Alice

Last year Mr. Eataly, Oscar Farinetti, approached chef Viviana Varese and sommelier Sandra Ciciriello and proposed them to move their Michelin-​starred restaurant Alice to the top floor of his new branch. So there we were celebrating my birthday!
I’m not a fan of super famous chefs and exhorbitantly-​priced restaurants serving super tiny portions in huge plates but Alice swept away my prejudices with its delicious food!
The location couldn’t be nicer, in the top floor of the new Eataly Smeraldo, with windows overlooking Piazza 25 aprile. Tasty décor mainly made of special wooden tables and sea-​inspired decorations. Lights are perfect, not too soft, not blinding, and the atmosphere is relaxed and quiet. Nice staff.
Viviana was in the open kitchen all the time, preparing and supervising everything, and Sandra was in the dining room, going from table to table, making sure everything was fine, giving advise and helping with the orders.
Let’s talk about the food: As my prejudice stated, portions in these kinds of restaurants are not hearty, but they aren’t as tiny as I thought. While we ordered, we were served a complimentary glass of sparkling wine and some finger food (crispy hummus, salmon tartine, pistacchio and salad roll and other nice things). We also got different kinds of handmade bread.
We ordered a la carte. As starters I got the warm seafood salad with with blue cabbage water, spring onions in vinegar and grapefruit sorbet and my husband had the mixed fish carpaccio with fruits and vegetables. The carpaccio dish looked like a painter’s palette, and judging on the seconds it took him to clean it completely I can only guess it was good. The seafood salad is the prettiest dish I have ever been served, it was very good, but the contrast of the warm seafood and the grapefruit sorbet was strange.
As main course I ordered the octopus with potato sorbet, potato chips and potato cream. My husband had the umbrine baked inside black bread and covered with leaves with a side of fresh citrus salad and baked potato garnished with black salt. The umbrine is cleaned perfectly so you can also eat the skin. I tasted it and it was a very delicate flavour — the citrus salad was a bit strong for it, but it was also very good. The octopus was the highlight of the meal. It had the most amazing taste and the mix with the potatoes was strong but excellent. I would go back everyday just to have it (but then I should also have lots of €€€ to afford it).
We paired the dishes with a bottle of South Tyrol’s Sanct Valentin Sauvignon Blanc, as fragrant and fresh as expected.
Although the portions aren’t too big, we were full after the main courses so we skipped dessert. When we asked for coffee, we got a nice small dish of meringues, petit cakes and chocolate cake pops with golden fizzy powder, nice touch.
Now let’s get to the prices: I didn’t know what to expect because it seems prices in these places are top secret (would it really hurt to write them down in the website so people know what to expect?). Still, it was another pleasant surprise since I was expecting it to be higher that it actually was: the service charge per person (the so-​hated «coperto») was 4 euros per person, considering all the bread you get it was justified, starters were around 20 euros each, the main courses over 30, as the wine. It is expensive, but considering the excellent quality of the ingredients, the service, atmosphere and the fact that the famous chef is actually preparing your food (and not away in some book presentation or tv show), then I can honestly say I enjoyed the experience and will come back.