Restaurant: Uliassi
Location: Banchina Di Levante 6, 60019 Senigallia AN, Italy. +39 071 65463
Date: June 19, 2015
Cuisine: Italian (2 star Michelin)
Rating: Awesome and inventive
One of the reasons I was drawn to visit the town of Senigallia was its pair of 2 star Michelin restaurants. It seemed to me that any small resort town with TWO of them had to be a nice place.
I was right too. We visited both, but Uliassi was first and it’s tucked away in the corner of Senigallia’s main seaside drag right near the river, just a block or two from the center of the old city.
We began with a bit of bubbly.
Bread sticks. The darker one was anchovy flavored!
Rice puffed nori. Delicious crispy seafood puffs.
The menu. We opted more or less for the Classic (with supplements and substitutes).
Amuse. On the left was one of those wafer cookies… filled with foie gras and some kind of nut butter — delicious. The center was beef tartar crusted in something. The right was a bit of fish with truffles.
A shot of Kir Royal.
Tempura vegetables. Super light and delicious fry.
Artisan bread.
2013 Azienda Agricola Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore. 89 points. The young Bucci Superiore is very light and fruity. An excellent seafood wine.
Cuttlefish tagliatelle with nori seaweed pesto and fried quinoa. A “pasta” made of cuttlefish. As squirmy as the idea is, it was rather delicious.
Raw amberjack “a la puttanesca.” A lovely seafood carpaccio.
Crispy red mullet, parsley soup and rhubarb. The bread-like thing was the mullet. I don’t even like red mullet, despite it having been the most prized local fish by the Ancient Romans — but this was fabulous. It tasted like a super grilled cheese or something.
Salad of cheese and almonds.
Rimini fest skewer. Squid covered in bread crumbs and ham bits. The balls were sphereized frozen cheese!
Potato puree and truffles. A simple version for the vegetarians.
Albanella jar, shellfish and aromatic herbs. A semi-deconstructed seafood pot. Not so unlike an Italian version of the Lobster Pots we used to cook up on the East Coast as a kid. The sauce was nice but light, emphasizing the fresh seafood.
Seasonal vegetables and pesto.
Roasted cuttlefish, wild herbs and sea urchins water ice. Not for the average American pallet, with that briny squid ink taste and the frozen bits of sea urchin!
Cappelletti butter and sage. A simple but lovely pasta.
Potatoes puree, roasted teal, roots and black truffle. The more elaborate version of the puree, with teal meat and lots and lots of black truffle. Really delicious.
Smoked spaghetti, clams and grilled cherry tomatoes. Almost a classic vongolle pasta, but with a lovely smokey flavor.
Monkfish, pork cheek and wild fennel soup. We were getting pretty full here, but this monkfish and “bacon” (pork cheek) was rather delicious — if rich. You can see from the menu why they probably don’t sell a lot of red wine!
Strawberry, cream, mascarpone and cardamon merengue. This was amazing! The berry flavor was so strong, and the frozen berries were cold on the tongue. The merengue provided a nice crunchy counterpoint.
Molasses cookie, chocolate ice cream, coffee, caramel, and licorice.
passionfruit soup, yogurt ice cream, pink pepper, and candied banana.
The hazelnut in different consistence: cream, brittle, crumble, cookie, powder, ice cream, and sponge. Pretty awesome.
Alex’s special 4 course tasting:
Rigatoni pomodoro.
Crispy potatoes, two ways. Homemade potato chips above, beneath them are french fries.
Artisan parmesan.
Mascarpone and chocolate. Fresh sweet cheese (it’s basically cream set with lemon juice) and cocoa powder.
Overall, Uliassi served up a great meal. They were extremely accommodating to our various needs (small child and Kosher style eaters), particularly given that I had forgotten to warn them. The attitude was great too. The meal ran a little long, particularly as they got busy, but still, you could see how many (technical) courses there were.
Our evening was oddly rainy and blustery, so we sat inside. But the restaurant is in a lovely seaside location with a casual elegant shore vibe. On a nice night (and the other 4 we spent in the town were lovely) it would be fabulous to dine outside.
The food itself was DELICIOUS and very inventive. Extremely Italian, local to Le Marche, but also very modern. Perhaps there was one too many cuttlefish dishes, but many of the dishes were fabulous and most really spot on.
