Enrica N.
Yelp
I am a native of Bologna and I had no idea this place existed. It took my American students to invite me out for their last night in town after a semester abroad here in Bo. We were a party of five, and our dinner experience was incredible. The place itself looks small but it actually has pretty good capacity. As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought us a welcome bottle of very refreshing prosecco and filled our glasses. I gotta admit we had to wait a little bit for the appetizer to come out but the place was packed that night (you don't get to choose the appetizer, it varies every day; this one night it was mozzarella di bufala with chopped cherry tomatoes and bread). You do not get to read a menu; the waitress comes and tells you the options for the day, both for first and second courses, and usually five or six different dishes per every course. Now you gotta know, my family is 100% bolognese and I was spoiled growing up with my grandma's and mom's homemade ragù. If you're from Bologna, you wouldn't really go out for dinner and eat what you'd eat at home. But I went for tagliatelle with ragù, and I do not regret it one bit. The plate was abundant, I like my tagliatelle generously drenched in ragù and that's what they served me. The pasta was cooked splendidly; I was in heaven, and I didn't know it was so close to home. My American friends got some lasagna and some ravioli with artichokes, I didn't get to try them but the look on their faces spoke for itself. As a second course, I got some filetto with aceto balsamico (beef tenderloin, rare, with balsamic vinegar). It was very reasonably sized (which is good if you've had a first course before) and came with roasted potatoes and vegetables. It was so tender and juicy, and the balsamic did not cover the taste of the rare meat as it happens sometimes with filetto al balsamico. Meanwhile we were also sipping on a bottle of Sangiovese wine (red, and from the region). At this point we were more than fine with our appetite, but we could not withhold from dessert. They brought us a plateful of panettone (typical Italian Christmas sweet bread with raisins) to dip in our mascarpone dessert. Another friend got some nut cake, and another one a semifreddo. Superb.
The highlight of the dinner was that as I was outside for a cigarette break, I got to meet the owner, who's a wonderful, friendly, funny mid-aged man from Bologna. At the end of dinner, he came to our table with a bottle of limoncello and two extra bottles of red wine on the house. He sat, chat, and drank with us for a bit. He also speaks some really good English!
Final tab? 35 a head! My students picked the check for me, but I would have not regretted one single cent. For all we ate and for how good everything was, it was all worth it and even cheap, in a way.
So yeah, who would have thought a native of the food capital of the world actually found out about this gem thanks to some Americans...