Restaurant Roundup: Rome, Venice, Turin (June 2006)
A collection of reviews of
noteworthy restaurants -- some old,
some new -- throughout Italy:
ROME
baby
Entering the restaurant baby on the
ground floor of the Aldrovandi
Palace (see hotel review on page 6)
can feel a bit like time travel, leaving
the 19th century décor of the hotel
and fast forwarding a few hundred
years to the
extremely contemporary
look and feel
of this elegant poolside
restaurant.
Quickly after seeing
the difference, you
can smell it. baby's
simple, white décor
is enhanced by plenty of sweetsmelling
candles, creating a soothing,
almost spa-like atmosphere. One
interesting touch -- flat-screen
televisions showing cartoons.
Chef Alfonso Iaccarino presides over
baby, much as he does over Ristorante
Don Alfonso 1890, the Michelin-starred
restaurant he owns on the
Amalfi Coast. Iaccarino uses the local
ingredients on which he built his
reputation. He brings in organic
tomatoes and olive oil from his own
Amalfi Coast farm. The pasta comes
from producers in Gragnano and
Torre Annunziata. Daily deliveries of
fish arrive from Due Golfi.
From the moment we enter baby, we
are showered with attention. The
white-glove service is the perfect mix
of helpful and refined. In fact, the
service, as well as the setting, may be
more memorable than the food.
While it has been more than a few months since eating at baby, I struggle
to remember one specific dish I ate
(without consulting my notes).
I remember having a very satisfying
meal there (with perfectly paired
wines) but not much more. Interesting,
as I can tell you course-by-course some
of the other meals I have eaten in Italy,
years ago. In general, that leads me to
conclude that baby is slightly more
style than substance. Expect dinner for
two with wine to cost about 200 euros.
At the Aldrovandi Palace Hotel
Via Ulisse Aldrovandi, 15
(39) 06 3216126
www.aldrovandi.com
Closed Monday. Open for lunch and dinner.
Reservations essential.
L'Orso 80
You can make a meal out of the
antipasti alone at this casual
Roman eatery near Piazza Navona. Or
another way to put it is don't go to
L'Orso 80 and not partake of the
scrumptious appetizers. Yes, they are
that good! Tell the waiter to bring out a
selection of the day's offerings or
choose from among, fried zucchini,
fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, beans in
tomato sauce, eggplant and rice balls.
The antipasti are served family-style, at
a cost of 11 euros per person, are one of the
best buys in Rome.
Hold off on ordering primi or secondi
before assessing how you feel after the
antipasti. The friendly and efficient
waiters might even make this recommendation while taking your order. If
you are brave enough to continue on,
you will find the main dishes as tasty
and affordable as their precursors. If
there's room for dessert, make an
authentic choice and try the Roman
ricotta cake.
While L'Orso 80 generally attracts
crowds, they seem to add rather than
take away from such a convivial
Roman dining experience.
Via dell'Orso, 33
(39) 06 6864904
Closed Monday. Open Tuesday
through Sunday, 1:00 to 3:30 p.m.
and 7 to 11:30 p.m.
Closed August and
December 24 through 26.
Reservations recommended.
TURIN
Locanda Mongreno
The taxi ride across town to one of
Turin's residential neighborhoods
is well worth the trip in order to
experience Pierre Bussetti's experimental
cuisine. Your meal will almost certainly
be filled with surprises whose
innovative dishes may one day receive
the fame of Ferran Adria at Spain's El
Bulli.
Locanda Mongreno's cozy setting and
shabby chic décor complement the
experience, but don't overpower it,
ensuring that the food is the star of the
show here. Bussetti offers three pre-fixe
menus: Medium, Hard and Extreme.
The "Medium Menu" (55 euros per person)
includes selections such as ricotta
cheese dumplings with lemon, spinach
and Grana Padano cheese sauce.
(Medium Menu items can also be
ordered a la carte).
The young
chef's most
interesting
creation,
especially for
lovers of
Piedmontese
cuisine, is his
"Hard Menu,"
eight small
courses (65 euros) each featuring a
traditional and modern interpretation
of a Piedmontese classic. For example,
Lingua in salsa rossa (boiled veal tongue
with spicy tomato sauce). The traditional
version is served as a slice of
tongue with a topping of sauce.
Bussetti's interpretation comes out as a
meatball of veal tongue accompanied
by a sauce-covered spoon. He puts
both on one plate.
While it is one thing to change the
ingredients and appearance of a dish,
it is another thing for those changes to
create a better or more unique dish.
Bussetti's bold experiments generally
succeed. In a million years, I would
have never thought the risotto dusted
with chocolate powder would taste as
good as it did.
Among the eight or more courses on
the "Extreme Menu" (79 euros) are a starter
of three versions of sushi, braised veal
tail with apples and balsamic vinegar
infusion with vanilla Bourbon ice
cream.
For a true culinary adventure, be sure
to put Locanda Mongreno on your
itinerary.
Strada Mongreno, 50
(39) 011 8980417
Closed Monday and closed the first two
weeks of January and first two weeks of
September.
Reservations essential.
VENICE
Ai Gondolieri
Those who aren't seafood eaters
can sometimes feel like fish out
of water while dining in Venice.
That's why the 100-year-old Ai
Gondoleri makes carnivores rejoice --
no fish on the menu. Just a short walk
from the Accademia vaparetto stop, the
restaurant makes an excellent place to
eat before or after visiting the nearby
Peggy Guggenheim Collection. (Ai
Gondoleri's owner, Giovanni Trevison,
also runs Café Museum, the restaurant
inside the Peggy Guggenheim
Collection.)
The menu emphasizes meat and game
dishes (featuring traditional recipes
from the Veneto hills) as well as the requisite pasta offerings (risotto con
funghi is a particularly good choice).
Duck, liver, horse
and game are some
of the meat choices.
Filetto di maiale (filet
of pork with baby
artichokes) is a
favorite among regulars.
Ai
Gondolieri's gnocchi
is also a stand out.
An excellent wine list rounds out the
dining experience.
Diners walk into a small bar at the
entrance of the restaurant before reaching
the wood-paneled dining room,
which feels like a cross between an Old
World reading room and Grandma's
basement. The day we visited the service
was professional though not friendly but the food more than made up for
it. Another bonus: You are likely to see
native Venetians among your fellow
diners, an experience that can feel rare
in this tourist mecca. As with most
good Venetian
restaurants, Ai
Gondolieri is
expensive.
Fondamenta dell'Ospedaletto
Dorsoduro, 366
(39) 041 5286396
www.aigondolieri.com
Closed Tuesday. Open Wednesday to Monday,
12:30 to 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 10:00
p.m.Closed for lunch during July and August.
Reservations recommended. Can be made
online at the restaurant's Web site.
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