Lake Garda and surrounding

[Gavin Convery]

I'm spending a week in Lake Garda, Limone to be exact and looking for some advice on restaurants in the area.

Ones that come to mind are La Tortuga in Gargnano, Villa Fiordaliso in Gardone Riviera and Miramonti L'Altro in Concesio. Does anyone have experiences of any these or others at the same level.

I'd be interested to know their attitude to children as I have a 4 yr old (very well behaved) - we'd only be going for lunch.

[robert brown]

Gavin, last summer we spent a couple of days on the Lake of Garda. We had a very good dinner at La Tortuga, although the details of what we ate escaped me. The people who work there are very nice.

Miramonte L'Altro is a restaurant I have mentioned here a few times. It is one of our most favorite in Italy, which is saying quite a bit. The chef is French; born in Nantes and a student of Georges Blanc. The cuisine is part creative Italian and Italian produce made with French technique. The squab is amazing even though it comes from Transylvania. It was cuttable with a fork and the slices were like butter. The cheese course, served from two chariots, is magnificent. There are many cheeses we  had never seen before that were from just a relatively few miles away. Everyone gets delicious vanilla ice cream with a sauce, probably raspberry in the warm season. The drive from the Lake through the mountains is nice. It takes somewhat longer than it looks. Everyone is really friendly at the restaurant. Once you get to the main street of Concisio, look for small signs that I believe are on the lamp posts. I have already gone back one time.

[Gavin Convery]

Robert,

Thanks for that. I have a reservation for lunch and will let you know how it turns out.

[macrosan]

The squab is amazing even though it comes from Transylvania

I hope this was a non sequitur resulting from nothing more than a careless use of adverbial conjunctions. Otherwise, this looks like an unwarranted sneer at Transylvanian squab, which I am sure are just as good as squab of any other nationality.

Robert, as Lake Garda is on my "next stop in Italy" list, can you tell me which town(s) you stayed in, and give a brief flavor of the style of the town(s) ?

[robert brown]

Macrosan, I try so hard to resist temptation to inject myself into some of the squabbles on eGullet. Now I am accused of prejudice towards certain groups of squabs. You never know what unexpected twists and turns life can take. I can only reply that some of my best eats are squabs from Transylvania.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Fesano outside of Gardone Riviera. It's a period piece from the 1890s or thereabouts: the kind of old hotels I really like. It's not so expensive (around 150 pounds a night, I would guess). It is a large property right on the lake with a decent swimming pool and large grounds. Lots of Germans were staying there. The rooms are comfortable, but not what you would call luxurious. Ours was medium-size, I would say.The town is picturesque and I seem to recall not at all overdeveloped. It has retained its period feel as there are some old villas all around. But the whole area is very nice. Salo is a fun town to walk around in. We found some interesting shops there. Verona is close by. Two fine restaurants are mentioned above. The Fortunato Depero Museum in Roverato is interesting if you like Italian Futurism in its later stages. It's more a relaxing and eating area especially compared to the obvious places in Italy. We had a lot of fun and look to return fairly soon. As you know, it is a great area for food if you want to venture out in a 90-minute or so radius.

[macrosan]

Robert, on behalf of generations of Transylvanian squabs, I thank you for your kind words.

Thanks also for that information, which is very helpful. I do like the sound of a "relaxing and eating area" which is my idea of vacational heaven

[robert brown]

Macrosan, thanks for your kind reply. Let us know if you do go to the Lake of Garda or, for that matter, wherever. And I did look up what adverbial conjunctions are; so thank you also for expanding my grammatical horizons.

[Gavin Convery]

I have returned from my trip to Italy (and Austria - lovely scenery, crap food).

Miramonti L'Altro is excellent and superb value too. We were one of only three parties at Lunch (last tuesday to be exact). The greeting by the waiting staff was warm, the room was elegant with three bay windows overlooking the garden. The location was rather weird appearing to be in a suburban housing estate in Concesio and not that easy to find - it took 1 1/2 half hours to drive from Limone.

We chose one of the menus at 68 Euros which included 2 wines - originally I though this meant two glasses of wine one white one red but in fact turned out to be a pretty endless supply of very drinkable white then red wines from the franciacorta region. As the menu without was 58 euros then this was an good value way of minimising the wine costs. We also had the local aperitif - the sparkling franciacorta wine from Ca' del Bosco.

My antipasti was red mullet on a pile of tiny diced vegetables (I don't have the italian menu with me although the restaurant graciously gave me a copy when asked - if anyone is interested I will post some further selections), pasta course was a delicious ravioli di piselli (peas). The outstanding course at least conceptually was the rack of lamb - this could have been very nice but ordinary...not at all. A square white plate was delivered to the table with the rack of lamb in one corner an outrageous tuile about a 10 inches long (not sure what it was made of) extended from the rack. The waiter then proceeded to bring a series of copper pans and spooned out from them into small piles the following: heart, tripe, kidney, brain, meat from the ribs, sweetbreads - each done in a different style, for example the brain was presented as two small fritters. There were no accompanying vegetables, so definitely for meat lovers only, all were delicious other than the tripe not because of the texture, I just didn't like the taste.

Dessert was a savarin (ring shape) semifreddo with coffee sauce. Petit fours where copious, coffee excellent.

I leave until last the description of my daughter's meal - she is 4 and so has even more discerning tastes then me . She had tagliolini with tomato sauce and grilled fish with some steamed vegetables - sounds ordinary doesn't it but not at all - the tomato sauce was unbelievably luscious and almost creamy, pasta naturally perfect - she pronounced it the best pasta she had ever had and even better than Mummy's! The fish was also superb. I love the way high class restaurants can be so accommodating to even their youngest guests.

Despite all this our most enjoyable meal was actually elsewhere - at Villa Fiordaliso on the shores of Lake Garda - it has one michelin star.

The setting was perfect right by the shores of the lake in the grounds of the historic villa (where Mussolini spent his last days). We started again with an aperitif of the sparkling wine from Ca' del Bosco and chose a bottle of Lugana from Ca' dei Frati (excellent).

I chose raw molluscs and crustaceans with vanilla sauce (from the translated english menu) - this was one of the most stunning looking dishes I have ever seen - the molluscs and crustaceans (oysters, whelks etc) dotted around the plate with spots of red pepper puree and the vanilla sauce (more of a dressing than custard) drizzled over. The taste of vanilla with the seafood was exquisite.

Pasta was spaghetti all chiturra (sp?) with sardines from the lake - delicious. Main course was a signature dish of eel from the lake with candied fennel and half a head of garlic - I like eel at the best of time (worst of times?) so this was particularly enjoyable. Dessert was the least successful - a skewer of pineapple and mango with honey ice cream and I think small coriander seeds scattered over.

Service was good and most of the waiters spoke some English. Strangely there was only one other table occupied.

I have a copy of the translated menu so if anyone is interested in further selections let me know.

Final outing was to La Tortuga in Gargnano - again one michelin star - I will only say that the pasta course was good but the remainder of the meal did not live up to my expectations.

P.S. I can also recommend Nuovo Marconi in Verona and Da Silvio in San Michele all'Adige (near Trento) - the latter in particular has a lovely 'trendy-again' 70's decor and the interesting option of cooking your own selection of meat or fish at your table. La Rocca in Riva also did some good pasta and a nice tiramisu with the addition of zabaglione.

[robert brown]

Gavin, I am glad I can breath a sigh of relief after your meal at the Miramonte. I hate to give anyone a bum steer. I had the lamb dish last summer and enjoyed it as much as you did. We passed up the Villa Fiordaliso, but will now give it a go next time. I would be happy if you posted the menus of both restaurants.