Chef Express - NOVARA

This overpass restaurant started in 1947 as the first of the highway rest stop restaurants in Italy, and in 1962 was the largest overpass restaurant in the world. Interesting stories and displays throughout, about the entrepreneur and the architect, but we came for the food rather than the history (which we found out only afterwards anyway), and were not disappointed by either. Clean, modern, open space; it re opened only in 2017. BurgeRy was the section that we chose tasty burgers and fries, not at all the McDonald or Burger King kind, and at least two steps above. This is not fast food in the pejorative sense but you don 't have to take long to get served and get back on the road. And using English is no problem we got a warm smile and friendly service. So, if you are on the A4, and want to be enlightened about the development of the autostrada, and have a decent meal, this is a good choice. Also a part of this restaurant complex has manned stations offering more traditional Italian fare, so you are not committed to only burgers and fries.

It's the only restaurant around, with a nice road view, but the food is poor and very expensive. 60 euros for a simple dinner for 3. We had an average burger, poor salmon fish, average meat and simple potatos.