Last year, on my birthday, we visited the Isto restaurant. Here you can read what we ate and how it tasted (PL only). Till today, we remember this dinner. The first time I dared to eat tartare and I still claim that it was one of the best I’ve ever tasted.
This year, we decided to go to Krakow, to the Bottiglieria 1881 restaurant, where the Head Chef is @klimaprzemyslaw. The restaurant has recommendations from @michelinguide and @gaultmillaupolska, so the expectations were high.
We decided on a 7 course tasting menu.
Degustation:
At the beginning we got the Amuse-bouche set: bread, radishes and tomatoes.
Bread/butter/lard
The bread was excellent. Warm, with a thick and crispy crust. Bread was served accompanied by mangalica lard with paprika and butter with salt. Under the slices of bread there were thin flakes of crispbread that were more salty, but also delicious. 5 eggplants.
Radish/celery/miso
Unfortunately, radishes with celery mayonnaise were not so delicious. Mainly due to the radishes themselves, which contained a lot of water and had little taste. 2 eggplants.
Tomato/rose/raspberry
Sweet, juicy tomatoes marinated in raspberries and rose. 4 eggplants.
Beef/pumpernickel bread/chocolate
Beef tartare with chocolate slice pumpernickel on top. Tartare was prepared with the addition of smoked mayonnaise and marrow dressing. The combination of chocolate and meat was very interesting. The only worrying element were small, hard particles inside the tartare. Unfortunately, we did not find out what they were from. 3 eggplants.
Trout/beetroot/kefir
A brilliant dish. As beautiful as it was delicious. Trout marinated in wild rose and beetroot with sturgeon caviar and beetroot slices in horseradish sauce. We are pleased to award this dish with a Happy Eggplant badge. 5 eggplants.
Peas/sweetbread/black garlic
The green risotto without rice was very tasty. It contained green asparagus, peas, broad beans and black lentils. The sweetbread was very delicate and added a bitterness to the dish. 4 eggplants.
Asparagus/milk/hazelnuts
White asparagus, prepared crunchy (exactly as I like), sprinkled with pieces of nuts and served with Comte cheese espuma. 5 eggplants.
Kombucha
Kombucha was served to us as Intermezzo. A refreshing and slightly carbonated drink fulfilled its role very well and cleaned the taste buds before the main dishes. 3 eggplants.
Cod/young cabbage/caraway
Delicate cod on a puree of cabbage and decorated with stripes of marinated cabbage. It was served in the company of dashi and Polish wasabi. Unfortunately, the wasabi piquancy could not be felt. 4 eggplants.
Lamb/parsnip/spinach
Lamb was served on the main course in two ways: as a pressed shoulder and as a sausage. The meat was hidden under a spinach leaf and arranged on parsnip puree. 4 eggplants.
Apple/mustard seeds/honey
Pre dessert. Cool and slightly sweet sorbet with sour apple Szara Reneta pieces, mustard seeds and honey. 3 eggplants.
Meringue/rosemary/rhubarb
A beautiful and light dessert presented on porcelain from the Polish brand Chodzież. It was served by a young chef who told us about this dessert. It was very nice. Dessert perfectly composed. Decorated with lilac flowers the rhubarb jelly, which nicely broke the sweetness of meringue and rosemary cream. I don’t like desserts, but this one was very tasty. 4 eggplants.
Summary:
At the end of the degustation we were offered sweets.
Yogurt/cocoa
Petits Fours served in crystal bowls.
Raspberry yogurt kind of pebbles and toffee / brownie pralines.
As you can see it was a very beautiful, fine dining dinner. The presentation of dishes was refined and well thought out. The taste of the courses was also of a high standard and they were not boring. Each had interesting, labor-intensive elements. The tasting went smoothly and after about 2 hours we were after dinner. The service was correct, but too formal and stiff. We were a bit surprised by the lack of willingness to talk about dishes, but after paying attention, they tried to make up for it.
We wanted to have one testing menu without fish and seafood and it was not a problem for staff and Chefs to adjust the menu. We are very grateful for that.
It may seem weird, but one of the drawbacks for me was one of the elements of decoration. On standing cabinets there were densely large quantities of wine glasses. At about the height of hands. Unfortunately, it put me in permanent stress, that I may drop one of them by accident.
Still, the afternoon at @bottiglieria1881 on the May tasting menu I consider pleasant.
Link to the restaurant Bottiglieria1881
Address: ul. Bocheńska 5 LU 1, Cracow
Title picture: Sea trout under beetroot