Menù del ristorante:
Cnatuccini con vin Santo €10.00
, Selezione di salumi €26.00
, Tartare di manzo con burrata €16.00
, Pappardella al ragù toscano €12.00
, Tiramisù €8.00
Dicono di noi:
Firstly let me say this review is not about the accommodation (which was excellent), but the food. I will try later to review the accommodation.
1st Course
To start with we were brought an amuse bouche, this was “Pappa al Pomodoro” a bread and tomato soup. It tasted like a tin of tomatoes and some bread that had been put in a liquidiser. It was adequately salted, but had none of the chilli, pepper, or basil, you might expect, nor was it lifted or garnished by the addition of any fresh tomatoes as you might expect. Disappointing, but at least it was free.
2nd Course
My friend had raw red Tuna with a veal sauce (€20). This looked and tasted lovely, our hopes were raised. I opted for the “Tartere di Gambero Rosso” (€18). This was about 4 teaspoons of raw peeled shrimp, atop a mound of Samphire (asparago di mare).
The shrimp was unseasoned and uninspiring. The samphire however was sour, incredibly salty but worst of all it was mostly wood. I have had and enjoyed samphire many times, this tasted like it was out of season & untrimmed (hence so much stringy wood), simply rinsed - not steamed or blanched (which would explain the sourness and saltiness). It was frankly inedible. I ate the shrimp (after salting it), and sent the large mound of samphire back.
3rd Course
Though sceptical at first as its not a “native” fish and we were some way inland I opted for the Cod (Baccala Rafols Confit) (€25). as the waiter had specifically recommended it. It came with an infusion of local flowers and I chose roasted potatoes to accompany it (€8) When it arrived it was beautifully presented. However that was all that was good about it. It was fairly tough and stringy, it was a long way (in both time and distance) from where it was caught. It was poorly seasoned (needed salt) and the infusion was insipid, like someone had dropped a few petals in hot water. The potatoes were contrarily incredibly salty. I grudgingly ate the cod (as I was hungry), but most of the potatoes I offered to my wife (see below) as she was also hungry (see below).
Two of my friends opted for the Hare Pasta (“Papardella Con Ragu de Lepre”) (€18 each), while my wife chose the Porcini Tagliatella (€15 each).
The Papardelle came with a very small amount of meat sauce that was incorporated into the pasta. The whole dish was dry. I know that hare is very lean and so could be classed as a dry meat, but there was so little sauce to accompany it that the whole dish was dry. Worse than that it had no flavour. No seasoning, nothing. The best way to describe it was as if someone had put a few spoons of reconstituted soya mince on top of a bowl of unsalted pasta. My friend and his wife took a few bites then left it. As we got up to leave we saw another table receive the same dish. It had about ten times as much Ragu on top, it was piled all over the pasta.
My wife’s Porcini Tagliatelle was awful. It tasted like someone had reconstituted some dried porcini in hot water, put it (water and all) in a blender, and then just poured it unseasoned on top of the pasta. There was no shortage of this “sauce”, but it tasted so bad my wife was unable to eat it. She tried to scrape it off and eat the pasta (hungry by now), but ended up leaving this and eating my potatoes (she even left some of those as they were so salty).
The three plates of Pasta were returned 75% untouched. We told the waiter how bad these were, he apologised, but we were not offered any explanation or even potential replacements.
As we did this we saw that another table had returned the Porcini tagliatelle, again mostly uneaten.
If we had been anywhere else (in a city) we would have left and ate elsewhere but being in a remote location we had no choice. As the two ladies were still hungry they chose some desert, the only other choice was cheese, but this was only “blue” cheese, and was listed at (€30+!).
My wife had “Semifreddo Al Zefferano” (€10).
It arrived looking very uninspiring, indeed it was close to sloppy, with the supposed “Chantilly” already wilting and puddling on the plate. I am certain it was simply topped with canned squirty cream! As for the semifreddo, my wife could not cut through it with a spoon, I had to do it myself. A square of hard over-frozen, over-stored uninspiring sweet nothingness and they charge ten Euros for.
My friends wife had the “Dame Blanche” (€10). It was passable but un-noteworthy. More of a slice of ice-cream cake with a drizzle of chocolate on-top than a desert. If I had to guess it’s provenance I would say it was simply bought in a shop for €10 the whole, cut into 12 then sold for €10 a slice.
With the meal was a Chianti Classico 2015, from their own vineyards (€24), which was a very good wine (maybe the best we had tasted in Tuscany) and a Rose (€14) which was OK.
Total bill €191.
We wondered if the Chef was on his day off, and if not; why had he not tasted the food he sent out. The seasoning alone veered from zero to too salty to eat, the presentation ranged from fabulous (cod and tuna) to slop (semifreddo). As for the pairings, pasta needs sauce, and preferably lots of it. To top it with a few teaspoons of dry stew is unforgiveable.
Throughout our entire Tuscan stay we have had the most wonderful food, bold flavours, fresh vegetables, tasty meats. We ate in fine Restaurants, cheap Trattorias, Osterias, Pizzerias, Enotecas, Sandwich shops and even the airport and on the plane. We ate steaks, calzones, cold meats, hot stews, amazing Gelati. We never had a bad meal the whole time.
Except here.
This was the worst meal we had the entire week in Tuscany, in fact it was the worst meal I can remember in about ten years. I have never sat at a table and had to send back three plates of food (all pasta). It was also the most expensive.
But it gets worse.
The next day we saw the Receptionist / Manage, and explained how disappointed we were in the meal the previous evening. She said she would look into it and do something for us.
So the following day on departure we had a discussion. While apologetic, she was mostly dismissive of our complaints (to the point of arrogance). She had talked to the Chef and
among other excuse she said;
“Hare Ragu is meant to be dry;”
Then why pair it with pasta?
“Samphire does contain woody fibres”
I responded that in general there should be nothing on the plate that was not edible, she said I was supposed to suck the flesh of the stems. I said it wasn’t a small amount of wood, it was mostly wood, it needed (like normal asparagus) to be trimmed, not just piled on a plate roots and all.
“They had no other complaints”;
Then why did we see another plate of pasta being returned?
“Implied that regarding the seasoning we had unsophisticated palates.”
Then why was some food too salty to eat, others had no seasoning at all.
“Why did we not go into the kitchen and speak to the chef”
I responded to this with incredulity, was it my task to break off my Birthday Meal and seek out the chef and maybe have an argument in the middle of dining.
I said surely it was the waiter’s job to relay my complaints to the Chef, and the Chef when seeing plates of food being returned to the kitchen to not seek out the diners and ask them what was wrong. If ever I have sent a plate back uneaten before the usual response has been “can we prepare you something else. Not silence.
As we were getting nowhere, and the response was a stock “there was nothing wrong with the food” (the fact that we neither ate or enjoyed it seeming to be of no consequence), I sikmply asked;
“So do you think we should pay the entire bill, even the plates we sent back uneaten.
She said, and somewhat arrogantly, “Of course”.
That says it all.
So while the location and accommodation was fantastic, the staff almost universally pleasant and helpful, the facilities wonderful (though the ambience in the dining room was fine for breakfast, but a little too sparse and bright for an evening meal); and the even the breakfast fine (though not outstanding) my advice would be;
Sleep here, eat somewhere (indeed anywhere) else.
Ciao
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