Giardino Italiano Review
From Moscowiki
| Giardino Italiano |
Cuisine: Italian
Address: Leninsky prosp., 37
Metro: Leninskiy Prospect
Tel: 958-1292
Fax: 958-1509
E-mail: ristorante@giardino.italiano.ru
Web: www.giardino.italiano.ru
Open from 12:00 until 24:00.
All major credit cards are accepted.
A passion for perfection
By Neil McGowan
Giardino Italiano is a relative rarity in Moscow - an Italian restaurant owned and run by an Italian expat. Yes, yes, there are others, I know - but this is a little different. For a start, it's Sicilian. The genial personality of Carmelo Inzirillo guides everything here - the decor, the menu, even the background music. The result is a faithful reproduction of that beautiful Italian idea - the family-run neighbourhood ristorante of always-reliable quality, run with charm and gentle good-humour, and refreshingly free of bombastic decor and high-camp pretentions. You're already a regular on your first visit?!
The others -they stick cream in everything. Everything! It's not right. Italian cuisine is light. We hardly ever use cream Signor Inzirillo confided conspiratorially. And much of the menu at Giardino Italiano is ideal summer eating - light and delicate, and presented with a quiet confidence. As one of the capital's veteran foreign eateries, they don't need to dazzle you to make an impression - the keynote is "quiet understatement". This cheerful competence and buoyant enthusiasm is evident even as you step through the door. My companion and I hadn't quite got it together on the reservation, and they couldn't find it - my fault. But sit down anyhow, please have a drink, everything will be fine! Nothing much flusters these guys.
The Menu itself (in Italian, with Russian or English translations) is a happy mixture of Sicilian and Italian classics - some with Inzirillo's personal twist - and inventive dishes featuring more unusual fare. As you might expect with a Sicilian owner, Sicilian dishes feature strongly. There's even some Elk, if you fancy it! Even in the air-conditioned restaurant, it was blisteringly hot outdoors, and we passed-up the Elk and other weighty offerings in favour of the proprietor's personal recommendations. A tasty canape arrived whilst we explored the menu - with the Chef's compliments.
The Seafood Salad (390 rbls) was not only enormous, but stacked with luscious cuts of squid, octopus, prawns and mussels. The succulent freshness was so acute that for a good fifteen minutes I was transplanted to the Bay Of Naples, and Leninsky avenue seemed a world away. Another remarkable thing - it was served warm. If the evening had been forcibly terminated at that point, I would still have gone home entirely happy, and you could cheerfully make a lunch of this salad alone- especially when accompanied by the delicious Focaccia bread which the restaurant make themselves. My companion started with a salmon Carpaccio (400rbls) and although I felt I'd still been dealt the trump card, this was deliciousness encapsulated - wafer-thin, delicate, and tender than you even dare imagine.
Rightly and properly, there's Italian table-water to have on the side - chilled Pellegrino hit the spot exactly after frying my hide on the way. The wine list is fully-featured, but aimed at the enthusiastic grape-lover - fine whites and robust reds for whose acquaintance $30 a bottle is the minimum outlay. However, as in every proper Italian restaurant, there's House Wine that's obliged to be not only drinkable, but pleasantly so - and it goes from only 140 rbls per generous glass of red or white.
Determined to do things by the book, we moved on to the hot appetisers. If you savour intense seafood flavours, the Saute of mussels and clams is a treat (550rbls) you shouldn't miss, although if your ideal version of fish comes in breadcrumbed fingers you may prefer to pass. Giardino are cheerfully unfussy about protocol, and if you want to share a dish as we did, they will happily bring you extra cutlery and plates, without any hint of a tut. This is a place for those who like food itself, rather than the rigmarole which too often spoils its enjoyment.
Andiamo - to the Mains. Linguine with lobster (850rbls) might - in many another trattoria - be some noodles with a hidden fragment of lobster amongst them. Sgr Inzirillo takes a different view and a massive half-lobster appears, accompanied by a modest garnish of home-made pasta. Rather like tree-hugging, lobster-eating is an activity to make friends by -elegant manners are cast to the winds if you're wise, and make it to the hidden recesses where the sweetest meat of all lies hidden. Bass in Sea Salt (1100rbls) is a classic - but if this is your first time fear not, it's not salty at all. It's baked in a coat of salt crystals, which leave your fish tender and moist once it is removed. Brought to the table in a tinfoil package minus the salt-case, you'd only need a side-order of Loaves to feed the Five Thousand - and as if that wasn't enough, there's a shellfish garnish within too.
Needless to say, no one makes Espresso better than Italians themselves. If you can find a space alongside it, there are some light tiny pastries for the lightweights amongst you, or the best (and most authentic) Tiramisu in Moscow for those of you who haven't seen your feet for quite some time anyhow. At last, Tiramisu that has a real jolt of coffee in it! Home-made too - they ought to give lessons to others.
Giardino Italiano is not a place to dash through some calories -this kind of finesse needs a little time to savour it, and you should expect to while away several hours in happy conversation. The service is tip-top - always there when you want it, but never in your face. It's not so much a long meal in Moscow, as a short holiday in Sicily.
06.08.03.
