La Cantona del Vino is so Italian, it's almost like a theme park where the theme is to be as Italian as you can without it being slightly annoying. In this regard, I think it fails. The Italianness is quite over the top in my opinion. As an Italian speaker and someone who has lived and worked in Italy I was surprised how thick it is all laid on. Not letting on that I understood every word that was being said around the table was quite interesting, although nothing negative came out.
A sentence like , this evening.. (English) abbiamo.. (Italian) some delicious (English) ..speciali(Italian again), followed by about 40 dishes reeled off in super heavy Italienglish that neither of us could understand nor remember. Then va bene? and off he went. I joked that it was like an episode of the Generation game as we were left comparing notes on what we imagined might have been suggested to us. was that scollops with minestrone? Turbot with Crab and mash? it all sounded wonderful but we had no idea which special was which. So we opted for safety off the menu.
So over the following 2 hours or so an assortment of Brasaola, parma ham, parmesan, melon, rocket, duck, orange, Tagliata, garlic, chilli, spinach and the most amazing fried eggplant was presented to us for our dining pleasure alongside Gin, tonic and water.
And it was all just magnificent. A true mediterranean delight.
However this all doesn't come cheap. Situated as it is in one of the famed celebrity dormatory villages where daytime tv presenters live cheek by jowl with movies stars and captains of industry a place as good as this doesn't need to offer competitive prices to stay in business. So 2 course with a drink each and water, plus tip was a sniff under £100.
I will definitely return, as we had a fantastic dinner. However I might need to save up a bit first! That's not to say it wasn't all worth it though.
A good dinner, overall, with outstanding features. Though perhaps slightly less of the 'buona sera' would have made it just outstanding. read more