Acetaia's dining room nestled in a quiet Munich neighborhood is very special; small, intimate and romantic. It is hard to beat the special ambiance here. They have a great wine list but the Chef's Italian food is eccentric, complicated and inventive. We selected the items that were the least complicated which included thin strips of calamari sautéed on a bed of black crunchy rice (a very strange dish); thin pieces of beef carpaccio that was served with large radishes and a large dollop of Dijon Mustard placed in large mounds on the beef overpowering the flavour of the delicate meat and ruining the dish; 3 gigantic ravioli filled with a shockingly large quantity of cheese making it difficult to enjoy since the ratio of cheese to noodle was so extreme it had no resemblance to real ravioli where you can also savour the ravioli noodle. The aged balsamic vinegar from Modena was drizzled on the ravioli and is truly delicious, but was lost in the sea of cheese. My thought throughout the meal was that the Chef must not like (or eat) Italian cuisine. It's a mystery. There are no traditional appetizers or pasta entrees on his menu and his opinion of "al dente"pasta is a noodle that is not completely cooked and is crunchy. I was surprised to find my spaghetti aglio e olio (which I asked to be made "off menu" after my ravioli entree which I didn't enjoy) uncooked. A restaurant needs more then charm, ambiance and great wine, it requires (in my opinion) a few traditional entrees (or at least one) that we all know and love that is simple and delicious. It would also have been nice to have a simple green salad on the menu. In the final analysis, it's worth going to Acetaia if only to share a beautiful bottle of wine in an amazing venu. read more