About Us

Restaurant Mezzaluna opened its doors in Turin in 1994. Daniela Zaccuri and Claudio Viano would spend their summers in Calcata, a quaint village in the center of Italy, at the local Vegetarian Club, where they cooked natural foods and wild herbs from the surrounding forest, and organized barbecues in the garden using seitan and tofu from nearby Rome.

The idea that food can change the world made the young and determined couple open one of the first organic and macrobiotic food shops in their native city. The neighborhood, the historic Quadrilatero Romano or Roman Quarter of Turin—today a destination for tourism and nightlife—was at the time a tough one, and few knew about the principles of the vegan diet and cooking.

The meaning of its name, Mezzaluna (crescent), calls to mind the fertile lands of Mesopotamia.

The place began as a small grocery store where Daniela prepared vegan and sugar-free sweet and savory specialties, those which customers ate standing up between the shelves. But a few years later, it was expanded and turned into a true restaurant, sought after for a dinner for two as well as a meeting place where people can share a healthful, well-prepared meal and discuss their visions of life.

At Mezzaluna, we seek to exalt the flavors of our dishes, experimenting with the ingredients, and creating new ones that combine health with tradition.

Of the many successful preparations that have been devised here, special mention must be given to the typically Piedmontese Russian (Olivier) salad, prepared with no eggs, the Quinoa Bake or Millet Bake, the traditional Filled Pasta or east-inspired dishes like the Vegan Pad Thai; the Seitan Balls and Escalopes, the Tofu Flan, the Tempeh dishes reinvented to blend it into the Italian cuisine, and the salads enriched with seaweed. But Mezzaluna is also famous for its cakes: Pies sweetened with cereal malt, topped with jam or fresh seasonal fruit or eye-catching Filled Cakes, the Vegan Sacher, delicious Tofucakes, Mousse, and Tiramisu.

The kitchen is right behind the counter and—just like at home—you can watch exquisite specialties being prepared every day.

Mezzaluna is a crossroads of customers: from the couple having a romantic dinner to the ambitious executive on lunch break, or the artist, the office worker, plumber, politician or the group for the graduation party; they're all joined by their passion for good food.

Over the years, the Mezzaluna team has served as caterer for important medical conferences at some of Turin's best hospitals, where the menus provided proof of the tasty connection between food and health.