Alba Restaurants: Reviews & Recommendations

[rshorens]

I would strongly recommend Albergo Hotel real Castello (phone 011 39 01 72 47 01 25)

It's in Verduno, a lovely village not far from Alba in the heart of vineyards. We stayed there in late October, 2000. it's run by 2 sisters in a family of vintners- the building is an old aristocratic hunting lodge/castle. Rooms are large and furnished in country antiques. The food in the restaurant on the first floor is fabulous and a great value-their own red wines are available when you eat dinner. The price for double room including service and breakfast was around 200,000 lire or arounb $160. Our room had lovely views of hillsides and vineyards. Their website is www.castellodiverduno.com.

The restaurant we enjoyed most in Alba was Il Vicoletto, Via Bertero, 6, Alba. Tel. &Fax: 0173363196

Buon viaggio!

Roz

[JosephB]

Roz, thanks for the suggestions!

[wino666]

Joe, sorry but Il Vicoletto is closed. See post on Alba restuarnants for other suggestions.

[tanabutler]

Ooooh, Roz, that place (and their website) is so beautiful.

[JosephB]

Joe, sorry but Il Vicoletto is closed. See post on Alba restuarnants for other suggestions.

In fact, I thought I had read that it had closed on one of the threads, but thanks for the heads up.

[rshorens]

Albergo Hotel real Castello (phone 011 39 01 72 47 01 25) The price for double room including service and breakfast was around 200,000 lire or around $160.

I miscalculated on the price- I think 200,000 Lire was closer to $100, although that was 3 years ago and before thearrival of the euro.

[Bill Klapp]

The new Saveur recounts the coming of Alice Waters to the Castello di Verduno...

[Marco]

This thread seems to have gone dormant, so I hesitate to attach here rather than start a new one, but in the interest of parsimony, here goes.

In looking last month for a place to stay for a few days in the Piemonte, I stumbled on a wonderful website for this area: http://www.holidaysol.it/. It’s maintained by the (in Italian) Associazione Piccole Strutture Ricettive Langhe Monferrato Roero. The web site is very well done, and has a good English version. (When we were just in Alba this month I saw they had a hard-copy booklet of their listings also.) It lists B&B and apartment-type lodgings over a wide range of prices and apparent luxury. The smallest have only one room, while the largest seems to be about 6 rooms. I get the strong feeling from our experience and this site that there are all sorts of small lodgings out there struggling with the simple difficulty of getting their word out.

Our one use of this site to find a place was VERY successful. I chose and highly recommend the following:

Tra Arte E Querce

Loc. Monchiero Alto, 11

12060 Monchiero CN (near Barolo)

Tel.+39 0173 792156 - Fax +39 0173 792156

Cell +39 338 9081666

E-mail: ezioetclelia@tiscali.it (the owners are Ezio and Clelia)

http://www.traarteequerce.com

I chose it for several reasons: One was that at 6 rooms it was one of the largest on the site, so I figured it would be fairly professionally run. But the primary reason was that their own website spoke of “truffled eggs” for breakfast, and in my largely hapless attempt to decipher the Italian on their web site it seemed that they are a trifolau (truffle hunter) family.

We paid 100 euros for a nice size room with a small balcony and a “hydro” (sort of vertical Jacuzzi) with Spartan but very nice furniture. The place is only 2 years old, and has modern electronic hook-ups, etc, and looks very nice. Between my dictionary and talking with Clelia as best we could, I gather that “Tra Arte E Querce” translates roughly as “between art and the oak tree”, and indeed the walls were filled with an interesting selection of art, and Clelia pointed to the querce just outside. And it is indeed true that Ezio is a truffle hunter with 2 dogs – he went out early every morning while we were there – 2 days he found some white truffles, one day only some blacks.

The breakfast was a neat surprise. The first morning, we went down and saw only the usual Italian colazione. The cynical synapses in my brain began to twitch a little, so I composed a question using my dictionary about the truffled eggs, indicating clearly that we were willing to pay an appropriate amount extra for it. She responded: “You want truffled eggs? No problem. And the price is included.” Shortly thereafter my wife and I were each presented with one egg in a small casserole dish with a moderate amount of white truffle shaved on top. (No wonder they don’t call the yolks “yellows” here – they are more like red-orange.) So for three consecutive mornings we had our truffled eggs plus the usual colazione. What a wonderful way to start a day.

Clelia will also prepare dinner on request – more on that when I report our eating experiences.

[Ernesto]

Hi,

I've just book a room at the Villa La Meridiana in the beginning of November. Does some of you guy's have any recommendations were to eat in the area (Not to expensive, genuine and all that).

I hope you can help.

Ernesto

[Bill Klapp]

Ciao, Ernesto! Do a search of this board. There are a zillion recommendations buried in the Piemonte-related topics. Be sure to go to the earlier pages of topics.

[Ernesto]

Thanks Bill,

will do.

Ernesto

[goofy md]

I’m back from Italy. Normally I neglect to post my findings, but because this site has been so helpful I will post my findings. Of course as always my excruciating planning was all for not, but we had a great time.

For those who do not know, I planed a surprise trip to Italy for my wife’s 40th birthday. She has studied in Italy both in high school and college, so she used to speak fluent Italian (unlike me). The first part of the trip was a cruise from Athens to Rome. Fantastic.

