Maso Runch was our dinner spot for our first night in the Dolomites. It is one of the 'agroturismo' restaurants in the area, and this appears to have some hospitality on the premises, along with the restaurant itself. Like the other spots that we went to, this very much feels like you are eating in someone's home as opposed to eating in a formal restaurant. Driving up here takes a little bit of magic and close adherence to the GPS directions (and driving on some narrow roads), but once you are up on the hills above Badia, you can take in a gorgeous view of the surrounding valleys and villages, towered over by the mountains, before heading inside what looks like a house for dinner. The 'rooms' of the house are where you dine, and we got a spot up on the second floor, with one larger group and a small table for two being the only other diners in our room. Only a couple of the servers speak some English, and it is not a very deep understanding of the language - so be sure to listen closely, as the menu comes only in what looks like a local dialect (it looks like Italian but is clearly not the version that is more widely known). Nonetheless, everyone was very hospitable, and like all good European meals, we ate at a very leisurely pace, with the final total clocking in at a little over 3 hours. One note is that we had to make our way down to just outside the kitchen, where the patriarch(?) of the family was tallying the bills, in order to pay - the waitresses did not let us know when the meal was done. I attribute that to the fact that English-language visitors in this part of Italy were very few and far between, based on our experience, but I do wish they had given us a heads-up when we were done.
The focus on food here is very much on 'Ladin' cuisine, which, from my (un)educated guess, appears to be a melding of Austrian and Italian influences. While our experiences with Austrian cuisine earlier in our trip left us underwhelmed, the food here, in short, was absolutely phenomenal. We were hesitant, largely because 'spinach and ricotta' came up repeatedly in descriptions of the food, but don't worry - you are hardly dining on a meal solely of iron-heavy vegetables and cheese. The meal is simple: 3 courses followed by your choice of 3 entrees, and a choice between 3 desserts - and only for 30 euros. It is a great deal considering the absolutely deliciousness of the food that is served here. We started out with what appeared to be gerstensuppe, a soup we had in Austria previously that consists of ham, potatoes, and carrots chopped up into very fine cubes and served in a broth that is absolutely delicious but with which we were unsure of the base. The version here was hearty but not overly so, but for a first course, it is quite a decent size. Next up were what I would say two takes on spinach and ravioli; the first was a lightly-fried version, cooked into something that was almost like a pastry. It was good, but not my favorite. The follow-on, though, was mind-blowingly good - a ravioli that was drenched generously in clarified butter. The butter in these parts is amazing, but the skin on the ravioli was just so perfectly cooked that this easily is some of the best ravioli I will ever have the privilege of eating...absolutely incredible. And yet the entree I picked - the pork spare ribs - were possibly even more divine. It's hard to envision spare ribs done better than a master barbeque griller's interpretation, but this was something to behold. The skin was crisped to a golden brown, filled with juiciness and nothing more than maybe a little olive oil, and the meat was as succulent as that you would find from pork belly. It was served with what could be interpreted as a much more delicious version of hashbrowns...wow. Whereas BBQ in the U.S. tends to slather its meats in generous heapings of sauce, this simply let the quality of the ribs shine through. It wasn't just the ribs either; my wife shared a giant pork leg shank with one of our friends, and that meat was equally as delicious. At this point, I was quite full, so I ended the meal not on a traditional apple strudel (which I really wanted) but instead I went with the strawberries over vanilla ice cream. While I may not have really appreciated the shot of grappa it was served with (an aggressively strong finish to the meal), the strawberries were so fresh, and the ice cream was somewhere between your typical scoop of vanilla and gelato - it was creamier and lighter, but it definitely had the depth and texture of ice cream.
While the price is very accessible, there's no doubt that the food here at Maso Runch stands on its own plenty fine. As an English speaker, one no doubt feels a little out of place, but this felt like an incredibly authentic experience of what Ladin cuisine done at the highest levels tastes like. Any person visiting Alta Badia should make it a point to eat dinner here. read more
