We were disappointed in several ways. We ordered spaghetti with anchovy sauce. Loved the sauce but…read morethe spaghetti was barely cooked. We didn't send it back as we thought the Michelin star chef should know how to cook pasta and probably we were mistaken. The $30 salad was quite good, although it was a little surprising when we had to mix our own salad dressing. My wife had scallops that were good but probably a little underdone. I had a crispy veal dish that was very small with a nice crispy surface, rare to raw on the inside, plus several pieces were very tough and chewy. The wine list is as large as the phonebook of many American cities with populations of 250,000 or more. We ordered a very expensive barolo wine from 2004, a great year by reputation. I can't fault the restaurant for the taste of the wine, but it too was a disappointment, probably greater than the meal itself. We felt like we paid three times the price of most of our meals and enjoyed it about 1/3 as much.

I was going to this restaurant with high expectations. It did not live up to them. Excellent…read morepresentation. Extensive wine list. Polite staff. Food was good but not spectacular. Tortellini dish was just barely warm. But main thing that shocked me was desert issue. I did not like it and left it almost untouched. When manager saw it he went a long way to understand why I did not eat it. When I said that there was nothing wrong with the desert and it was just my personal preference he lost any concern or interest. You would expect in such high end place they would offer replacement to satisfy the client. What it would cost them, five Euro? Nope, nothing like that. They did not care. Therefore three stars and not coming back or recommending to anyone.

We saw that they could arrange a private truffle hunt - definitely arrange this ahead of time…read more When we arrived at 9:30am, they had water and some sweets and cookies laid out very nicely for us. We were greeted by the owner, the manager (?), our truffle hunger, and our interpreter. The truffle hunt was €30 a person, and the interpreter was €40 an hour (2 hour hunt), which was well worth it. Her English was perfect, and she could help explain everything the truffle hunters were saying in both Italian and Piedmontese. We learned a ton about truffles and the process. We drove out about 10-15 min away to a random area and were surprised that the dogs started sniffing and finding stuff right away. It was a drought year, which explains the outrageous prices, but they found some black ones and some tiny white ones. There ended up being two truffle hunters and their loyal dogs, and they just train dogs and do this for the love of it - not just to sell to restaurants. If you wanted, you could pay for the truffles that were found, but they were honest and said the quality wasn't great. It was a super educational experience and seemed better than the more expensive one offered by the Fiera de Tartufo. After the hunt, we had some time to walk around town before lunch. When we came back in, the dining room was about half full by 12:30pm, completely full after that. We started with a basket of bread, crackers, and grissini all made in house - I loved the lingua cracker (like the Rustic Bakery ones in the US). Then, they brought over some house made butter and soft focaccia. We opted for a Riserva from Coppo next door, which is a big local producer in Canelli. It's too bad we didn't get to go see their famous underground cellars. To start (on the house): Puréed cauliflower with a soft cooked quail egg, topped with white truffle - possibly my favorite dish. The tasting menu is incredibly reasonable at €55 per person (they also had a la carte and a €45 option). We opted to skip truffles since we had been eating them at every meal, but it seems like everyone else was going all out with truffles. Tasting (degutazione): €55 1. Veal tartare: with a marinated egg yolk and an amazing balsamic reduction. This was great with the long lingua cracker. 2. Fondue: with porcini and crispy bread - I've never had such big fresh porcini mushrooms before - they were generous on the mushrooms. The cheese was great 3. Tajerin: served table side. I regretted not adding truffles since the buttery noodles were basically made as a vehicle for truffles 4. Risotto: quite al dente. I liked the sauce - a jus/reduction drizzled in. It was served with a roasted cardoon. In the end, I couldn't finish all of the rice 5. Lamb: I actually wanted something lighter and got a seasonal zucca (pumpkin soup) as a substitution, which I was happy with. I did try the lamb. It was on the saltier side but wasn't too gamey 5. Cheese plate: at this point, I was so full (and jet lagged), but they made me a small plate with local cheeses and house made marmalade's (all very interesting using local seasonal produce). When we went to pay up front, they had a nice tray of chocolates, chocolate truffles, torrino, cookies for us by the door to nibble on. In the end, for the truffle hunt, interpreter, meal, and very nice bottle of wine, it was about €300 for 2 of us. Service was very polite, we never felt rushed, and I thought the truffle hunt experience was pretty unique and awesome. They do speak English in the restaurant. The drive was about 40 min from Alba. I would definitely recommend driving out here for the truffle hunt experience (5 stars) and the lunch (a great value for a Michelin starred place).

