In Turin, some friends and I had to decide where to eat. One evening, we ate Sicilian food and,…read morethe evening before, we went to a popular pizzeria near Porta Nuova. The hectic nature of those places prevented me from taking photos, so I won't be reviewing them. I said I wanted to go somewhere more relaxed. Il Padellino, which I had unknowingly walked by a few times, fit the bill.
Il Padellino is a full fledged restaurant, with lunch and dinner hours, and features pastas, mains, pizzas, desserts, and a wide gamut of beverages. They might have had featured specials, but we all selected from the main menu. The server was very informative since some of the items have regional names or sounded like colloquialisms. The plates ordered were a pizza, a calzone, and lasagna. I had the lasagna. This is authentic Italian lasagna which breaks up with minimal plying of the fork. Not only that, it was very tasty. The pizza and the calzone were reportedly also very good.
Another server helped out by providing us the dessert menu. I was the only one who ordered dessert. I saw two mousse items that caught my attention: one was chocolate and the other was "frutti di bosco," which basically means mixed berries. I asked which one the server suggested and he deferred by saying that they were both good. Since you can get chocolate mousse in so many restaurants (probably at every single one in Portugal), I went with the frutti di bosco mousse. It was good, but a little tart. As we left, I told him I wish I had ordered the chocolate mousse. He acknowledged that, for him, it also has a slight edge over the frutti di bosco.
The pricing was appropriate. As indicated, the service was very good. Il Padellino has a pleasant atmosphere and the tables are distributed in different clusters, but sufficiently spaced apart. Lastly, it's only a few blocks from the less hectic modern and glassy Porta Susa station, which is the city's second most important train station.
For now, I'll go with a strong 4 stars. I would definitely eat at Il Padellino again and, by trying other dishes, I'd probably be on board with the other reviewers' 5 star ratings.