To kick off our first full day in Milan and the F1 weekend, two of our good friends I went to college with (one of them now works in Italy) joined us to try Enrico Bartolini's restaurant at Mudec Milano (the contemporary art museum). We all wanted to see what a contemporary Italian 2-star Michelin restaurant would be like. We've all watched Chef's Table and know the acclaims of Massimo Bottura's Osteria Franchescana in Modena, but how would other chef's in Italy treat modern Italian cuisine.
We had quite a hilarious taxi ride from our hotel to the museum. Since we had a later reservation the museum was closed by the time we arrived, but it was still a cool entrance.
Up a set of elevators into the restaurant itself we were greeted with a modern, yet classic style entryway.
In a way, I'd almost describe it as hipster and very Chicago-esque. Probably not what the Italians would like to hear.
Definitely interesting artwork, this is probably some artist, but not my area of expertise.
The dining room was very cool, minimalist, yet not cold.
Nice and simply set tables.
We were greeted with breadsticks.
For MsFlamingo they brought a crackling since she prefers to not eat gluten.
Since this was such an exciting weekend and having a bit of a mini-reunion abroad, I decided this meeting of friends in Milan warranted a great bottle of champagne, and we enjoyed Krug 166eme edition. The 166 is really fantastic, a floral nose with a slight toast, a fuller body, brioche notes, citrus zest, and fresh acidity makes this a truly fantastic champagne that will only get better with age.
The start of the amuses, with great ironically Spanish olive oil and some sort of greens paste. I didn't write down or recall what the green paste was, it wasn't bad, but didn't add anything for me.
Then we were each brought I think pistachio aerated bread. Good texture, light flavors and nice to dip in the olive oil.
Then a very airy almost cracker that didn't have much flavor with a golden wrapped cheesy square that did add some nice flavor.
Then a foie gras with a black lacquer, peas and prawn with caviar.
With some pea puree, this was a nice dish.
Then they brought out cheesy sticks which I loved and reminded me of having flavors similar to fancy Cheese-Its (a good thing). The pinwheels were a crispy and thin cracker with foie gras mousse inside.
The first wine as part of our pairing was the Cantine Lunae Bosoni Vermentino di Sardegna Colli di Luni, new for us, but nice and floral, good acid and went well with the opening courses.
The last amuse was a rich and lovely sabayon like custard with a sprinkling of shaved truffles - I loved it!
Then a cart arrived where bread was theatrically carved.
Nice bread, but would have been nice to have more than one option. More disappointingly was besides hard crackers, they didn't have any gluten free bread offerings for MsFlamingo, something we've found most restaurants at a 2-star or above level have around the globe.
The butter had cute coatings of raspberry and herb and did impart a bit of the flavor, but only on the outside of the butters.
The first official course were prawns two ways. The tail wasn't that fried with a nice and crispy head. It was fantastic, fresh, sweet and great contrasts in textures. There were different sauces to accompany the dish, but frankly they weren't needed.
A close up.
The next wine was the 2015 Cantina Terlan Pinot Bianco Terlano Riserva Vorberg, a fuller bodied white with a little custard, grapefruit and a bit of tropical fruits on the finish.
The second course was chard dumplings with bottarga and what I think was a chard sauce ring. Then an uni sauce was poured in the middle.
The uni sauce had great umami and sweetness which helped add a dimension to the chard dumplings and overall was a cool dish, but didn't leave me wanting to eat another plate.
Then a cart was brought over to plate the next course.
For MsFlamingo as a substitute for gluten free, they had a really nice roasted tuna belly, it was almost like a wagyu steak and one of the best pieces of fish I'd ever had the chance to try from my small nibble.
The rest of us had spaghetti with smoked eel. The tangy-cream sauce almost had a mustard element and the dill and other herbs lended a nice extra dimension. The smoked eel itself was awesome and overall really enjoyed the dish.
The next wine was brought in a black glass and without the bottle so we had to guess what it was. The nose had a very oxidized, sherry note to it, the body was similar to sherry, but also almost a beer character. I forgot the name of the wine, but it was a natural wine and a fun experience.
