Returning to Ristorante Da Valentino

When we first went to Valentino a few years ago, we liked it, but not so much that we made any huge effort to go back. Either we had an abnormal experience, or something must have changed since then. Over the past few months, I kept hearing from multiple people how wonderful this place was. So we finally went back there last week with a few of those friends. Indeed, we liked it so much that we realized how much we had been missing out on over these past few years, and came back here again this afternoon to get more.

Yes, we loved the food here, be it the simple mushroom starter through to the branzino sea bass, the latter of which was so simply prepared and yet appealing enough that this rosemary-hater actually liked the sprigs of rosemary that were shoved into the fish's belly. Interestingly, the aglio olio still featured entire cloves of garlic, just as was done back at Cantina, and it worked.

Not all was perfect though. We had a grilled beef last week that - while tasty - was a bit chewy. We were also a bit puzzled by the tonnato, which a colleague of mine described as "out of this world," but whose mayo and canned tuna just reminded us of tuna fish sandwiches. Well, it seems like the trick here is to order off-menu, perhaps even just letting the chef do as he pleases. We're still coming back - as long as we remember to call in advance for a table, that is.