Here now finally is my last restaurant report from our trip to Italy this summer (see here for all the others). It comes just a week short of five months since we left Italy for Ireland. Our last port of call in Italy was Milan, where we stayed two nights and one full day. The purpose of this short stay was two-fold: to see one of my oldest, dearest friends, who lives an hour outside Milan, and for the family to see the Last Supper and a few others of Milan tourism’s greatest hits. Food was not at the top of the agenda; not because Milan does not have good food but because after three weeks of moving, the priority was to eat at places as close to where we were staying as possible (you may recall that we ate Chinese food after arrival). Our friends accordingly chose La Ciccia, situated just about a six minute walk from our flat, for our dinner on the first night. This turned out to be a very good thing as the older boy began to feel unwell as we approached dinner time. The missus stayed in with him while the younger boy and I walked over. The next day he was better but still not up to eating out (he also missed the day’s touring); and so we left him alone for an hour and a half while the three of us walked back to La Ciccia for another meal. Here’s how they both went.

La Ciccia is not a restaurant that specializes in the cuisine of Milan, by the way. As my friend’s husband established within a few minutes of our arrival for the first dinner, the owners/chefs are from Rome and Calabria (if I’m remembering correctly) and the menu is accordingly slanted southward. The centerpiece of the menu is meat, steak to be precise, and the centerpiece of the restaurant is a large grill in which all the meat is prepared.

As my friend’s husband is a meat aficionado—the first time I met him, he showed up to a barbecue in Delhi, straight from the airport with seasoned pork chops in his carry-on bag—there was no doubt we were going to get some grilled beef. But we started with meat as well: an assortment of salumi and, to be safe, some tartare. Both were excellent. Pasta and risotto to follow and these were nothing out of the ordinary: rigatoni cacio e pepe and risotto Milanese. (Mind, I’d be thrilled to eat them at most Italian restaurants in the US.) And then to the meat main event. I’m not entirely sure which of the steak options we ended up with but based on the description in the menu of the accompaniments, I think it was the costata con patate. The meat was perfectly cooked (rare, of course) and the accompanying grilled veg were very good too. It also came with a side salad. To close, panna cotta, grappa and espresso.

At the second dinner the following night, it was just the missus, the younger boy and me and we didn’t go quite as all-out on the meat. We began with the caprese—which was pretty good—and then got two pastas to share. The orecchiette con sugo di salsiccia was very good but I liked even more the Calabrian linguine alla disperata with smoked anchovies. And then we shared the veal Milanese which was very good. To end, an order of the creme caramel.

For a look at the restaurant, the menu (which was via QR code only) and what we ate and drank, please click on a picture below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on service and cost and to see what’s coming next.

Service was very friendly and very on top of things. I’m afraid my friend’s husband (who is from the region) did taste my risotto and express his disappointment at some length to the manager but he took it on the chin well. I’m not sure how much the check for the first dinner came to, as I was not allowed to touch the bill, but for the second we paid about 82 euros all-in. Which is very good value, especially when you compare it to Italian food of far lower quality in most of the US, to say nothing of the Twin Cities in particular. As far as our formal restaurant meals on the trip go, this was probably the least of the lot (outside of a couple of lunches in Tuscany) but the food itself was very good on the whole, if nothing extraordinary. If we ever make it back to Milan we’ll try to get to some of the more lauded places.

Okay, that’s our Italian eating in the books. It was a great trip, and not just for the food, but the food is what you’re here for on the blog. I hope we’ll get to go back to the country again in the future—there’s so much of it we did not see. But there are more travels to report from in the near future: a few more reports from Dublin and perhaps some from Belfast; and then the remaining reports from the missus and my jaunt to NYC in October. And coming up in early 2024 will be extended time spent in Bombay and Seoul, which will mean a lot of reports on eating out. And over the next few weeks there’ll be some more Twin Cities content, starting this Tuesday with a report on a Chinese hotpot restaurant.