Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Dinner)
Location: Santa Margherita, Italy
Date: June 25, 2011
Cuisine: Ligurian
Rating: Old school
Finally, we enter the final phase of our epic trip: Liguria. This is another seafood area, but quite different than Milano Martittima. Here we are on the Riveria, at the top of the Ligurian Sea instead of the adriatic. Near to France and home to Belle Epoque grandeur.
Our hotel — the white one — the Hotel Miramare, on the western end of this lovely town. We got lazy the first night and decided to try out the hotel restaurant.
And the view from the dining terrace. It sucks to be in the Italian Riveria.
The menu. A slightly unusual fixed price one at that.
An amuse. I can’t for the life of me remember what. The “spoons” are edible bread though.
A nice light white Ligurian wine. I liked the easy-drinking whites in the region. They go well with seafood and don’t last.
Grapefruit juice. Yes, this is a bonafied option for the anti-pasta!
Or instead you could choose these very nice local Morrone fish fillets, marinated with a small salad.
Borraggine herb rolls with egg-plants and buffalo mozzarella. Borraggine is a kind of nettle. The dish was, however, delicious!
Taglierini with local scampi. This is a classic pasta type. Very simple with fresh tomatoes and garlic. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Baked sea-bass in herb flavors. Very nice fish, also local.
Glazed ribs of veal with rosemary. Duchesse potatoes and spinach coupole Mornay. Old school, but tasty.
They also have a full salad bar you can help yourself too. It was fairly extensive but I took it easy and got only simple greens. I’ve never actually seen a salad bar in Italy, and here it was at this five-star hotel! There were also some local cheeses at the salad bar you could grab.
Petite fors.
There was an extensive dessert cart. Sachertorte.
Grandmother’s torte (with pinenuts).
Tiramisu.
Creme Caramel. One of my favorites.
A kind of berries and cream torte.
This was a peculiar and slightly old school restaurant, but the food was tasty, and the view and terrace impeccable. No complaints.