Il Ridotto Restaurant (Venice, ITALY) ★★★★☆

After that awful dinner last night, things are finally beginning to look up. Today's lunch at Michelin starred Il Ridotto Restaurant marks our first taste of serious dining on this trip. It's also one that I have been so looking forward to since I made the reservation about a month ago.



We arrived a little early today so I got the chance to go through the menu thoroughly without rush. There were two parts to the lunch menu. First, there was the set menu, comfortably priced at 28 euro. It comes with a no-choice starter and a choice between their whole wheat pasta and guinea hen (That's a very good deal!). That was then followed by a page of a la carte items with a good balance between meat, seafood, vegetable, risotto and pasta.



I know some of the fine dining restaurants are pretty strict with customers ordering from the same menu but that was not the case here as we were allowed to explore both menu at the same time without restrictions.



Our one and only nibble was cod fish cream (that tasted more like purée) with black rice chip and tomato. I thought it was a nice refresher for our palates to start the meal. Mom also complemented that it was silky smooth like a cod fish flavored ice-cream.



Now that the warm up session is over, here comes our starter and pasta.

"Three Tapas" - Mom wanted something light today so she decided to go with the set menu. Her starter, named "three tapas", comprised of three of the starters randomly chosen from the a la carte menu. It must be mom's lucky day today as this came with two of her favorite seafood, scallop and langoustine. 

The pilgrim scallop with carrot purée and smoked black tea really impressed me a lot. The sweetness of the roasted scallop was elevated nicely by the carrot purée and smoked black tea. Equally brilliant was the langoustine with creamy cauliflower purée and almond chips. Last but not least, a pretty decent dish with eggplant, cucumber oil and cream cheese rounded out this amazing starter. Now, I am regretting not taking the set menu!



Whole wheat spaghetti with anchovies and onions (30 euro) - The first of our two pasta from the a la carte menu. The homemade spaghetti had very nice firm bite to it, working well with the anchovies, onions and crushed nuts.



Black spaghetti, sea urchin, candied peppers and friggitelli (35 euro) - Very nice although a bit more sea urchin would have really sent us home with very happy stomach.



After one very impressive starter (mom's three tapas) and two pretty good homemade pasta, expectation was high for the main dishes and they certainly did not disappoint.

Langoustine with creamy cauliflower purée and almond chips (35 euro) - This was just the full blown version of one of mom's three tapas. The langoustines looked a little smaller in size but the flavors remained very much the same. The different degree of sweetness from the langoustine and cauliflower harmonized each other perfectly with the garlic chips providing slightly contrasting bite to the dish. Very nice.



Guinea hen with black truffle and black rice cous cous - We temporarily switched back to the set menu with mom's guinea hen. This was beautifully done with a bit of black rice cous cous stuffed in the middle (I think) and finished with thin slices of black truffle, spinach and pumpkin purée.



Fillet of suckling pig with purée of beans and raspberry sauce (30 euro) - We now switched back to the a la carte menu again with the fillet of suckling pig. This proved to be the weakest link from an otherwise splendid meal. I thought the purée of beans and raspberry sauce were pretty nice but the texture of the suckling pig fillet reminded me too much of an average pork sausage. It was decent but nothing worth writing home about.



Almond sorbet with apricot and lavender (12 euro) - We didn't get the chance to enjoy any dessert yesterday after a long travel day so not surprisingly, everyone jumped on the dessert menu almost immediately following our main course.

Mom, being the conservative foodie that she is, had the almond sorbet with apricot and lavender granita. Refreshing but a bit too "safe".



Peach cold soup with Porto water ice and vervain ice-cream (12 euro) - Chilled peach soup is always the perfect cure for the dog days of summer and I have to admit, I really enjoyed my first taste of vervain ice-cream too. I have heard of vervain being slightly bitter and astringent at the same time but that was not the case at all. Personally, I found it very soothing to the palate (kind of like mint). That was a pleasant surprise.



Basil ice-cream with strawberries and caramelized olives cream (12 euro) - I was curious about how basil ice-cream would work with caramelized olives. That turned out to be a wonderful combination all together. Very refreshing and I thought a very nice finish to an enjoyable lunch.



Other than the suckling pig fillet, I have nothing but good praises to say about this meal. The dishes were innovative without going over the top and the cooking was precise. If I were to pick on something, it was probably the service which warranted a bit of improvement although the team slowly warmed up as the game progressed (I thought a bit too mechanical).

Food Rating: 7/10
Price: €€€
Address: Campiello Santi Filippo E Giacomo, 4509, 30122 Venice, Italy
Tel: +39 041 520-8280
Website: www.ilridotto.com