Restaurants in Liguria, Piedmont & Valle D'aosta
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Mentelocale
Tuna with sesame and lime, tempura prawns and red chicken curry with apples feature at this fusion restaurant inside the Palazzo Ducale. Mentelocale’s salads easily constitute a meal and come in a creative range of combinations using fresh local produce.
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Sfashion
Turinese comic TV presenter Piero Chiamretti’s latest culinary offering is this funky postmodern set-up with retro toys adorning its outlandish interior, and dishes such as mussels in tomato sauce or penne with zucchini.
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Grom
The first-ever outlet of this Slow Food–affiliated ice cream, renowned for organic flavours such as green tea, was started here in Turin. There’s another branch at Via Accademia delle Scienze 4, which keeps the same hours.
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Pizzeria di Vico dei Biscotti
This cavernous place with marine blue decor and mezzanine seating fills to the brim with locals tucking into a quattro stagione (four seasons) pizza and a beer or two.
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Piazza Duomo-la Piola
The best of both worlds are bivouacked in this two-in-one, suit-all-budgets culinary extravaganza in Alba’s main square. Downstairs, La Piola sports local blackboard specials, such as vitello tonnato, that change daily and allow diners to create their own plates. Upstairs, the theme goes more international in chef Enrico Crippa’s Michelin-starred Piazza Duomo, where you can eat creative food beneath colourful wall frescoes painted by contemporary artist Francesco Clemente.
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Porta di Savona
An economical, low-on-pretension trattoria with a deserved reputation for superb agnolotti al sugo arrosto (Piedmontese ravioli in a meat gravy), and gnocchi di patate al gorgonzola. The mains – including bollito misto alla Piedmontese (boiled meat and vegetable stew) – are equally memorable. Be patient: the food takes a while to arrive, probably because it’s 100% homemade and 100% Piedmontese.
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Lupo
Inviting aromas of home cooking – cuttlefish in tomato sauce, ravioli in walnut sauce and homemade desserts – greet you at the door, as do owners who welcome you like they’ve known you forever. Lupo’s wine list is outstanding, and its antiques and objets d’art, such as cast-iron candelabras, a grandfather clock and black-and-white photographs suspended on wire strings create a refined yet relaxed ambience.
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I Tre Merli
Grander than some of its portside counterparts, this well-positioned restaurant is flanked by towering black-and-white-striped columns. Excellent Ligurian cuisine includes salted cod fritters, and veal stuffed with porcini mushrooms and potatoes. Otherwise, you can just have a glass of wine with wood-fired snacks such as focaccia col formaggio (Liguria’s answer to cheese-on-toast).
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Locanda da Peiu
Only the best and freshest local ingredients are used at Locanda da Peiu, located 3km from the town centre, but within an easy five-minute bus ride (ask for schedules when you book). The €35 set menus are outstanding value, including antipasti, first and second plates, dessert and wine. Quality dishes include gnocchi with Castelmagno cheese, served in a hard-baked bread basket.
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Ad Forum
A fantastic restaurant set in a stylish garden (and interior rooms) built on part of the remains of the Roman forum. Conceptual dishes such as risotto with strawberries and spumante, or Lasagnetta with pear and blue cheese, come in generous portions, and you get an equally tasty complimentary aperitif while you wait. The attached enoteca has an excellent line-up of wines.
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Trattoria dei Pescatori
Trattoria dei PescatoriMoscardini affogati (spicy stewed baby octopus) is the summertime speciality of Santa Margherita’s first-ever restaurant, opened in 1910. Autumn brings wild mushrooms to the table, while year-round Pescatori serves a delicious regional fish soup, oven-baked fish with olives and pine nuts, and handmade pastas in all shapes and sizes.
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Kuoki
Head around the corner from the Mole Antonelliana to this intriguing spot run by Giorgio Armani’s former personal chef, Toni Vitiello. At high communal tables, you can dine on Italian blackboard specials, or sushi bar twists such as a Kuoki roll (salmon or tuna with ricotta, olive oil and basil). Toni’s other fusion creations include chicken in Coca-Cola with orange peel.
