Having passed by other, packed restaurants in the square, hunger forced us to stop at this…read moretrattoria, which also appeared to be entertaining a large number of customers. Yet given the proximity of this restaurant to major tourist attractions and the fact that an English menu was available, I was skeptical about the quality of our meal before it arrived. We followed the recommendations of our waiter and shared a calamari, shrimp, and octopus primo to start: it did not disappoint. All of the seafood was cooked perfectly and swimming (in the best way) in a wonderful sauce of garlic and olive oil. Continuing the theme, we ordered a plate of seafood risotto and seafood spaghetti. Many restaurants in northern Italy compete for the best risotto, and though it was not the "best," this risotto was quite good. It had the correct slightly al dente consistency and the flavor was that wholesome kind that you expect to find in local Italian cuisine. The spaghetti was served with a light and savory tomato sauce and piles of seafood on top of it. Although the flavors of each dish were quite different, they were both well accompanied by the spicy olive oil - that seemed to have been prepared in-house - which the waiter brought. The oil was genuinely hot and thus a welcome deviation from the regional norm. Several other patrons ordered an apple sorbet that was hand-spooned into glasses at the table, and we did the same. It was clear from the container in which it was served that the sorbet was made in the restaurant's own kitchen. The exquisite creaminess and popping-with-apple flavor of the sorbet deserves five stars.
As a final disclaimer, the waiters were all kind, but the service itself was slow. Nevertheless, this pleasant surprise of a meal was excellent and I would recommend Spirito Santo for a leisurely lunch after browsing Torino's center.
