I enjoyed taking a drive from Como Lake back to Milan for 2-star Verso Capitaneo, the journey was certainly worth it. The chefs are two brothers both with an impressive culinary background between them, with their restaurant being another refreshing approach for a 2-star. We were sat in front of the action with plenty of space, one of those super wide counter-tops which I love, a bonus of beautiful, bright, lighting coming from the pass bouncing off onto our space. (Excellent for pictures) You could really see that the service was carried by everybody working together as a unit, with the brothers comfortable in their respective roles.
Everything we ate here was very solid in the technique tightened with bolts and locked in at a prominent level with some absolutely stand out products. The presentation across the board was stunning as well, the restaurant fully deserving of its two Michelin stars. As always, we have the choice to take the tasting menu or a la carte, but a la carte is the winner- I like to choose what I eat and how much. As the first snacks begin to arrive, you can already see the attention to detail in the look of the plates, the taste also delivering to match.
We took a couple of starters, the first being the roasted cuttlefish, Frisona meat, peanuts, and Siberian caviar, then the second: Veal sweetbread, Bernese sauce flavoured with coffee and sea urchins. This was an excellent introduction to understand the level on show here. But the dish of the night had to be the fennel pollen risotto with morel mushrooms, I certainly perked up from my seat and said “wow, what a risotto!” The pollen especially was genius on this dish and the presentation only helped elevate it to another level.
The pasta I took in between courses might have been a mistake as it wasn’t bringing the same wow factor as the previous dish, but I had to appreciate the al dente perfect pasta and the robustness of this- King crab is an excellent product and the hints of finger lime and marasciuoli worked well. I might have had a better first impression of it if I had ordered it alone at the start, who knows?
We ended the savoury with roasted lamb, senise peppers and melon. My goodness the lamb… This is a product that you won’t forget, and it was cooked perfectly with the fat rendered to the exact point, simply delicious. The presentation stood out, the dish plated with care and attention to detail. One of the strongest dishes of the night. The last dish was roasted pigeon, Laurel sauce and strawberry grapes, this was a proficient dish but not at the same level as the lamb.
For dessert I had one of the best soufflés I have come across, it had this gorgeous crisp sweet and crackly crust on the top, the soufflé had a super height and diameter served in a copper pan, light as it should be, giving a pleasurable amount of sweetness which suited me perfectly. An expert soufflé is all I can say. Bringing the flavour of panettone is a winner, accompanied with vanilla ice cream of course! I was too full for the petit fours at the end, but I took one bite of the doughnut. “Can we have a takeaway box please!”
