Category: Italy

Alle Murate – Art for Arts’ Sake!

Alle Murate is one of the most unusual and interesting restaurants I have been too for a while. Unfortunately that comment does not apply to the food, which was out of keeping with the surroundings. It should have been modern cutting edge instead it was rather staid.

The restaurant is situated in a amazing set of rooms and has a 500 year old fresco on the ceiling and upper walls, it is a non religious one, which is quite rare.  In the down stairs part of the restaurant under the Plexiglas floor there are some excavated Roman ruins.

Dinners are given headsets for self guided audio tours. It is quite surreal. Definitely worth a visit for the Art work alone.

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Marks out of 10

Food 6

Service 6

Ambience 7.5

 

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Ristorate Dorando, San Gimignano, Tuscany – Faux Gourmet!

Situated in the beautiful Tuscan medieval hill town of San Gimignano, Ristorante Dorando is the place that first got me using the term “Faux Gourmet”.

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San Gimignano

I use it to apply to places that have all the apparent trappings of a gourmet restaurant, i.e., the look, the prices and the marketing hype, which then subsequently fail to deliver anything close to the level of food or service expected in real gourmet restaurants.

Marks out of 10

Food 4

Service 4

Ambience 4

 

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La Giostra – princely!

The menu in La Giostra is a bit scary, if you do not read Italian, as the descriptions are quite detailed. However the friendly and knowledgeable waiter was on hand to help.

La Giostra serves top notch “real” Tuscan food, in a fairly casual enviroment, however do not expect to do a walk in here, the restaurant is good and everyone knows it, it does not need to pick up passing trade.

Marks out of 10

Food 7

Service 7

Ambience 7

 

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Cagliostro, Pisa – the only place to eat! (Closed)

Cagliostro was a real find in a town that is definitely not known for its food. It is a  rather arty venue, tucked away in a back street.

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Marks out of 10

Food 6.4

Service 6

Ambience 7

UPDATE – Feb 2011 : The Ristorante La Clessidra is now at this location. Its chef is ex Enoteca Pinchiorri, so might be interesting.

 

 

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Cibrèo – Is there a translator in the house?

Cibrèo is a very cosmopolitan venue – we had a Chinese couple on the left of us and some Russians on the right.

The staff are geared up to handle multilingual customers, they have to be, as Cibrèo has no formal menu. Instead the waiters will list and describe the food on offer.  I had pigeon which the waiter carved and then presented to me a massive “so called” pigeon bone. It was actually a glorified bread stick, but this just reflects the fun approach that is typical of Cibrèo.

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The size the Pidgeon would need to be to match the bone, this one is at Pisa Airport, beware!.
The size the Pigeon would need to be to match the bone, this one is at Pisa Airport, beware!.

Marks out of 10

Food 7

Service 7.5

Ambience 8

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Omero – arugula to die for!, I don’t think so!

Omero has lots of positive reviews, I would definitely ignore them, this place is not worth the taxi fare to get to the foothills of Florence. One noisy guest could be heard at the top of her voice saying “the arugula was to die for”, she must have been a Vegetarian, as nothing we ordered was worth shouting about.

We could not get out of the place quickly enough, we did not even bother with dessert, instead we struggled to get a waiters attention for the bill and a taxi back to civilization.

Marks out of 10

Food 3

Service 3

Ambience 3

 

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