During a stay in a B&B a few km outside Bergamo, we discovered there was a 3 star Michelin…read morerestaurant also a few km outside Bergamo. What luck. So we dropped in for what they call the "business lunch," a 5-course menu at 80 euro plus 35 for the wine pairing.
The difference in food quality between 1 and 2 Michelin stars is pretty big. The difference from 2 to 3 is usually non-existent. The reason a restaurant gets the extra star is all the extras. Michelin standards demand them, and restaurants add them, and you pay for them.
At Da Vittorio, those extras include the beautifully manicured grounds, the near 1:1 ratio of staff to diners, the real silver silverware, amuse-bouches, and a fun candy trolley that wheels around the dining room. There's also a ridiculous and luxurious bib that they tie around your neck (with total synchronicity between all the people at the table, another hallmark of 3-star service) in preparation for their paccheri al pomodoro, a saucy tableside preparation that doesn't really need to be prepared tableside (again, a hallmark of 3-star service).
The best thing I ate was the few pieces of zucchini and roasted potatoes that accompanied a pan roasted sea bass. Don't get me wrong; the fish was perfectly cooked. Everything else was perfectly cooked, or raw, like the seafood crudo with zucchini puree and mint, another highlight. But another difference at a 3-star restaurant is there's some poor cook whose entire job it is to ensure that those little bits of vegetables are perfectly cooked. (They're called the entremetier, and I was one in a past life.) Eating humble vegetables treated with such respect is always a welcome experience.
Why 4 stars then? Well, the place is a bit too much like Disneyland or Vegas. Or maybe even New Jersey, when it comes to the decor. They're very focused on Da Vittorio as a "brand;" everything is emblazoned with their logo, even the little purse stools they bring by the table. There's a Da Vittorio in St. Moritz, and one in Shanghai, which tells you how the family that owns the place is (deservedly) cashing in on that brand. All of that forced grandeur was, for me, an unintended and overwhelming consequence of the chase for those 3 stars.
Also, they forgot to serve the dessert wine.
