La Vigna - a cozy old Italian restaurant
When you see this place from the outside, you don't get much of an idea about what the interiors would be like. From inside it looks like a typical old Italian styled restaurant. It was perhaps the Italian restaurant with the best ambience (in that price range) that I've been invited to. They have seating upstairs too, and overall there is a lot of use of wood. It isn't all that bright inside even during the day and the place felt really cozy; perhaps also because it was a weekday afternoon and it was really calm and quiet. I could just go on about the ambience of this place. I could have sat there all afternoon.
They got us a basket of bread as we ordered for our food. The garlic bread was thin and delicious. The focaccia was soft and hot. That itself gave me a fair idea of what I can expect from this place.
We started with the zuppa de pollo e Funghi which is a mushroom soup with chicken. They blend the mushroom in the soup so you get a very consistent flavour of the mushroom in every bite. It was really creamy and felt satisfying.
For the cold starters they recommended the salmone affumicato that is a smoked salmon with capers. The salmon was thinly sliced and tasted delicious. For someone like me who isn't that big a sea-food lover, I could barely stop after I tasted it. The capers on it really complemented it with their sour taste.
For hot starters, we had the bruschetta. This one was loaded; it had tomatoes, olives, mushrooms and Mozzarella. This really was very good.
They also recommended the frittua mista con Insalata Verde. It is somewhat like a fried sea-food platter served with green salad. It had fried hammour which I liked the best, though the pieces were quite small. The fried calamari and the shrimps were good too. I was expecting a bit more from this dish especially as they had recommended it to us. Also, it didn't feel quite Italian to me. Perhaps I haven't had this side of the Italian food.
I'm a fan of rice, and I ordered the risotto primavera. This has a tomato paste, mushrooms, zucchini, roasted peppers, and cream. It looked really appealing when it was served. It tasted good too. The sauce wasn't overpowering, but it wasn't something irresistible. A few bites, and I got over it.
We then made a customized pasta. Penne in white sauce with chicken, mushroom, and broccoli. They also added a generous amount of Parmesan on top. This was creamy and cheesy and tasted better with each bite.
We were looking for a spicy pizza and they suggested the Daviola. It has a tomato sauce base, along with Mozzarella, beef salami, spicy dried chilli. This was just too good. The salami was the right thickness, the spice levels were on the higher side which I really enjoyed, and it was cheesy too. Being an Indian who loves spicy food, I was okay with the spice level but it might be a on the higher side for most Europeans.
For sweet endings we had a tiramisu which was really good. I like my tiramisu to have more stronger coffee flavours but this one was pretty good too; and it was creamy.
The crema caramellata con frutti di bosco, i.e. caramel cream topped with berries was just about okay. I didn't like the way it tasted much.
We also had some gelatos, and they were delicious. Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. The three classic flavours, and they were topped with pistachios.
We had a cappuccino to end our meal with and it was made really well. I liked the coffee art too.
If there's one thing that would make me want to come to this place, it is the ambience (indoors). Sure, there were a few dishes which could have been better, but sitting there felt so calm and peaceful and gave a very European feel.
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They got us a basket of bread as we ordered for our food. The garlic bread was thin and delicious. The focaccia was soft and hot. That itself gave me a fair idea of what I can expect from this place.
We started with the zuppa de pollo e Funghi which is a mushroom soup with chicken. They blend the mushroom in the soup so you get a very consistent flavour of the mushroom in every bite. It was really creamy and felt satisfying.
For the cold starters they recommended the salmone affumicato that is a smoked salmon with capers. The salmon was thinly sliced and tasted delicious. For someone like me who isn't that big a sea-food lover, I could barely stop after I tasted it. The capers on it really complemented it with their sour taste.
For hot starters, we had the bruschetta. This one was loaded; it had tomatoes, olives, mushrooms and Mozzarella. This really was very good.
They also recommended the frittua mista con Insalata Verde. It is somewhat like a fried sea-food platter served with green salad. It had fried hammour which I liked the best, though the pieces were quite small. The fried calamari and the shrimps were good too. I was expecting a bit more from this dish especially as they had recommended it to us. Also, it didn't feel quite Italian to me. Perhaps I haven't had this side of the Italian food.
I'm a fan of rice, and I ordered the risotto primavera. This has a tomato paste, mushrooms, zucchini, roasted peppers, and cream. It looked really appealing when it was served. It tasted good too. The sauce wasn't overpowering, but it wasn't something irresistible. A few bites, and I got over it.
We then made a customized pasta. Penne in white sauce with chicken, mushroom, and broccoli. They also added a generous amount of Parmesan on top. This was creamy and cheesy and tasted better with each bite.
We were looking for a spicy pizza and they suggested the Daviola. It has a tomato sauce base, along with Mozzarella, beef salami, spicy dried chilli. This was just too good. The salami was the right thickness, the spice levels were on the higher side which I really enjoyed, and it was cheesy too. Being an Indian who loves spicy food, I was okay with the spice level but it might be a on the higher side for most Europeans.
For sweet endings we had a tiramisu which was really good. I like my tiramisu to have more stronger coffee flavours but this one was pretty good too; and it was creamy.
The crema caramellata con frutti di bosco, i.e. caramel cream topped with berries was just about okay. I didn't like the way it tasted much.
We also had some gelatos, and they were delicious. Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. The three classic flavours, and they were topped with pistachios.
We had a cappuccino to end our meal with and it was made really well. I liked the coffee art too.
If there's one thing that would make me want to come to this place, it is the ambience (indoors). Sure, there were a few dishes which could have been better, but sitting there felt so calm and peaceful and gave a very European feel.
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