Excellent small restaurant ambiance, great authentic food and superior service despite being busy…read moreevery night.

Our hotel owner recommended this place to us on a Monday saying it was good, local food. They…read moreopened at 7:30 and we arrived at 7:15 on a raining evening. The door was open and we poked our heads in to ask if they had any open reservations. The owner told us to come in and stay, that they were pretty busy with reservations but he had a couple seats open and with the weather we shouldn't go back out. He wasn't wrong, by 7:40 the place was basically full. A couple of individuals wandered in and he did his best to create a communal table to serve them. When we arrived one waiter was still hand writing the menus for the day and the owner was busy readying the wine selection. They brought us a menu, the waiter spoke English and was able to describe the 10 things on the rough menu. When we asked if they had rabbit he jokingly remarked 'no, none were running around the place today'. We opted for a 1/2 bottle of barolo, a portion of tajarin ragú (spaghetti with meat sauce), Milanese and brasato (traditional stewed veal). As per norm plenty of bread was served. The entrees came with sautéed vegetables. The brasato was good, meat was soft and flavorful and sitting at this long, wooden, communal table I could completely envision eating this as a traditional dish. The tajarin was perfect for my taste. It was not sauce heavy so if you prefer a meat sauce like that this is not for you. I loved how the homemade spaghetti and the meat really stood out with a very small amount of sauce to bind the two. The Milanese was great. Pounded thin and pan fried in butter, the flavor was tremendous. Living in Italy could really make me like veal! We did not get dessert but the waiter brought us some local appertif to try. It was very sweet but with bitters, an interesting mix. People watching in this place was great. I got a lot of amusement out of it and it was just the sort of place I was looking for in Italy. A place where people gather, are loud, laugh and enjoy home cooked food without frills.

I depend on Yelp reviews to help me make a better decision. I realize there were only eight and…read moresome from a long time ago, Sadly, I found the food to be very disappointing. Perhaps it was just the kind of food and other people would like it. We had the vegetable salad, which was apparently grilled vegetables in a mayonnaise base. It reminded me of egg salad. We had the mushroom risotto, which was actually pretty good, but I had it a few nights earlier, at another restaurant where I thought it was exceptional. Finally, we had the braised beef in a Barolo wine sauce. Sorry, not good at all. We had the cheese tray, which was delightful. We had the best bottle of wine I've ever had. The service was fabulous. Our server was so kind and had everything split for us. I really wanted to like the food and maybe it was just a bad night. I thought the ambience in the front of the restaurant was more Italian authentic. The back was a little more eclectic but still nice. My favorite part was a bottle of wine that our server recommended and the complementary appetizer they gave us. The cheese selection was great. If I lived in the area, I would definitely come back and try them again because I think they just had a bad night.

Okay we have not been here since 2009, well before I was Yelping! Here is what I wrote on my blog…read moreback then: A few weeks ago we were in Barolo, Italy and enjoyed a fabulous meal at a restaurant called La Cantinetta. The food was great and the service fun and relaxed. Here are a few photos from that evening. We ordered the antipasti tasting which happened to be five courses of starters. We expected a lot of local cured meats and pickled veggies - we were very pleasantly surprised that was not the case! The first course or amuse bouche was a very thin slice of local salami and small blini sized frittata of greens - crispy on the outside yet tender and with great flavor. We didn't think to photograph the dishes until the next course arrived - a rabbit mousse with caramelized red onions and toasted brioche. OMG! Heavenly, and for those of you squeemish about rabbit just think of it as a chicken with fur. It was amazing - creamy, savory, sweet and crunchy! he next course was delicious vitello tonnato. Have always shied away from this dish thinking it was too strange a pairing. Well I was wrong. A tender, perfectly roasted slice of veal with a tuna and caper sauce. We had to have seconds, hence the dirty plate in the picture! That was followed by a famous raviolo filled with verdura (chopped mixed greens), a soft egg yolk and topped with Parmigiano Reggiano and browned butter. Amazing that such simple and pure flavors could be so response provoking. The mmm's and oh my's kept flying out of our mouths as we devoured this delicacy. To bring it to the next level they offered a crispy asparagus tart with a fonduta sauce. It's hard to describe how perfectly crisp and yet light the pastry shell was on this dish. The cheesy sauce was a perfect smooth and silky accompaniment to the crisp and tender asparagus in the tart. To amaze one even further a dish of spinach gnocci with gorgonzola sauce was beyond description. Surely we will never have gnocci this light and tender without it being at all wet as most gnocci tend to be. We had braced ourselves for knock your head off gorgonzola flavor only to find that the chef used a slight hand with such a potentially overwhelming cheese. A dish / the local classic - ravioli al plin - were tasty but woefully inadequte next to that masterpiece of spinach gnocci. Regardless of the tastier dish on the table, all the ravioli al plin were consumed! We had no room for dessert and missed what appeared to be a delicious mixed berry tart that we saw them shaping in the pan just as we were arriving. We can't wait to return to the area in the future and experience another wonderful meal here.