The next course were bottoni, similar to ravioli filled with olive oil and lime, roasted octopus on top and fish stew (cacciucco) sauce. This was a great dish, the bottoni were fantastic, the octopus tender and the sauce adding a depth of flavor.
Then a little intermezzo of a "walnut" that was almost more like a chocolate, nice but didn't do anything for the flow of the meal.
Next up were the pan fried sweetbread with a demi-glace. It was nicely prepared and the sauce with it went fantastically. There were some mushrooms and squash with it that were nice, but didn't do anything in particular other than provide some vegetables for the dish.
By this point and unfortunate blot on the service, the Sommelier/server (not sure if he was the actual Som), stopped coming around quite as often and we spotted him chatting with colleagues in the back and another table that seemed to be friends. The main issue was instead of getting our wines before the intended course, it started arriving at the same time or slightly after.
Eventually we did get the next wine, which was the 1994 Weingut Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spatlese. It was one of the best Rieslings I've tried trending towards the dry side, with a great floral nose, medium body with flowers, honey, apple, acid, and a great finish. A fantastic pairing with the sweetbreads.
At this point we were quite stuffed and the final savory course was roasted pigeon and with a couple additions that I don't quite recall. The pigeon was nicely prepared, not too gamey or tough and the glace was really nice to enhance the flavors. The negative point which became a joke by this point is we sat there waiting to dig in before getting our next wine pairing! Needless to say I was starting to get grumpy because at this level that isn't acceptable.
The Som slightly made it up by a great pairing of the 1971 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo. It was wonderful, the nose was fantastically floral with cherries and a bit of earthiness, the palate with medium with red fruits and blackberries, a little earthiness, good acid to keep things fresh and fine and well integrated tannins. This was definitely one of my favorite wines I've tried to date and paired unbelievably well with the pigeon.
After finishing our mains, it was time for an intermezzo and a cart was brought around with a refreshing juice cocktail.
Also brought along was a chocolate dice with berry liquid inside and you enjoy it in a single bite.
Just finishing the last sips of the Barolo before moving on.
For dessert, the pairing was the 2016 Costat Darrer, a nice dessert wine that had some nuttiness, apricot and good acid to cut through the sweetness.
For the dessert, the final tableside presentation.
Traditional zabaione, pistachio and orange candied "tree" was nice, tasty and good that it wasn't too heavy.
Then they brought out a cake thinking it was MsFlamingos birthday, we were confused, but they said it was for us and we asked them to pack it since we were full and ready for bed.
A final small sweet treat, if I recall it had pear spheres, I packed mine.
Then some meringues and strawberries were nice to finish.
Enrico Bartolini is a tough one to summarize and it took me several days to reflect on why I didn't leave the meal jumping for joy. I'll start with saying I always appreciate people pushing the boundaries, and in a food culture as great as Italy, you really have to think outside the box.
With that being said, at the end of the day, no matter the techniques used, the food has to be tasty first and foremost. The next item at the Michelin level game is the service needs to be awesome start to finish. They need to responsive and walk the fine line between hovering and giving you space.
To start with the food, while there were several outstanding dishes, most seemed modern for the sake of being modern and without great flavors. The Adria brothers, Jose Andres, etc use the modern techniques, but the flavors in the dishes are fantastic whether they're reimagining a classic dish and flavor profiles or creating something new. Too many of the dishes here just lacked flavor one way or another.
The thing that bothered us more than the food, was the way the service degraded by the halfway point in the meal. It started strong, was attentive and fun, but by the halfway point, waters were not refilled and the lagging of the wine pairing was frustrating when you're paying that much money for an experience.
I believe these are all very easily fixable problems for a restaurant of this caliber and Chef Bartolini. I'd be happy to try it again on another visit and give the Chef another chance if it seems like the approach has been refined.
Not all experiences can rock your world and I hope those considering trying Enrico Bartolini in Milan find this review helpful.
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