Enoteca Pinchiorri

Enoteca Pinchiorri Restaurant Review:

Enoteca Pinchiorri was founded by Giorgio Pinchiorri and his wife, Annie Féolde. Located in the historic Palazzo Jacometti a stone’s throw from the Piazza Santa Croce, the restaurant is in the same building as the Relais Santa Croce hotel. Chefs Féolde, Italo Bassi and Riccardo Monco serve innovative French haute cuisine with a distinct Italian flavor. Techniques employed in the preparation of dishes will include the use of molecular gastronomy; however, the offerings remain rooted in Italian tradition. Choose from a dégustation menu consisting of six to eight courses, or the à la carte menu, continuously updated. It will include delicacies such as escalope of foie gras with a tarte Tatin of onion, Golden Delicious apples and raspberries; lobster and pistachio gratin with chickpeas, rosemary and yogurt flatbread; risotto with scampi, veal tendon and powdered licorice; roast pigeon with honey; and sole filet with red onions, courgettes and grey mullet roe. Pastry chef Luca Lacalamita presents for dessert a purée of fresh figs with walnut biscuits, linden honey and yogurt jelly, or mint pudding with mango mousse and plums marinated in spices. The wine cellars below the restaurant, which can be visited on request, hold more than 150,000 bottles. As one would expect the wine list is an encyclopedia of the world's best vintages and labels, such as the Chateau d'Yquem, Sassicaia, Château Pétrus and Antinori. Sommeliers are perhaps young but quite knowledgeable. Fine liquors can be sampled after dinner with cigars in the customers’ smoking room. Décor is rather conventional, balanced and elegant, with seating positioned adequately apart and wine served from a table in the center of the dining area. When the weather is agreeable, one has access to the pretty courtyard patio for eating al fresco. Service is impeccable, the change of the waiters always in order.