4.5 stars. I stayed at the relais and ate at the Michelin-starred restaurant one of the nights. The…read moreservice is friendly and accommodating, and the prices fair--€90 for a tasting menu, €120 with local wines (in some cases, very local, as in made on-premises). The scenery can't be beat.
Food was almost uniformly good, and at times quite clever. Highlights were the chicken tortellini and Parmigiano fondue, cooked in a pig bladder (an echo of the culatello salumi they make on-site) and served tableside. This kind of theatrical, yet logical dish is why they get the Michelin star. The pig bladder is like a medieval sous vide pouch, snipped open tableside. Then they shave "bottarga di culatello," or the dry leftover bits of ham, tableside--a testament to the old peasant ways of not letting anything go to waste.
There was more of that culatello, the buttery, first-cut kind, served as a first course. If you're staying at the relais you will get sick of this house specialty that costs up to €90 per kilo, but this selection promises to rekindle your interest.
Another highlight was frog legs, presumably harvested from the Po river less than 300m away. What an unexpected treat, but one that revealed the one notable flaw I found--the salt balance in some of the dishes.
My theory is that because so many of the endemic food products here--salumi and cheese--are heavily salted, the kitchen tends to scale back the salt elsewhere. This was evident in those frog legs, which featured potato purée and zucchini garnishes that were almost unsalted, and in the shockingly orange-yolked poached egg, with more of that same purée, and some garden vegetables. That dish was fairly bland, and could've used--dare I say it--some cured ham somewhere, or at least some salt in the potatoes.
But that's not enough to detract from what is overall a soulful, memorable experience. The wine selection deserves special notice. The house brut is delightful, with none of prosecco's headaches or toothaches. And I had a couple whites that clearly reflected a terroir you can't get anywhere else. (They also make a wonderful house Lambrusco for 8 stinking Euro).
There were only a few people in the restaurant, although it was a Wednesday in early August, when many places throughout Europe effectively shut down. Here's hoping it fills up with the kind of diners who will appreciate swamp monsters fished out of the local river.
