While staying in Vicenza, I found Inter Nos online as one of the few places near our hotel, let…read morealone a very well reviewed, sit down restaurant.
When we arrived on a Tuesday evening it was empty, and the chef/owner, who I somewhat recognized from his caricature on the restaurant's website, gave us the option of sitting inside or out on their little patio; being such a lovely evening, we chose the patio. It's a small place, with five-ish tables inside and three outside, and is simply decorated but is warm and inviting. Antonio was friendly and chatty, first asking where we were from, and upon hearing that we Canadians told us about an uncle of his who moved to Labrador for work.
We surprisingly got the menus orally; while I'm sure it goes quicker in his native Italian, and his English was excellent, it wasn't the most efficient way to do things, even if the menu does change up frequently. We settled on the salumi and pickles, and the croque monsieur to start, and I got the langoustine pasta for my main course and my wife the chicken curry, since she wanted a break from pasta. With our foods chosen, we stuck with the suggested house wine, a sparkling Riesling.
Wine and water came quickly, soon followed by the salumi and pickles, and my croque monsieur. There was a generous amount of charcuterie and pickles, with several slices of three different kinds of meat, as well as pickled asparagus, regular bread and butter pickles, and pickled artichoke hearts. The asparagus was the clear winner of the pickles, with just a slightly vinegary bite and a bit of sweetness to balance it out. The bread and butters were whole baby cucumbers and were nice and crunchy, with the familiar bread and butter pickle flavour. The artichoke hearts were a bit bland though and not memorable. My croque monsieur came out as three finger-food-sized pieces, possibly deep fried from the even crispness on them. That wonderful crispness contrasted nicely against the ooey gooey insides of melted cheese, thinly sliced ham and mustard. These bites were simply amazing and my wife commented that she could have had a couple plates of these for her meal and been happy.
We were given lots of time to finish our pile of food and Antonio checked in on us frequently, while we expressed our delight with the food.
The main dishes had very generous amounts of their respective proteins, with my wife's dish loaded with bright yellow hunks of chicken, on a bed of what initially looked to be multi-grain rice, but upon closer inspection was actually some sort of cereal grain. The chicken was cooked with a deft hand, still being quite moist, and the bright curry sauce was a stark change after more than a week of traditional Italian fare.
My langoustines came in chopped hunks of meat, which surprised me since it seemed it would be more traditional to be served whole. That made me worried that it might be canned, but the meat was fresh and cooked perfectly, with no hint of rubberiness. The pasta itself was slightly thicker than regular spaghetti, and judging from its texture it was fresh. Needless to say, it was delicious and the lightly lobster-tasting cream sauce clung to each noodle. There must have been at least three langoustines in the dish, unless they're a lot bigger in Italy than I'm used to.
Our mains plus our previous dishes had my wife and I very full, but after we heard about the dulce de leche and chocolate cakes available for dessert, we asked for a little slice of each.
In what seems to be the typical fashion at Inter Nos, we both got a slice of each, when we were planning on splitting just a sliver of each. The dulce de leche cake had a very eggy body, slightly thicker than a custard, and the dulce de leche on top made for a unique dessert that turned out pretty well. The crown of dessert king went to the chocolate cake though. Ultra light and moist, it was somewhere between a light brownie and heavy mousse in texture, and very chocolatey. So good.
When I first asked for the cheque, Antonio insisted on giving us some limoncello. Not only did he insist on us having some, he left us the bottle and two shot glasses for free-pouring. This was definitely a first for me at a restaurant - free booze that I could pour myself. For better or worse, we were so full that just the one drink seemed like a lot. However, when Antonio came back he insisted we have another and so we poured slightly-less-than-full drinks and just sipped the sweet, lemony, boozey liqueur.
The meal came to €60, which seemed very reasonable for the generous amount, and quality, of food that we just had. This rang true even more so, considering the money that we had dropped on food at tourist trap locations in the likes of Venice and Dubrovnik, Croatia that weren't nearly as good.
If you're in the area, Inter Nos is *the* place to go and is worth a visit if you're staying elsewhere in the city and want a break from tourist-crowded places and steep prices.
