Il Caffe is housed inside the Nolinski Hotel, it is small and boutique like which opens out onto the courtyard, a slight squeeze but a wonderful place to dine. My first encounter for the food was a quick pit stop break- A tea and dessert. I chose their vanilla pannacotta with red fruits. Now this is not your typical one, often I find them underwhelming not making me excited at all, but this one was served out of an ice-cold coupe. I watched as the waiter elegantly spooned this into another bowl and topped with the red fruits and running down onto this was a little bit of coulis. This pannacotta was absolute quality, easily Michelin star dessert level. I could taste the flecks of the vanilla hitting my tongue, the ‘wobble’ actually resembling a smooth consistency rather than a gelatin like one. It had sublime sweetness, being technically perfect and superior to others tasted. It pleasantly surprised me.
We decided to come again for a dinner after having a dreadful night at Arva the night before. (You can read about it in journeys) “Nothing can be worse than that” I thought, so we have nothing to lose! Judging by the small encounter previously with the dessert, I had a feeling we were going to be well and safe here. And my instinct was right- Here the food is skilfully executed, not the most complicated, just tasty, well thought out and delivered to a high standard.
I had to take a cicchetti to start, the battered fish was calling me. A perfectly crisp and moreish batter surrounded the delicate and soft fish inside keeping them moist. As you took a bite into them the batter melted away being so light and served piping hot, these were good ones. It is hard to make a great batter whilst keeping everything inside at the correct temperature and doneness. And then you must make sure it is served right away. They had thought about all of this of course.
I always bang on about this- If you are going to make a salad, make it nice! They must have got my memo because these are salads that I do want to eat. The artichoke salad with parmesan had delicious melding flavours, I didn’t find this boring at all. The vitello tonnato was how it was supposed to be, the quality of the veal excellent, the mayonnaise well balanced, simply delicious with some green on top to finish the dish and bring another element into the mix.
For my main course, it had to be spaghetti with clams, it was large in portion for a primi (as always) This had a real presence of clam flavour, al dente spaghetti with the right amount of salty pasta sauce underneath. Served piping hot, again I felt the quality in this bowl of pasta, we were sat in an excellent restaurant here.
For secondi we took the red tuna with tomato, taggiasche olives, capers, and rocket salad. For a start the tuna was perfect, the whole dish prepared carefully and packed with flavour. Simply satisfying.
Desserts are truly my weakness, I was becoming quite full, but I wanted to test the pastry section, because the meal we had so far was good. Another one of my favourites graced the menu- Profiterole with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. “Would you like me to pour the sauce over the top”? The waiter kindly asked. “Absolutely” I replied. Normally I would say no to this because often you can end up with a soggy undignified mess. Not here- The choux pastry was robust yet soft enough to enjoy. It held its shape for the whole time I was eating it. It stood proud, and the vanilla ice-cream was not moving either. It was extremely well executed and faultless, but also delicious. Well, that was a test passed with flying colours.
I must make a special mention to the staff here too; the waiters elevated this dinner. Their professionalism shined through, clearly knowing what they are doing. Their attire of slick white suits did not go unnoticed either. Nothing was any trouble at all, and everything was managed in a polite and concise way. Hats off to everybody at Nolinski Venice, this is great food in a great setting.
