Holy crap, just had the most amazing dining experience!
We were on a tour group of Italy and had been unhappy with the dining recommendations made by our guide thus far. Looked for ideas online and stumbled across this restaurant. It had glowing reviews and some mentioned sitting at the chef's table so we booked a reservation at 7pm and selected the chef's table, which is a bar to the left of the open kitchen with 4 chairs where you have full view and can watch the chef's every move. So cool.
We arrived and were the only ones in the place as local Italians don't go out for dinner until about 9pm. Not sure why they eat so late. Anyway we sat at the bar and were immediately helped by Angelo. We got bread and water and I asked him for a wine recommendation to go with the Pumpkin Ravioli with Wild Boar Ragu and he suggested a Chianti that was perfect and I'm not really a Sangiovese guy.
The wife ordered the Octopus appetizer and I had the Pumpkin soup with Porcini mushrooms. I normally don't like mushrooms or Octopus but I figured I would just pick the mushrooms out. Well I had a taste of the wife's Octopus and I kind of liked it. It was still a little weird but nowhere near as tough and chewy as others I had, had previously. It had a more Shrimp like texture. Also I was able to eat about half of the mushrooms in my soup and normally I want to immediately spit mushrooms out when I try them. Obviously a testament to how amazing a chef Christian is.
Anyway we spent the night eating delicious food and talking to Christian about how his girlfriend is from California and how the restaurant got its name.
Overall this was one of the best dining experiences I've had in my life and I can't recommend this restaurant highly enough. I can't wait to come back. Now I feel like I am kind of spoiled and every time I go out to eat I want to sit at the chef's table. Sure enough some of the locals started coming in around 8:30 when we were getting ready to leave. But it was awesome to have this incredible restaurant all to ourselves. read more