A medium sized place composed of 3 well lit rooms rather starkly decorated, but there is a feel of elegance to the place. It is run by 3 brothers and the night we were there Massimo Troiani, who is over the wine selection, was there but his brother Angelo who runs the kitchen and Giuseppe, who is over the dining rooms, were not. They want to be known for their healthy cuisine and are open about their suppliers as well as content of the dishes.
In fact their menu lists 14 different common allergens and has them noted on dishes that contain them. Another quirk of their menu is that the host’s is the only one with prices, denoted by the man on the front as opposed the bare breasted woman on the “guest’s” menu. Wonder how they figure out who gets which?
We were well advised to try and get Eric as our waiter. He speaks great English and is helpful in making your selections, except for wine where Massimo rules. The have a tasting menu as well as a la carte, which we chose, and a huge wine list. The tables are set with homemade chips that hang from the table decoration. They start everyone with a couple amuse bouche.
The salad with prawns was a very nice combination of tastes and served with a chip for crunch. It was almost sweet.
The quail came with a large salad that was somewhat underdressed. There was also no sauce on the quail and it made the dish a little dry. It came with a hard boiled quail egg.
The duck ravioli had pomegranate sauce on the top of each and a celeriac sauce underneath. The duck had been cooked in red wine. It was cool looking and fairly good.
The spelt spaghetti had Asian flavors and was a tad spicy. The pasta had a nice chew and the almonds added crunch. It was delicious.
The lamb cooked 4 ways started with a steamed spinach bun with lamb. It was nice.
The main plate had lamb belly on polenta with mushrooms, fried lamb and a sauce of balsamic and plum. The little flowers were beet and cream cheese. The lamb was cooked perfectly rare but was too tough to cut but the other portions were quite edible, but none left you wanting more.
The palate cleanser of pumpkin was quite nice.
The dessert was a rum soaked cake with meringue powder and chestnut paste followed by puff pastry and then vanilla and violet cream. It was topped with beignets filled with dark chocolate. It was really different and had a strong taste of violet. It helped to try and eat all layers together as the really sweet bottom ones offset the bitter chocolate at the top but that was a challenge.
