Ristorante Italia, Zeughausstrasse, Zurich

Lardo und Porchetta

Linguine nere con gamberi, panna e pomodori

Schwein auf Bohnen

Sunday night, looking for a nice meal we ended up at Ristorante Italia. A rather busy place, we saw a whole slew of tables being turned after we arrived at 8 pm. We sat down at a nice round table and looked around. It’s called being waited on not waiting for, but I’m not sure if our waiter understood those nuances. He looked like Hansi Hinterseer with curly hair and made the impression that his day job is rubbing sun tan lotion on ladies in Rimini. Finally we got some menus and after chasing him he brought us our beers. The place has an impressive selection of meat and cheese, so we decided on some lardo and some ham from a young pork. The lardo had a powerful smell while the porchetta was smoother and more complex. Interesting both of us preferred the lardo initially to the porchetta, but changed our minds since the lardo lost its appeal much quicker than the porchetta. Goldilocks came back and brought us our appetizers. I opted for the sepia pasta with tomatoes and shrimp. It turned out to be a superb dish. The sepia pasta were coated with a bit of cream, sweet chunks of tomato contrasted the crunchiness of the shrimps and the dish was nicely seasoned. I followed up with pork served on some beans. The pork was very salty, the beans were okay but it didn’t hit any major buttons with me. What I saw then really got me angry – this place has a wine tasting machine. 20 odd bottles hooked up to individual pipes, you can grab a glass, enter a chip card and fill it with half a deciliter to taste. Why wasn’t this explained to us, when we sat down by Goldilocks ?! What an unbelievable idiot. Still even he couldn’t ruin the food. I’ll be back to try the wine tasting machine and just hope that I’ll get a different waiter. Prices:

Rechnung