Per Me Giulio Terrinoni is a one star Michelin restaurant with a modern motif that opened in November of 2015.  The front door is locked so you need to ring the bell to get ushered inside.  It is dimly lit with dark wood small tables and dark bench and chair seating.  There were only 7 tables in our room but I saw another room toward the back.  Nice background music plays and small lights are behind the walls with small holes to let light through.  The light walls are sparsely adorned and the only windows are in the front tables.  The nicely spaced tables have a drawer on the sides that contain the good sized cloth napkin and an extra utensil but these were not replenished during the evening.  A single bloom flower decorates each table.  There is a large a la carte menu or 2 tasting options.  The four course is your choice and the 10 course is determined by the chef.  Both have wine pairings offered.  We chose the longer tasting and ordered our own bottles of wine.  

 

While we enjoyed a glass of the Italian equivalent of champagne we were presented with some snacks.

A ravioli made with rice flour was stuffed with smoked pork and floating in a mushroom broth.  The ravioli was tender and nicely stuffed.  The broth was highly flavored and good.  This was a very nice amuse bouche.

A fried olive was served with a spicy mustard.  The mustard was not too spicy and the olive was stuffed with white grouper.  We were told that it is a typical dish from the market.  The brininess of the olive worked well with the fish.

Caponata with a liquid center were served alongside red onion rolls stuffed with broccoli and codfish.    The red onion was sweet but seemed like it should be crispy which it was not.  It was okay.  The caponata was on a thin crisp cookie and presented a nice contrast in texture.  I also liked the flavors better on this one.

 

The bread basket contained a seedy flat bread, foccaccio, breadsticks and a brown bread.  The housemade breadsticks were crisp and tasty.   I also like the seedy flatbread.

 

A plump oyster was in the shell with gorgonzola cheese, little chunks of bread and a red onion sorbet.   All blended together well for a really tasty couple bites.  This was said to be a gift from the chef.

 

A fish explosion of the strengths of the sea was dressed with an apple sauce at the table.  It contained sea beans, oyster, shrimp, calamari and several kinds of fish (amberjack, red mullet that I caught).  The apple blended well with all the fish flavors.  It was an explosion of the sea.

 

Scampi prawns were pounded into a carpaccio and adorned with foie gras and red onion jelly.   The prawns were actually scoop-able off the plate surface.  The foie gras added a nice richness to the flavor.  It was also drizzled with olive oil that introduced another flavor.  Generally I’m not a fan of raw shrimp because of the ‘flour-like’ component to their taste but somehow these didn’t have that element and were just sweet, rich and lovely.  I stand corrected on raw prawns, this was very good.

 

Burned Mackerel was served with chef’s special dashi, burrata cheese and red cabbage.  The mackerel was nicely caramelized and was as crispy as any bruleé topping.  The burnt sugar really helped neutralize the strong taste of the fish.  Mixed together it was all very nice.   The dashi was mildly flavored but worked really well with the warm dish.

 

Roasted cuttlefish were served with Roman artichokes and a sea urchin sauce.  The artichoke was excellent and the nicely browned cuttlefish still had some ink left inside.  They were tasty and tender.  Both of the ingredients were quite good but it did not strike me as a dynamic pairing of the good ingredients.

 

Red mullet was served in a ceviche sauce from South America with seaweed and pickled radish.  The seaweed had been fried tempura style and the small red mullet was also fried.  The various accompaniments helped dampen the strong taste of the mullet.  The fish took well to being fried.  It was crisp, tender and not at all dried out.  The seaweed retained its strong flavor.

 

Spaghettone or Sea Carbonara “2006” was a large spaghetti tossed into a seafood version of carbonara.  It substituted bottarga for bacon and used fish eggs rather than chicken.  It still used parmesan on the perfectly cooked pasta but didn’t have the creamy, eggy feel you expect from carbonara.  For me it was not savory enough and had a bit of a gritty texture.  I’d call it okay.

 

An onion was stuffed with foie gras and plated on a broccoli sauce with burnt chicory bits.  Visually it was a no-go but taste wise this one was great.  The foie gras worked perfectly with the onion.  It had a sort of slimy texture but it was good enough that I didn’t care.

 

Guinea Fowl was served with tubes of creamed potatoes, a dark sauce and pecorino cheese.  It was a visually fun dish and tasty too.

 

The evening we were there the menu was substituting rabbit for the lamb porchetta.   It was served on a skewer with smoked bacon, herbs, spring vegetables (peas, artichoke, asparagus) and crispy bread crumbs.  There was some spicy sausage in there too.  The rabbit was cooked a nice pink and was not dry.  The vegetables were wonderfully fresh and tasty.  It was a good dish.

 

Black Forest  was made of creamy chocolate, blackcurrant sorbet, vanilla panna cotta and cocoa sponge cake.   The black currant was almost too tart but made a nice contrast with the number of sweet things.

 

The Pear was made of ricotta, pear and chocolate with a sauce of passion fruit.  Some crispy bits of crumble added some texture.  The pear was coated with chocolate and filled with the ricotta, that didn’t have much taste, but the pear was nicely sweet.  It was the better of the two desserts but not a huge sweet fix.  The cookie crumble on the bottom was the best part.

 

Last treats were orange jam on shortbread, a beignet filled with pastry cream and chocolate truffle filled with peanut.  The last was totally yummy with a wonderfully smooth filling.