Back to Italy, back to Padua. We ate dinner at Enotavola Pino on our first night in Padua. We enjoyed that meal so much that we were tempted to go back right away. However, we had reservations on the second night at Osteria Ai Scarponi, which had been recommended on Twitter by a resident of Padua. And so after getting back from a day in Venice and resting for a few hours we set out for Ai Scarponi. We arrived right after they opened at 7.30 to find a small restaurant with a narrow dining room. At first we thought our reservation might not have been necessary after all but it filled up in very short order. As far as we could make out the clientele was mostly locals and it had the feel of a neighbourhood restaurant. We had a table right by the kitchen, at the end of the dining room, and quickly got down to business.

As with most restaurants we dined at in Italy, they have an edited menu. The antipasti are dominated by a selection of spunci. Spunci (spuncioti is plural, I think) are basically cicchetti. My understanding is that cicchetti is the name used in Venice and spunci the name used in Vicenza and Padua. Well, we’d had cicchetti for lunch that day in Venice but could not resist getting a platter of 12 spunci to start. You can put this together however you want from their selection. We got three pieces of a seafood meatball with lemon mayo, two pieces of grilled polenta with caramelized onion and shredded horse tail, two crostini with white sausage ragu, two of the tuna tartare, and three crostini with baccala (which were not on the menu but were highly recommended). All were excellent, with the baccala, the tartare and the polenta particular highlights.

For primi we got a pair of pastas: house-made bigoli with Paduan court ragu. This is a style of white ragu made with a mix of white meats. It was very good indeed. Even better was the spaghetti with octopus stewed in a red wine from the region. Two secondi to follow: slow-cooked pork tenderloin with escarole, raisins, pine nuts and cherry reduction; and Vicenza-style baccala with black corn polenta. The pork was very good indeed, the baccala and polenta were outstanding. A side of fried potatoes to round out the meal. We were at this point too full for dessert (and much gelato had been eaten that day in Venice) and so had to skip it.

Oh yes, the missus and I had a glass each of a local white wine and the boys split a Coke.

For a better look at the restaurant, the menu and what we ate and drank, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on service, for cost and to see what’s coming next on the food front.

Service was friendly and helpful—though with the menu available in both Italian and English there wasn’t very much need for explanation/translation. The total came to 130 euros, which is just excellent value for what it was. I would recommend Ai Scarponi highly to anyone staying a few nights in Padua. Though if you only had one night for some reason I’d probably pick Enotavola Pino over it.

Okay, what’s next on the food front? The Italy reports are almost done. I have a couple more reports from Padua and Venice and then a couple from Milan to close the trip out. I’ll try to get all of those done in the next few weeks. Before that I might have a Twin Cities-related post on Tuesday; but it won’t be a restaurant review per se. Or I might have a report from our brief jaunt to New York City last weekend. Let’s see.