Cracco (Milan) 08/2018

Early this year Cracco moved a few hundred meters from an interesting tiny street, Victor Hugo, where it was adjacent to Galli, a renowned cake and confectionary maker and about 80 meters from Pec, undoubetly one of the best delicatessens in the world, to the elegant Corso Victor Emmanuel next door to the Milan Cathedral.
Formerly government offices the rooms are elegant, 

with large antique mirrors

and simple lighting.

with well spaced white clothed tables set with attractive display plates. 

Everything speaks of quality, Zalto glassware,

special cutlery, 

crockery with matching designs all in rooms decorated in Roman villa style.
The windows look out over the arcade 

which, even at 11.30 pm, has plenty of pedestrian traffic.

The restaurant offers either à la carte or a 13 course tasting menu. (190 Euro which is currently a touch under A$300)

Clueless as to what to order we naturally chose the degustation menu.

After a couple of curiously presented amuseè bush

 

These, of course, are not radishes 

There is a delicate paté under these crisps of fish skin. 

Caramelised Russian Salad

Sugar coated this was surprisingly successful, I'm sure it's not only because of my sweet tooth.

A crusty loaf of bread and plenty of butter was presented early in the meal.

Baby Sea Scallop, Saffron and Liquorice

All the flavours were there. The scallop, diced, was very mild. I'd rather it had been whole.

Marinated Snapper, Avocado, Chili Pepper and Almonds

My mouth is watering just from remembering the dish.

Santa Magharita Purple Prawns, Black Chickpea, Artemisia and Moscato Flavoured Lard 

You have to taste it to believe it. Moscato flavoured lard, set like clear aspic lay on top of the prawns, which were not actually purple. Somehow these weird combinations really worked to make exciting and memorable dishes. 

Soft Mountain Egg, Lettuce, Smoked Beetroot, Yougurt and Snail Caviar

We could eat this as an entrée every day of the week.

Risotto with Tomato, Lobster, Pea and Mint

Canaroli super fino arborio rice cooked in the Italian style but too al dente for my liking.

Hand Made Ravioli with Pigeon Offal, and Legs and Mushroom and Anise Broth, Oysters and Cocoa

Another curious dish. Tastes blended so nothing was offensive. The pasta quite al dente - again.

Pigeon Breast 'a la Milanese', and Soused Vegetables

This could be a signature dish in any restaurant in the world. Beautifully presented, perfectly prepared miniature vegetable, lightly crumbed pigeon breast and a strip of pigeon fillet, Mag Nif Icent.

Bone Marrow on the Griddle, Fava Beans, Spring Onion and Dark Chocolate

Date Sorbet, Pistachio and Black Truffle

Crescenza Fresh Cheese, Red Fruit and Elderflowers.

 

We drank house wine at approximately A$50 /glass. They evidently have an incredible cellar with some 2000 wines but for house wine there was a choice of only two - red or white! I am a trifle resentful at having had to pay almost A$20 for bottled water.

This was far and away the best meal we ate in Italy and, if we were to judge, on the basis of what we had in terms of location, service, ambiance and food Carlo Cracco's restaurant is well worth two Michelin stars.
Nothing is perfect but virtually every dish was a triumph of presentation, colour and taste with a refined variety displayed in almost every course.
Score:18.75 /20

Santa Lucia (Milan) 08/2018

 A local resident suggested that this restaurant, near La Scala, the renowned Milan opera house and an art area had the best spaghetti vongole in Milan. Vongole are small, edible bivalve molluscs. Sounded good.
As with almost every restaurant here they offer both inside and outside dining areas
The walls of the venue are covered with photo's of people, presumably artists, who have eaten here
An aggressive salesman, posing as a waiter, tried to get us to indulge in a variety of anti pasta 

but they looked particularly unappealing.
We did have some deep fried crumbed mozzarella which was thoroughly enjoyable.

We headed straight for the spaghetti vongole for main course. 

The pasta was al dente in the Italian manner, bathed in olive oil and covered with a sprinkling of small clams, vongole, we called them limpets when we found them on the sea shore in Melbourne. Unfortunately the vongole were tasteless and did nothing for the dish. Bread was crusty, 

and plenty of it too. Our waiter tried to get us to have a chocolate cake 'Temptation' 

but we resisted in favour of an classical Italian dessert. 

Bad choice.

Score: 13.5/20

Joe's Cafe (Yehud Israel) 07/2018

This is another franchise which we ate at several times in the Canyon Mall. 
The mall is particularly pleasant with very good quality shops. It has an open clean feeling, not too crowded and not too noisy although there are always children running about. Joe's is very popular and we sometimes had a short wait to get a table. They seem to have an endless number of young, attractive wait staff with cute aprons

.

It's light and airy 

and quite decorative.

Food is typical Israeli café style with dips,

pizzas omlettes, salads

and cakes

Score: 13.5/20

Zinc (Yehud, Israel) 07/2018

 Set in an industrial area of Yehud and rather isolated from other shops and restaurants Zinc depends on word of mouth for its continued success. It occupies a long room, 

simply outfitted with large wooden tables 

making plenty of space for their food. On entry there are very comfortable couches and arm chairs for waiting clients.

which we made good use of.

There are a few window boxes with scenes from Venice the appearance alters with changing lighting. 

No food stained menus here. We each had an IPad 

with an index and descriptions, prices and photo's of the food which could be enlarged.

We started our meal with a mushroom risotto which was excellent.

and a roast cauliflower, 

which was dry and tasteless.
Bread, as is so often the case, was moorish.

and the Israeli salad was absolutely typical of what is served at every café and restaurant in the country.

 For main courses two stood out, sea bass,

two good sized fillets, baked and served either with mashed potatoes or green beans. Cooked, as requested, as lightly as possible on the creamiest mash, they were very good. T-Bon as the menu put it,

four veal chops on a wooden platter, came with chips

They were well seasoned and super juicy. 
We drank a reserve Merlot.

A créme brulée came as a sandwich with the brulée between biscuits. Regardless of the unusual presentation it was excellent.

They must have liked us because they offered an additional dessert, their cheese cake

which was also excellent, moist and creamy in texture.It would be unusual in Australia for restaurants to happily pack up left over food for patrons to take home but in Israel it is acceptable everywhere, 
This was quite an expensive meal at about A$100 per person, and certainly on of the better meals we have eaten here. Still, at the end of the day I would much prefer a meal at Topolopompo to two meals here.
Score 14.5/20