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Pizzeria Stars & Roses
The list of pizzas on offer at this stylish place is lengthy and adventurous, with toppings including salmon and whisky, or caviar and vodka. Each of its rooms is themed according to colour (red, white, silver, pink, blue and black), so you can choose to suit the occasion. Police mugshots of erstwhile arrested movie stars (Hugh Grant, Al Pacino, et al) line the walls.
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La Lanterna
La Lanterna is perched within pebble-lobbing distance of Riomaggiore’s snug harbour that’s crammed with fishing nets and overturned boats. You can sit on the charming terrace and choose from recently caught fish chalked up on a blackboard. Leave room for a dessert, such as babà al limoncello (brioche drenched in sweet lemon-scented liqueur).
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Pizzeria Il Rospetto
There are hundreds of pizzerias in Turin and the nuances of each are never the same, but if you took a poll, the hole-in-the-wall Il Rospetto (little toad) in San Salvario would definitely be competing for top honours. Fast, crowded and insanely popular, it has over 30 tasty thin-crust flavours to sink your teeth into here – including the dessert-style Nutella pizza!
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Osteria la Vecchia Carrozza
You could be sharing the room with a quartet of nuns or a birthday party of celebrating college graduates at this local spot bedecked with white tablecloths and polished wine glasses, but characterised by plenty of down-to-earth Piedmontese ambience. This being Asti, the food is infused with truffles, Barolo wine and a formidable agnolotti di astigiana.
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Vincafé
It’s hip, but by no means exclusive. Anyone can sup on a glass of wine here, as long as you can squeeze through the door (it’s small and popular) and have got the time and/or expertise to sift through a list of over 350 varieties. If in doubt, choose Barolo. Downstairs, in a cool vaulted stone cellar, the restaurant serves up huge healthy salads and pastas.
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Le Quattro Stagioni
As the name implies, the food changes with the season at this bodega-cum-restaurant situated in a street of dark porticos and obscure arcades. The smell of fruity wine through the doorway provides the initial temptation but wait till you get inside for crusty pizza, al dente pasta and the rest. There’s a pleasant giardino (garden) attached.
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L’Ostu dij Baloss
Spring lamb cooked three ways (grilled, in red wine, and baked) and homemade tajarin pasta (finely cut strands, similar to tagliatelle) are among the local specialities served at Baloss’ damask-clothed upstairs restaurant in Saluzzo’s old town. At street level, its casual bistro with funky contemporary decor serves lighter seasonal dishes.
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Trattoria delle Raibetta
Family-run, authentic Genoese joint in the warren of streets near the cathedral. The food here is unfussy and fish-biased. Try the seafood with riso venere (a local black rice) or the signature homemade trofiette al pesto. The octopus salad makes a good overture while the wine is a toss-up between 200 different vintages.
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Pompa Magna
This split-level brasserie-style restaurant is a great spot for a bruschetta and glass of very good wine (the Pompa Magna also owns an enoteca in town at Corso Alfieri 332; closed Mondays). But it’s worth coming hungry for its chef-prepared menus and especially its bônnet (an elaborate chocolate pudding) for dessert.
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Vecchia Aosta
Maybe it’s the French influence, but Aosta restaurants such as the Vecchia score consistently highly when it comes to culinary creativity. Grafted onto a section of the old Roman wall, the setting is sublime and the waiters highly knowledgeable (and congenial). Take their advice and go for the lamb – a real vacation highlight.
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Arione
Historic chocolatiers include the 1920s Arione, which invented the Cuneesi al Rhum – a large, rum-laced praline wrapped in cellophane. The chocolates came to the attention of Hemingway, who made a detour from Milan en route to Nice in 1954 to try them – there’s a photograph of his visit in the window.
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Vino e Farinata
To enter Vino e Farinata, you’ll have to walk past the two ancient chefs: one shovelling fish into a wood-fired oven and the other mixing up batter in a barrel-sized whisking machine. The result: Ligurian farinata, the menu staple in this very local restaurant that also hordes some excellent wines.
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