Innconeti Evasioni
Via Privata della Bindellina
20155 Milan, Italy
02 33001882
Official Website
Innocenti Evasioni in Milan was the first Michelin starred restaurant I visited on my week long trip in Italy last month. Located about 15 minutes taxi ride from the city center, this restaurant is situated in a quiet and small residential street.
Two chefs Tommaso Arrigoni and Eros Picco took over Innocenti Evasionin back in 1998, and turned it to a Michelin starred dining establishment. The menu changes monthly and the chefs take on Italian cuisine is an incorporation of their own modern twist. It’s best described as “playful cooking” (in a 2011 article High End Dining in Italy.) by former NY Times food critic Frank Bruni.
Once my dining companion and I arrived for our 8 pm reservation, we were the only ones in the dining room along with sommelier and the two servers. Unlike in the U.S., dinner in Europe usually starts at 9 pm, so for the first hour we had the place all to ourselves.
The dining room is quiet and serene. It overlooks a Japanese garden that serves as back drop. The space is full of round tables covered in white table cloth and red-cushioned old wooden chairs. The walls looked like they needed to be repainted, and red tiled flooring seemed like it was there on their opening night. Though outdated, the décor added to charm of Innocenti Evasioni.
Our dinner started well with an amuse-bouche of fried pasta, with vegetable puree and thinly sliced raw fish. We were both eager to savor our very first meal in Italy, that we decided to forgo the bread basket despite of the aroma and appeal it exuded.
For starters, we had the Octopus and the Cardi or Cardoon, the only vegetarian dish in the menu.Cardoon’s similar texture to a half boiled potato is seasoned accordingly. The octopus meat on the other hand was firm and tender, breaks easily using minimal force. The dish is plated with tomatoes, cheese and powdered dehydrated olives sprinkled throughout the plate. It’s one messy plate of goodness. Both dishes were quite palatable.
Our pasta dishes were the freshly made Ravioli and Gnocchi. I liked the ravioli and it stuffing of mushroom, which was topped with cream sauce and beans. But the gnocchi, with its fish cheek confit and shell fish sauce, also packed a lot flavor.
The Fillet of Beef for the main course is a lovely piece of flavorful beef. The beef’s outer layer was gloriously roasted, creating a crusty texture while the inside is soft and juicy. The sauce added a touch of sweetness to the meat. The other main course was The Swordfish. Presented with pieces of thinly sliced mushroom, it blankets a nice cut of sword fish meat that is moist and clean. In addition, this was drizzled with puree’s of spinach and nutmeg, which provided another level to its multiple layers of flavor.
We let the sommelier pick a bottle of white. We gave her our budget and wanted something fruity with some acidity. She came through with an excellent bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that paired well with our meal.
To cap off an excellent meal, we had the dessert sampler which was more than enough for two. It consisted of four dessert items from the dessert menu that the kitchen handpicks for the table. My dining companion, who is a devout dessert enthusiast, enjoyed the sampler very much.
We were tempted to go for the tasting menu priced at 68 Euro’s. but instead decided to go a la carte. Tasting menu is usually more economical way to go when dining in Europe, but at Innocenti Evasioni, a la carte prices are reasonable. Between the two of us, we both had three courses each and shared a dessert sampler and a bottle of wine for 157 euros (212 US dollars).
The service was top notch, attentive and polite. Language barrier was never an issue and that night, one of the chefs, Eros Piccos, was present. He introduced himself to us, explained the menu and took our orders. He even brought some dishes to our table. A gesture in which I was unaccustomed to back in the US since I have never had a chef introduce himself/herself before the start of the dinner in my years of dining out. It’s usually during or at the end of the meal, the chef decides to show up in the dining room.
My visit at Innocenti Evasioni gave me an idea what the dining culture is like in Italy. It’s a slow paced where diners can take their time and not be rushed unlike in places such as New York. In between courses takes a little longer than what I’m used to. The restaurant allows you to digest your previous dish before the next one arrives.
Innocenti Evasioni delivers high quality food with hospitality to match at a reasonable price. A top notched restaurant that is worth the cab ride outside the city center.
Before I went on this trip, I did my homework on the best places to dine in Milan, and yet I was still undecided up until that morning. I guess some things are just better left to the last minute because my experience at this restaurant was nothing short of phenomenal. I was glad that I had my first dinner ever in Milan at the Innocenti Evasioni.
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