Restaurateur
Saveliy Libkin

So, Milanese restaurants.

The first restaurant in Milan has named Gianino. It is said that it belongs to Kaha Kaladze but some person with the name Joeseph call themselves as the owner. He also leads all the business and it should be noted that he do it successful enough. The 70-80% of the guests of the restaurant  in local hangout, whose basic cause of the visiting is far away from the restaurant business. Of course everyone who comes to Gianino orders something and pays for it. The rest 20-30% of the guests feel themselves a bit out of it because such places do not plan the service in general and the atmosphere to put it mildly is far from the restaurant one. We have managed to order the wine in 30-40 minutes, we have waited for the food very long time and the check was brought in 40 minutes more. In our room for 80 guests have worked 2 waiters and someone from the personnel of the indefinite position have come to the tables from time to time. All the evening my fellows have examined the models of local sort and they have been nervous as the attention to our table was less then zero. All the situation resembled me the café Sportivnoe in Moscow at Tverskaya Street in the nineties. There is nothing to write about the food as everything was ordinary enough. The check was like for the very good food in the excellent atmosphere and with splendid service. I have come to this restaurant by the recommendation and nobody has made inquiries more so the spoilt evening I write off to my own unsuccessful choice. On the other hand if you are not hungry when you come to restaurant and you are not interested in service and atmosphere but you have a desire to examine the local men of fashion then the Gianino is the best choice. The next restaurant La Risaca was recommended by a half Italian woman, the wife of local official. Everything is very understandable already at the entrance: the showcase full of different fresh fish and one more showcase full of Frutti di Bosco, fresh berries, in local style. And also the full room of the Italians and full tables of fish of all the guests. The average age of the waiter is 45 -50 years old.

Everything is delicious, in time and without lugs. The cutting of fish in the room takes one minute. The fish smells of sea. The music isn’t heard at all. When I asked again if we have noted right that the bottle of Sassicaia was opened for the next table the waiter asked if we would like to taste it. We did not refuse. Everything is made with light humor and without any swagger. The adequate check has coincided exactly with the check from Gianino. There is small difference; you want to come back here. The Milanese restaurant Da Giacomo was chosen by the Internet. The recommendation of the Michelin, Zagat and one more Italian guide have been coincided. A plenty of guests…. The waitress is Russian and she behaves in Russian style. The service like in pizzeria, nothing more than that, but the prices like in Moscow. The dishes from the seafood and from the fish are standard with moderate and boringly dull taste. It is certainly not better еурт in any other and sure not Italian restaurant. I totally not agreeing to the marks in the net for this restaurant and more over I do not understand why the restaurant is full. The provincial Italy much more interesting… and in restaurant business too.

In the afternoon we have drop in for lunch to the status and varnished hotel Four Season, to the restaurant La Veranda. The tablecloths, the napkins, the faces of the personnel, the runners near the veranda and even the door handles everything reflect the same it is expensive here, awfully expensive and in very professional way. We have ordered two risottos, one with cheese and white truffle and alla Milanese with saffron.

The risottos were cooked very well. It was so delicious that you are сconstantly doubt about how the boiled rice with cheese and butter can be like this. At the first conversation with the chef it became clear that that everything is not so easy like it is written in the menu and like the waiter describes the cooking of this dish. The rice is special and it is not taken out of Italy in general, the butte also has been brought from the small private company in France because the best local company Beppino Ocelli has very extractive taste like he says. The olive oil is special all the more and it is brought from the Sicily and saffron which costs 143 Euros per 5 grams is suupled by only one suppler in the Europe.

The best products are not the meaningless words for this restaurant. And that privilege of the hotel that they do not refuse to the guest is the fact. The chef told us about 20 minutes about the differences between one and otherк type of rice. Everything I have known before about the risotto turned out to be no more then the book truth to a greater degree. The nuances which make the ordinary thing a delicious one always stay not expressed. If anyone is interested in the differences between the delicious risottos from that risotto which is served in the restaurants then I will write about it separately when I will learn to cook it by myself and when I realized it in full.

The diner in the Tratoria Bagutta has been without surprises, gladness and disappointments.

The check is ordinary for Milan, the food is dull but delicious enough, and the service is absent.

As usual in these restaurants there are three waiters for 120-140 guests and 4 cooks in the kitchen. This restaurant works from 1924 yeaк of the last century and now it belongs to the grandson Mr. Perari Marko. The owner of the restaurant spends all the evening in one meter from the cash desk which is located at the very entrance to the restaurant. Such location of the cash desk is also typical for the restaurants where the owner seat personally at the cash desk or he is in the restaurant and controls several basic moments of his business: who are his guests, how much do they pay and what they eat. The check was brought on the paper written by hand though I know that law and local Poliziya di Finansa demand that  guest must have the check and cashier’s receipt  when he leave the restaurant.

The last restaurant in Milan was special and it didn’t resemble to all the previous restaurants.  The only owner, managers and chefs of this restaurant from the day of its opening in 1962 year is one family. The head of the family Aimo Moroni and his wife Nadia work in the restaurant 47 years.  You can think different things about the premises of the restaurant with old and primitive ceiling which remind the Soviet ceiling in the village club. You can do not understand the floor from the tile made n imitation of ceramics and the one-colored walls with tawdry abstractions of a huge size in the style of «late Picasso». But the facts do not provoke the reflections. On the weekdays the restaurant situated in 5 km from the center of the city in the dull residential district is full with the guests who know well where and why they came. And Aimo as always meets them in theу room and Nadia works in the kitchen together with ten cooks and in two rooms are no more then 40 seats. The menu of the restaurant made in the style of «very expensive and much more slowly». They do not economize and do not hurry. Several menus which offer from six to nine mini dishes cost from 130 to 80 Euros per person. The dishes in the menu ala carte cost from 35 to 80 Euros. The service is proper, everything is with significance and a plenty of extravagance for more significance of what is going on.  The wine list is partially represented in the menu as a part pf program of long gastronomic trip under the name IL LUOGO DI AIMO E NADIA. It is also very important to mention that Aimo by himself tastes, chooses and buys all the products. And in spite of that Milan is not the place for searching of the best Italian restaurants in my judgment, in “Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia» you can have a dinner at least to value the 47 years of the owners’ labour.

Some phoos from thе Milan restaurants

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