This is the best Italian restaurant you will find in this city. Bar none. I have eaten at some…read moreothers in Grenoble, but will only review this one. This restaurant is not going to serve pizza with middle eastern toppings and flavors, like lots of others here in Grenoble. in fact, you are not going to get pizza at all. This is a REAL Italian restaurant! So strap in!
My wife and I came to dinner here on Thursday, July 24, 2014. We arrived about 8:30pm and the place was packed! As we strolled up the sidewalk to try to find the entrance, there appeared to be a table of 2 enjoying a meal in the doorway. So we figured it was full and they put the last table there. Not the case! They have you enter the kitchen! How cool is that?! The aroma that hit us and the fast pace energy of the cooks in the kitchen was a great indication of what we were about to experience.
The decor totally makes you feel like you are in Italy. There was the garlic tree hanging from the ceiling and the carnivale masks placed around the restaurant. There were doilys hanging from the light fixtures. There were the pictures and paintings of Rome, Venice, Florence, etc decorating the walls. There was even a beautiful oil painting hanging in the bathroom!
The waiter was friendly, knowledgeable of the menu and seemed to speak French, English and Italian. The wine list was very expensive and as we are not wine connoisseurs, we chose the cheapest red wine at the bottom of the wine list. We wound up getting an entire carafe for 10€ and it was delicious!
The menu is designed so that you pick your pasta and then pick your sauce. There are also chef specials, meats and seafood items to choose from. For the appetizer, we chose the carpaccio, which was very tender and served with thin slices of peccorino reggiano cheese on top. Spinkled with olive oil, capers, bitter greens and and lemon. Delicioso!
For my entre, I chose the tagliatelle with arrabiata sauce. The pasta was obviously a homeade flour and egg pasta, very fresh and cooked al dente. The arrabiata sauce was a perfectly spicy tomato based sauce and the dish came sprinkled with basil over the top.
My wife got the tortellini with bolognaise sauce. Also homeade and fresh, the bolognaise sauce was a tomato based sauce laced with a very flavorful Italian pork sausage and baked with mozzarella cheese, served with basil sprinkled over the top. Also molto delicioso. (Oh- you bet I tried it!)
A bowl of parmigianna reggiano cheese, bread and a big bottle of water all came complimentary with the meal.
This meal was so good, I just had to try a dessert, so I chose the Marquise au chocolate. This was a quarter inch thin chocolate dessert made with dark chocolate, butter, sugar, cocoa powder, eggs and cream served with a chocolate sauce over the top, whipped cream and a couple of mint leaves to garnish. OMG, it was so good. I also got a cup of Cafe.
I probably would have paid 150€ for this meal and felt good about getting a great value. That's how good it was. All together, we got out there for 65€. Seriously, if you are looking for authentic Italian food, this is the place. Be sure to check out the pics i posted of the food, restaurant and kitchen.
