Marilyn T.
Yelp
This was our final dinner in Milan. It's definitely far from the city center and was quite far from where we were staying, but we made the trek out because we read good things about it.
The history of very sweet, as it started as Aimo and Nadia's joint project (husband and wife), though it's now run by a different team, and we were hosted very graciously by Nikola and his team that night.
The printed menus are old school in that I got the one without prices (I haven't seen that since another restaurant in Northern Italy). You have 3 choices: territories (more focused on specific producers), vegetarian (with a focus on their garden), and the autumn menu. We ultimately chose the autumn menu, and they were able to make pescatarian substitutions on certain dishes for me.
We started with a 2013 Ca' del Bosco zero dosage Pinot noir Franciacorta. The wine list is extensive, available on an iPad, and it has a huge Italian selection, but we ultimately went with a Burgundy. A pairing is also available, with a variety of wines from across Europe.
Amuses:
- Tartlet with crecenza cheese
- Hummus with citron and capers
- Egg meringue with bacon
- Pineapple marinated in wine
The Autumn Menu -
1. Mussel filled with buffalo ricotta, Amalfi lemon
2. Crispy raviolo of Mantuan pumpkins with Valsassina taleggio. Unfortunately, the taleggio got lost with the pumpkin and the crust, but it was still a great texture experience between the crispy exterior and warm oozing center
3. Grissini made in house
4. Tartare of dentex from the Ligurian sea, served in a taco, topped with fried leek, carrot, and orange marmalade
5. Celeriac: cooked in milk and aromatized with orange, covered in beeswax - uncovered tableside and served on beeswax, then taken back to the kitchen for cooking. It then comes back served with nuts, leaves, citron jelly, mayo, and a warm salted pretzel roll. The presentation was beautiful
6. Milanese bread with Puglia olive oil - a more unique olive oil that's more bitter
7. Liver pate with white truffle and dark chocolate, super rich and intense, served with a fruit pate that helps cut the richness. For my pescatarian course, I had chickpeas and mushrooms cooked in shrimp bisque, topped with marinated shrimp, tomato water foam, and a shrimp cracker
8. Risotto with aged mascherpa cheese from the Bitto valley. Mascherpa is an aged ricotta from Valltelina, which I didn't know existed. It's a super small production and is hard to find. It came with 2 sauces: hazelnut cream from Piedmonte and Jerusalem artichoke
9. Natural bread with flaxseeds
10. Tortelli dedicated to Milan: Filled with Piedmontese young beef ossobucco, marrow, saffron, parmigiano. For my pescatarian alternative, I got fusilloni pasta with shrimp, mussels and red mullet, potato foam
11. The wild game 2023: white pigeon with chestnut cream and raspberry reduction. For me, I had a beautifully plated red mullet with a thin legume crust, celeriac, red mullet sauce, and sweet red pepper
12. The sugolo: a concord grape "pudding" - a dish from Mantuo as the pre-dessert
13. Black lemon: a Calabrian licorice marshmallow with Amalfi lemon namelaka and mousse layered with a soft airy cake, mint, and loomi powder
14. Petit fours:
- Saffron macaron: one of the most interesting macarons I've had
- Dark chocolate
- Cake with hazelnut cream and meringue
They're very specific about their producers and sources and have their own garden, and it's great to be able to try these very hard to find and small production ingredients from Lombardy and Piedmonte.
At the end of the meal, we were invited to meet the chef, which was a nice bonus. This was a wonderful refined and contemporary take on Northern Italian cuisine.