And so to the last leg of our Italian vacation, which took us from San Gimignano back to Florence to drop off our rental car and then by train to Padua. We had originally hoped that we’d return to Mercato Centrale again for lunch after dropping our bags off at the train station. But the bag drop was a bit of a disaster and so we ate (more than acceptable) sandwiches at the station and waited patiently for our train. We also hadn’t made dinner plans in Padua—the idea having been that we’d be gorged from lunch and would just pick up some salumi and bread from a market. But a lighter lunch meant we were now in the mood for proper dinner. I did a spot of googling and lighted on Enotavola (or Enotavola Pino, as they’re referred to in most places other than their own website and restaurant signage). A very fortuitous find as this was one of our favourite meals on the whole Italy trip.
When I say “find”, of course, I don’t mean that I discovered some obscure restaurant. Enotavola has a strong local reputation and is listed in the Michelin guide (though they don’t have a star). They are a combination wine bar and seafood restaurant. Indeed, when you enter you might think a bar with some casual tables is all they are. But if you are there for lunch or dinner you will be taken through the back to a small dining room, which is where the main food action happens. We arrived just as they opened and the dining room was empty. But it began to fill up as we ate and I was glad I had called in the afternoon to make a reservation.
There was very attractive bread laid out on the table when we sat down but some of it looked like it had nuts (our boys are allergic to a range of them) and so they took it away and brought back a nut-free bread selection. That was also very good bread. Guided by our server, we ordered some wine by the glass and got to work on the menu.
As with most of the restaurants we ate at on this trip, the menu is quite concise. On the night there were six antipasti, four primi and five secondi to choose from. As always, we got everything to share. For antipasti we got the “Omaggio a Napoli” (which was tuna tartare with escarole, coffee mayonnaise and fermented bread crumble) and the Piovra arrostita or roasted octopus with pea cream, grilled aubergines, beetroot and saffron sauce. Both were just excellent. Oh yes, there was also a very nice amuse of a house-made cracker and butter with dried seaweed powder over it.
We got two pastas and a risotto to follow. First the Spaghetti alla chitarra with egg, red shrimp, smoked provolone mousse/foam, candied citron and caviar. This normally also involves pistachio but they left that off so the boys could eat it as well. The other pasta was pacchero with swordfish sausage, dried tomato pesto, mint and basil. Both were utterly excellent. And the risotto that rounded this course: the daily special which featured a host of seafood and more caviar were excellent too.
We had had our eyes on multiple secondi but our server had warned us off, suggesting that we just get the Gran fritto di paranza, which turned out to be a massive platter of lightly battered and fried seafood of various kinds, served with horseradish mayonnaise. A good thing we didn’t get anything else as this all but overwhelmed us: we had to take some back to our flat to heat up the next day. As we figured out at our various meals in Padua and Venice over the next few days, large platters of fried seafood are very popular regionally—pretty much everyone seemed to be ordering one wherever we went.
To close, one dessert: excellent cheesecake with poached rhubarb.
For a look at the space and what we ate and drank, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on service, to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.
Service was excellent: friendly, helpful, present but not overfamiliar. The wines recommended by our server were excellent: a glass of a white for the missus and two glasses of a red for me (you can see what they were in the slideshow). Price? For all this seafood-laden food and three glasses of wine the total was 144 euros. Eating in Italy after eating in the US really feels like you are constantly getting away with robbery. At any rate, if we ever go back to Padua, I would happily eat again at Enotavola, and I recommend them highly to you if you visit.
Okay, if I can find enough time today, I might try to resize some more pictures and get another Italy report out tomorrow, of a very casual meal in Venice. Let’s see how it goes.