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.

Lunch in Barolo at this wonderful restaurant was delightful. Food is delicious, owner is warm and…read moreinviting. Obviously wonderful wine. Highly recommend.

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.

This was our first meal in Piedmont and one of our very favorites, so we actually ended up going…read moreback for lunch on our last day. Between the two meals, we had fried zucchini blossoms, steak tartare, tuma and figs, tajarin with ragu, ravioli, two different pesto pastas, and veal Milanese. We loved just about everything, with the tartare, cheese/figs, tajarin, and veal probably being our favorites. They were also incredibly friendly to our two small children. We'd definitely come back on another trip to Piedmont, and if anything, next trip I'd probably spend more time eating in Alba in general.

Wonderful gem of a place. Staff was so kind and helpful (my italian is not good so they helped me…read morein English (thank you)). Food was delicious - atmosphere was so cozy!

I found that Torino has a friendlier vibe compared to otherwise cities in Italy, and honestly,…read moreLocanda da Betty is just in line with everything amazing about this city. Great food, lovely service, and cozy ambiance!

My wife loves the sea and wanted to spend a day at the shore. We decided to head toward Savona, a…read morelovely town right along the coast. Luna is a beautiful restaurant that faces the beach' we were given a nice outdoor table and enjoyed the view of the sea. As befits a restaurant by the sea, the seafood was fresh and delicious. My wife enjoyed ravioli stuffed with fish and herbs in a light sauce. My first course was mussels, clams and squid in a light vegetable sauce enhanced with herbs. Both were satisfying and not too heavy. The second courses were the special catch of the day, amberjack and fried calamari. Her fish was nicely prepared and served simply with olive oil, garlic, and tomatoes. Coastal Italy on a plate! The food here is not imaginative, but sometimes the tried and true preparations are the way to go. I'm a sucker for simple fried calamari when it's done right. It was done right at Luna. The calamari was tender and the tasty fried coat only enhanced the fresh squid. A bottle of local wine complimented the meal perfectly. It was recommended by the affable Paola, proprietor of this lovely restaurant. This is what every seaside restaurant should be.

A wondeful evening spent in a fantastic restaurant in Savona, whit lovely waiters ready to make you…read morefeel welcome, and ready for a little fun and talk. The waiters was at the same time fast and produktive whitout giving the feeling of stress. The food tasted like it was from a chef who wanted to be nothing but the best, giving a lovely experience.

I'm giving this place a 5 star because the pasta was made in the house. The shrimps were extremely…read morefresh. The pasta was not too oily and / or too salty and not loaded with sauce. The pasta alla Genovese was aromatic and tasted superb! We also ordered fish of the day ( Fresh Baked seabass with potatoes , olives and pinioli) it was full of flavors, served on its own broth! This is my kind of place to go to, where the locals eat , and everything gets prepared after you order. And the big plus is we got the best server Diana!

Went here for dinner last night and loved it :-)) it's a bit tricky to find this place however,…read moreonce you get there it's a really nice local place with, menus that have English descriptions if needed and, staff that can manage ok English and willing to explain in the best way possible the menu. Their food is typical Ligurian style with local classics and lots of options for pasta, fish and meat. I wanted good seafood so, I ordered the local fish stewed in a tomato gravy with olives. This is a huge dish and takes about 30 mins to prepare and, enough for two people to share :-)) at €17 for this main, it's the best fish I have had in a long time. It's a dish made with mussels, prawns, scampi, sardines, cod and couple of other local fish I don't know the names of. Caution : if you don't like bones then don't order this dish ;-)) I even ate the prawns in their shell as it was a thin edible shell. Many people don't like this but, this type of prawn should be eaten whole without peeling :-))) For dessert I had a fabulous milk based cake with a strawberry jus. All in all a fabulous meal and the place was packed outside with no tables free for the evening. Prices are very reasonable and I would have paid almost twice that for the same food in France or Germany :-) If you want good local Genoa cooking with some decent local wines then check this place out. For service and friendliness it gets 5 stars :-))

Lovely place in Alba. Nice lunch special. Air conditioning inside. Good service. Food is authentic…read more We sat outside and enjoyed the ambiance of the culture of Italy

Food was amazing as well as the wine and service. It was a gorgeous fall day and we sat outside…read morewhich was pleasant. Happy to have a table as the town is packed with truffle festival people. Reserved in advance but got the last table available. Started with a bite of a carrot curry puree and some taralu and bread. I chose a white truffle pasta dish and veal. Both were perfect.

We took a pesto making class here and it was so much fun! I think we also talked to the owner; he…read morewas hilarious, super personable and a genuinely cool guy.

