata (orange) flavoured San Pellegrino. I liked how the tops of the cans had some foil on top to protect it from contamination during transit. I usually wipe the top of my soda cans down with some Kleenex so this saved me the trouble.

I knew I had eaten quite a bit of pizza on our trip already but pizza seemed to be the specialty at Bar Constantin and it wasn’t like I got to eat real Italian pizza all the time! I opted for a simpler topping this time with the Margherita pizza, which had tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. I would have liked it with a bit more tomatoes and I also found the crust to be slightly chewier than the other places I had tried while in Lake Como.

Jenkins opted for basically the same version as me but he also added some protein in the form of cooked ham. He also noted that he liked the crispier pizza crust at the previous restaurants that we visited.

For a random restaurant that Jenkins and I stumbled upon without having done prior research, I think Bar Constantin was quite good. In addition to their large selection of pizzas, they also had some pastas and some pretty tasty looking salads.

One thing to note about the restaurants in Menaggio and in most of the Lake Como towns was that they are closed for a daily siesta at around 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon. We had forgotten about this custom and came pretty close to missing our lunch that day. Some parties that arrived at the restaurant about 10-15 minutes after us had to be turned away because they were already starting to close down the kitchen.

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$