restaurant review - il capriolo

Saturday Enrico and I were restless and decided to go for an outing. We visited the abbey at Piona, then headed up the mountain. We had a booklet listing restaurants in the province of Lecco, including one more or less in the area where we were. Turned out we hadn't looked closely enough at the details - it was way up the mountain at 1100 meters, and took quite a while to reach over a narrow, twisty mountain road. We had to call several times for directions and to ask how long the trip should take, and we almost turned back several times.

But Il Capriolo turned out to be worth the trip. For primo, we shared a dish of gnocchi with gorgonzola. For secondo, we had the local buckwheat polenta, with generous portions of three different kinds of meat: brasato (braised) beef, spezzatino (small pieces of veal) with porcini mushrooms, and pork loin cooked with pancetta (bacon). The brasato was good, the other two were excellent, each with just enough gravy to add flavor to the polenta.

For dessert we had panna cotta ("cooked cream") with a warm berry compote (see the video). All this, plus over half a litre of the house wine (a more-than-decent Cabernet), came to 40 euros for the two of us - cheap at the price!

Il Capriolo is also the local hangout for the inhabitants of this tiny mountain village, so there were people playing cards, watching TV, reading the newspaper, and a father came in with his kids to buy popsicles.

For anyone who might be in the area: Il Capriolo and five other restaurants in Valvarrone are having a food-fest in Sept/Oct/Nov (21-28 Settembre, all the sundays in Ottobre and 1-2-9-16-23-30 Novembre), which looks very yummy, go to http://www.valvarrone.com/ and click on "" Sapori d'Autunno " - Quarta Edizione" for menus, driving directions, and contact info.

Click the picture above to view the video. To use video controls (Play, Stop, Rewind, etc.), click with your right mouse button on the video (Mac users: right click or control + click).

Comments

[Colleen]

Deirdre -
Your restaurant video is totally cool!
Loved hearing the voices and seeing the activity... C.

[Deirdré]

Glad you liked it. I was afraid people would get self-conscious with the camera, so I just set it on the table, and no one even noticed I was filming.

[Shannon]

It makes me very very hungry. I am going into the kitchen to make some pasta with mushrooms now. I should be going to bed but I'm going to have to eat instead.

[Mica]

this is really nice video. i like the perspective - good call with setting it on the table, gotta be clever to catch such a natural moment. more please.