The food here is amazing, the services was just about perfect, if there were less tourists like me…read morethe service would probably be perfect, there were just too many people, so they would lag a bit (2-3min) with things we would ask for but the food itself and the friendliness of the servers was outstanding given the amount if people there. The ambiance there was very friendly. The pastas were some of the best I've had across Italy, and the the calamari was pretty good, as for the fish I liked it even though I'm a bit skittish of eating fish this way. i would recommend this redtaurant for anyone visiting. Maybe not the gold bier but the blond they have (8 ball) is pretty good.

one of the best restaurant in piemonte. real piedmontese food, great service, great wine list,…read morefantastic food. of course i strong recommend.

If my review was only based on the pastas, this would be a definite 5. The wine list was amazing…read more The secondis were good but slightly unmemorable compared to the rest of the meal. A solid 4.5 stars but that pasta definitely rounds it up to a 5 Situated in the tiny commune of San Marzano Oliveto, 20 minutes south Asti and set amongst the rolling hilltops of the Langhe, Bardon has all of the trappings of a classic, rustic Piedmontese restaurant. However, the modest, unassuming farmhouse exterior belies an interior which turns out a remarkable caliber of cuisine. Upon entering the restaurant, it was obvious that we were one of the first diners to arrive, as the staff was still hurrying to set up the dining room. However, a hostess quickly appeared, found our reservation and then led us to our table, a roomy two-top in one of the dining rooms. It was clear that the dining room we were in was once the exterior of the house but had since been walled-in and covered. It was bright and airy and had a great view of the Langhe landscape. While there is a menu available, we didn't see a single table ordering from one during the entire meal. Instead, servers came table-side and recited the day's specials, though it seemed as if the majority of diners already knew their order before hearing a word of it. Thankfully our server knew enough English to bridge the gap on the dishes we didn't recognize; however, we did have a casual look at the menu halfway through the meal, just to make note of what we had ordered. Since we had been consuming Barolo all weekend (and, when you're staying next door, why wouldn't you), Adam decided to go with a Barbera d'Asti as a change of pace. The wine list (really more of a wine book) at Bardon is massive, spanning dozens of pages with an impressively vast inventory of Piedmont wines, some stretching to vintages decades ago. We went with the 2008 Cantine Scrimaglio "Acse," a Barbera d'Asti Superiore. Due to the fantastic carne cruda we enjoyed two days earlier at Il Centro in Priocca, we knew we wanted to try Bardon's version. The carne cruda di vitello battuta a coltello (€7.00 = $8.00) was a great choice. As our 2+ hour meal continued, we noticed that every single table at the restaurant ordered this dish, usually one per person. The meat was very finely chopped and didn't have any of the gaminess that can sometimes permeate through with veal. We each received a dish of carne crudo and then a bottle of olive oil and salt and pepper grinders were left on the table for us to add to customize the dish to our liking. The meat was fantastic on its own, but a quick drizzle of olive oil and a few twists of salt and pepper really brought it to another level. After the excellent carne crudo, pastas were up next. We had read a number of great things about Bardon's plin, with some touting it as the best plin in the Piedmont area, so of course we had to try it. I ordered the raviolini del plin al burro e salvia (€9.00 = $10.50) - plin with butter and sage - and was not disappointed. The plin were incredibly light with a smooth meat filling. The plin had been delicately tossed in a butter and sage sauce that had an earthy essence of sage. This was so incredibly good, yet so simple, that I questioned why I hadn't had it more times in my life. The really great thing at Bardon is that when you order a pasta, they bring out a heaping (read: enough for two) serving and tell you to let them know when you would like them to stop serving. As I was trying to be polite, I did ask them to stop before the whole bowl was emptied. What a mistake! As the meal progressed, we noticed that every other diner, when told to let the server know when to stop serving pasta, just let them serve the whole large portion. Don't be polite, take the whole serving! Definitely our biggest regret of our lunch. While my pasta was fantastic, Adam's was somehow even better. The tagliolini al sugo di funghi porcini (€10.00 = $11.50) - tajarin with porcini mushrooms - was nothing short of incredible. Adam declared it to be the best pasta he had ever eaten. The earthiness of the porcini mushrooms imbued every single strand of the tajarin. The pasta was al dente, and while it wasn't the most delicate tajarin we had eaten that weekend, it stood up to the heftiness of the mushrooms perfectly. There was the option to have white truffles (tartufo, €30.00/gram = $35.00) shaved on top; but, in all honesty, we were getting a bit truffled out after three days. After finishing the two amazing pastas, our secondis arrived. While both veal dishes were fine, it was impossible for them to meet the impossibly high bar set by the pasta dishes. Both Adam and I enjoyed the veal, however, on our next visit we will order two more pasta courses in place of secondis. For the rest of the review: http://adamandvivian.com