Ziggy, Sorry to hear of your mixed experience at LangOtto. My wife and I think it’s terrific and have been there annually, for three years. Very talented and personable chef, interesting cuisine - Piemonte with an unusual French influence and wonderful service. Our hits this year included the carne curd (which you also liked), porcini soup with succulent snails (locally grown in Novello) and ham, foie gras (the French influence), pasta with clams, goose liver ravioli and the pigeon (which I loved).
Please give it another shot when you’re feeling good.
Circolo die Littore. This is a somewhat formal restaurant on the second floor of a private library, located in an old palazzo in the heart of Turin. Hardly any tourists. Favorite dishes this year were a beet bisque, snails, risotto with frogs legs, guinea hen.
Piccolo Lord This is a fairy new restaurant in central Turin, recommended by a winery we like in La Morra. It has many traditional Piemonte dishes, but with innovations that differentiate it from the majority of Turin restaurants. The food is terrific, making excellent use of seasonal products. Dishes we liked include porcini with egg, quail, frogs leg risotto, veal with carrots.
We’ve had goat at Marsupino. We’ve been there twice over a period of years and the food is superb, and more creative than the typical dishes. I’ve written about it on my blog:
Want to run not walk back to Torino, to its fabulous markets, vibrant community, cianci di piola lunches in that gorgeous square, eat fritto misto from a paper wrapper from the back of porta Palazzo, drink a hot, boozy and holy-calories zabaglione after visiting my favourite church, la consolate. Balon and the mole Antonelli dreaming here. Tell us more.
It’s a Fabolous city. My chocolate collection is already down to 50%, so once its all gone, I will start plotting. Meanwhile I’m helping with the blues by writing on the blog… https://eatingwithziggy.com/
Its pretty much what I’ve written here, with more bad dad jokes, and shaky hand pictures. Even got a bird picture in there for @JenKalb
This thread likely has single handedly persuaded me to travel to piedmont in late spring this year. We might do this along with a drive through the French Riviera to marseille.
Any other areas in Italy that might be recommended as a good addition to exploring piedmont?
On your way to France you could explore the province of Liguria, with nice small beach towns like Camogli. Or you could skip France and explore the region of Friuli all the way towards Trieste (high on my wishlist).
You can add Lake Orta.
Maybe Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso (Cogne mentioned here somewhere) for some hiking.
Back to France to see Chamonix, Annecy, end in Lyon?
Or head toward Bologna. Cremona, Antica Corte Pallavicina (Culatello legend), Parma and Castello di Torrechiara (lunch at Locanda Mariella), Modena (amazing food city), Bologna
You also have the entire Ligurian coast up from the Cinque Terre to Genoa and then to many coastal towns. Also, at the border at Ventimiglia, inland there are a series of hill towns starting with Dolceacqua and Apricale. This route goes then into France past some beautiful hill towns like Saorge, skirts the Mercantour National Park, and then over a pass back into Italy and the aforementioned Limone Piemonte).
Thanks for all these recs. I will come back for more details as I flesh it out further but I think the wife prefers going towards France and we need to end up eventually in Spain to go to Mallorca so geographically it makes more sense.