Everything about this spot was amazing. We went on a 2 week trip to Europe and our stay at Villa…read moreTiboldi was definitely the highlight. The service was incredible - felt like we were the only couple at the property. The room was huge and super clean with two private balconies that had incredible views of the vineyards. The breakfast in the morning was amazing with so many options of homemade fresh pastries, eggs, focaccia, juices etc! I cannot recommend this place enough.

We had an excellent dinner here, featuring two outstanding pasta dishes: the agnolotti del plin,…read moreand the spaghetti with castelmango cheese, basil, and raspberry, both of which were pretty perfect. The veal filet was also excellent (and enormous). I liked the watermelon carpaccio to start, but my wife wasn't crazy about it, and both of us were so so on the white chocolate dessert. Five stars for the two pastas (two of the very best on our trip to Piedmont), closer to four for the rest.

If you like fresh, homemade, spectacular food THIS is the place for you!…read moreIf I could give it a million stars it still wouldn't be enough. This place is spectacular in every sense of the word The food is not only fresh and homemade but has that quintessential "italian " love that you can only get from those that have TRUE passion for what they do and life overall. If you are in Leeds - and let's face it - why would you not be??!! Go to La Piola. The staff is friendly and make you feel at home immediately. The food is so delicious you will only ever compare every other meal in your life to it, and the atmosphere in this 9 table restaurant will keep you asking " why isn't it bigger?" If you are lucky enough to snag a table here you are truly in for an experience of a lifetime! Enjoy the gem of a restaurant!!

Perfectly situated in the center of town is the busy and chic: La Piola. It was by happenstance…read morethat we walked by, captured by the near full indoor and outdoor dining space filled with happy diners, and fortunately they had one table for us! This was hands down the best pasta with truffles we had.

Excellent authentic cuisine and great service, we came in for an appetitive and stayed for an A++…read moredinner; you can't leave without trying the Panacota dessert.

Service on 5 Wine options on 5…read more Food options: I think plenty enough to enjoy, chef here is a artist mixing food different ways. I don't get it why some people post 3 or 4 stars but they still liked the food :p

Formerly Osteria Italia. Again Yelp can't keep up. New ownership new name. Google seems to know…read morethis already. Gorgeous ambiance. Clean and modern with classic touches. Bread basket, although ostentatious, was Outstanding. Amuse bouchée croquettes. Nice touch. Octopus salad. They say that octopus needs either two minutes or two hours to properly prepare. All I know is this was epic. There was almost no need to chew. Just tender and fresh with excellent texture and flavor. The bed of structured whipped potatoes and slow roasted peppers gave additional depth. Tajarin burro e tartufo. Wow. You just can't pass this up. We actually fought over this dish over who would get the last bite. Take my advice and DO NOT share this. Just order your own and savor every last truffle and homemade strand of tajarin noodle. Will not forget it. Brasato al barolo. In the states you would equate this to a slow braised short rib type of dish. This brasato shatters everything you thought you knew about slow braised beef. 100% silky, tender, flavorful tenderloin that literally flakes away with a fork. And zero grizzly or fatty parts. Accompaniment of purée potato and jus reduction. Truly amazing signature slow food experience. Braised veal. Thick cut boneless veal mouthwatering tender. Touch of flaked sea salt. Amazing mustard garnish. Again fighting for the last piece. You'll also enjoy reasonable prices on a library volume of world class wines both by bottle and glass. For me, the house Barbaresco was first class. You might find this location on Yelp as Osteria Italia, but that no longer exists. Ventuno has replaced it. They say it's better to be lucky than good. Luck paid off with the best slow food dining experience in Alba so far.

These guys are on their way to collecting a Michelin star. Delightful staff, attention to detail,…read morewell appointed room, not to mention outstanding food. Eggplant parmigiana, beef en Barolo, and the 3 Chocolate desert were all excellent, showing a deft hand in the kitchen. Spaghetti with truffles alone would be worth a detour.