After disembarking we were taken to the place where I had reserved an Alpha Romeo. We were 1 hour early and the Taxi dropped us off at a seedy corner and told us the place was up the stairs and around the corner, but nothing was there. I was worried, but we found a little bar, had some coffee and waited till the rental place was open (which was 1 block the other way.) It was NOT the place I rented from but had the same address. Luckily their computers were down, so the gave me the same car anyway.

So we drive to Florence, were we ate at Husteria Ganino near the main piazza. I was worried because it looked like such a tourist areas, but was pleasantly surprised once inside. We had pesto pasta and mushroom pasta. Both were wonderful. We also tried the zucchini blossoms, which were also very good despite being fried (not one of my favorite things). We were going to look for my wives old stopping ground but I really wanted to get up to Alba. We stopped for gas a second time. I remember the first time he used the green nozzle. So I looked and there were two greens- which one do I use? I asked my wife. We picked one- carefully avoiding the black gass.beacuse we needed diesel.. well the attendant comes running out, no,no,no…but it was too late. A quarter tank of Benzene in the tank. There goes Alba by dinner. And here come a little econobox.

We finally drive into Alba around midnight- oh what a drive in the dark. Luckily the people at La Meridiana were nice enough to keep our room for us, and let us in. The Area around Alba has to be some of the most gorgeous I have ever seen. I love the little villages on the top of every hill.

So the next morning we had the bread with the most wonderful homemade apricot jam I have ever tasted. Then we went to Cerreta for a tour. The wine maker was this nice young man. He tried to get us lunch reservations at Antine but they were closed, as were most of the placed I wanted to go. It was Wednesday. So he suggested Resterante Belvedere in La morra. This might have been our favorite dining experience of the trip. We sat at a window overlooking the entire valley. WOW! When we (my wife) explained we were essentially vegetarians, he said he’d take tare of us. We were brought plate after plate of scrumptious treats. A lot of mushroom dishes including a torte with mushroom reale- I think, it was a local mushroom, which the waiter brought out a raw one to show us. Splendid.

That night was funny because we had called and had a reservation at Trattoria della posta and after we drove to it (passing it twice), there was a note on the gate that they were closed for vacation. So I’m not sure where we made the reservation. We came back and almost ate at ostoria Laberia but my wife was afraid there wasn’t enough for us to eat, so starving we ended up at a pizza joint around the corner. It was fairly unmemorable.

The we made our way to Lake Como. We stopped at a lakeside restaurant just past Como on the way to Bellagio. I don’t recall the name but it was lovely. While in bellagio we ate at three wonderful places, unfortunately I only remember the name of one of them.

The best was La Punta- on the point, the best pasta of the trip. The salmon pasta was to die for. The pesto was also wonderful. For lunch that day we ate at a small pizza place an one of the first streets of Bellagio. A little dive place with an extremely rude waiter, but great pasta. We had the same two- my wife thought this was the best salmon ever. It was so good we came very close to returning for diner. But we ended at La Punta.

The third restaurant was across the lake and up the hill- it was recommended by the hotel. We were picked up from the ferry by a member of the family and driven up to what looked like their house. We ate on the back lawn- overlooking the lake. The food was good, but could compare to the view. (my third try at lake fish- all lightly fried- not to my liking).

All and all a great trip. Yum!

[hathor]

Sounds like a lovely trip...with just enough serendipity thrown in to make it an adventure.

Welcome home!

(And if we ever meet for a glass of wine....I'll tell you our wrong fuel in the fuel tank story, which ultimately involved an entire French village and baton twirling. )

[Craig Camp]

We came back and almost ate at ostoria Laberia but my wife was afraid there wasn’t enough for us to eat

????

An osteria in Italy without enough to eat? Impossible!!

[goofy md]

hathor- with a teaser like that, I'll certainly bite. If you ever happen by Scottsdale, I'm sure I can find a barolo to help loosen your tounge.

Craig- we have very restrictive dietary rules, and my wife's mastery of the Italian language lapsed a little with some of the more creative menu's. so I had to respect her comfort level.

Craig, if you happen by scottsdale, I'll offer you the same deal, just for reading my long boring post.

[Ore]

With summer time travelling in Italia gets a bit tough! It sounds like you made the best of it though so Cheers!!

How fast did that Alfa go!?!

Ciao,

Ore

[CyN]

Hathor, dont get me thinking about the wrong fuel in the gas tank story. It happened to me near Puymrol in France, regular instead of Diesel. OYYYYYY! That was a nightmare without parallel. I REFUSE to think about it!

[docsconz]

great report! I don't have a wrong fuel story, but I can relate to going to a restaurant in Italy, thinking I had a confirmed reservation, only to discover that the restaurant was closed and the restauranteurs were in NYC.

[futronic]

We finally drive into Alba around midnight- oh what a drive in the dark. Luckily the people at La Meridiana were nice enough to keep our room for us, and let us in. The Area around Alba has to be some of the most gorgeous I have ever seen. I love the little villages on the top of every hill.

I remember these things quite vividly! Great stuff, and the Giacosas are wonderful people.

I also remember the 'incidente' we got into our first full day in Alba. No big deal, just a minor scrape on the bumper, but it did keep me from arriving at Ceretto on time! (good thing for cell phones :))