Sunday, July 8, 2012

A new Italian in Stavanger: il Piccolo

NB: This is the original review of the restaurant, for a small update, have a look here.

Date of the meal: 07/07/2012
Number of people: 2 adults and 1 child (2 yo)
Order and price: 3-course menu 250 NOK
Address: Lyder Sagens gate 18



Il Piccolo ("the small one") is one of newest restaurant in Stavanger and Stavangourmet was happy to try it for you and review it.

Located in the city center but not on the harbour side (more towards Arkaden, Sony center, Wayne's coffee, ...), il Piccolo is the restaurant of the hotel Myhregaarden (quite new itself), but of course, you don't need to stay at the hotel to eat at the restaurant. For people curious about history, there was actually another Italian restaurant at the same place some years ago (called "Simone"). The place became a buffet restaurant after that but did not have much success and it is now "il Piccolo".


Their 3-course menu is quite attractive (250 nok for starter + pizza/pasta + dessert) so we decided to go for it. It was also good to provide you with many photos/dish reviews, as this place is quite new and no other reviews are available.

As the place is new and maybe because of summer holiday, the restaurant was quite empty. Despite this, we had to wait for a while to be served. I am not sure if this is because everything is relatively new or if the restaurant purposefully had few staff because they knew there would be few customers.


My wife went for the pasta salad (summer time!) and chose to have it with tuna (the choice was between chicken, ham, shrimps and tuna). It was nice but some pasta were not cooked enough.


I went for the minestrone soup. At the beginning I was a bit disappointed as the taste was close to boiled water plus vegetables but after a while, the taste became more homogeneous and the soup was good. So it was just a matter of waiting a bit and mixing the soup a bit more. There was a nice variety of vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant/aubergine, ...) and they were well cooked (not too much, not too little). Also, be aware that the soup is quite big, so should only be taken in a menu by those with a big appetite.


For the main, we had the choice between any pizza or a pasta dish from the menu (including risottos and calzone pizzas) which is really good. My wife went for the pizza capricciosa: tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushroom and cooked ham. My wife enjoyed it and thought it was quite good.


I went for the risotto with game (wild animals meat) and spinach. The dish was good but spicy. The rice was tasting a bit like saffron rice but harder (which I think is a good thing for a risotto). The game tasted a bit like chorizo, at least some of it. The sauce was good but spicy and the menu did not mention it.


Finally, the desserts: my wife ordered strawberry ice cream which was beautiful with small pieces of fruits and I went for a limoncello dessert as I really like the taste of lemon. It was really good and I recommend it to people who like lemon.


Otherwise, the service was good, the restaurant is beautiful (I like best the part with the kitchen which is the original part of the Simone restaurant, the other room having been added afterwards), and the menu is a good value for the price.


Let's wish good luck to this restaurant, hoping they get more customers and that they will handle it properly.

2 comments:

  1. I looked at the menu of this place the other day and I guess I have to check it out. I love my risotto but I normally get very disappointed when I get it at restaurants. But maybe I should give it a chance at this place :-)

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    1. I look forward to reading your review of this place. I also like my risotto best :-) Be careful that the risotto I ordered there was very spicy. They did have another risotto though, if I remember correctly.

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