Osteria il Bertoldo

Excellent, reasonably priced meal. We had the sopressa, ravioli, veal scaloppine, sea bass over linguine, white beans with clams and cannollis. Great service too!

Tuesday evening, 8 PM. Noise level 65 dbA, light level 5.5 footcandles. 10 solid primi piatti, Campagna style. Generous attention from serving couple. Risotto was spectacular, linguini with sea bass excellent. House wine superb. Pistachio dolci too good to describe. It’s the place you hope to find.

We have had a response from the manager of Osteria il Beetoldo to a review posted on another site by my wife. The response pointed out that our wine bill also reflected a glass of house wine that we ordered. That may be true. There was not an itemized account of the drink orders but a single entry for everything that I was unable to read other than the amount. I am usually willing to discuss that kind of thing with a server if any kind of rapport has been established. I would have admitted that error and apologized for my mistake. There was no rapport and I chose to pay the bill and leave rather than continue to deal with them any further. I don’t expect excellent relations with every server. Again, we read the reviews before we went and felt strongly enough about our experience to want to counter the prevailing sentiments. Although the manager suggests that no one ever has had a complaint before about our server, we felt the things we read did not apply to our interaction. He also suggested that so many things were not available on that day because it was Sunday and their sources were not available. That might have made for more informed choices if we had been told initially. We do not write negative reviews frequently but the lack of those reviews left us wishing we had been warned. We have continued our travel through the Veneto with uniformly positive experiences. I don’t think we have been that hard to satisfy.
I stand by the advice to not go on a Sunday in late summer unless you are accompanied by someone well known to the staff.

I don’t know how to say «fantastic» or «grand» or really anything positive in Italian. If, like me, you learned your Italian from watching mobster movies and ordering pasta, then Osteria il Bertlodo will leave you speechless… until it’s time to order the next plate!
The osteria is tucked into a a side alley, which every savvy traveler knows is already a good hint of the deliciousness to come. True to Italian custom, they don’t open until late (19:00, if I recall correctly), and the dining room is small, but we were lucky enough to get a small table at 20:30 without any reservation.
The menu is drawn from traditional Sorrentino cuisine, not Veronese, but that didn’t stop me from giggling and moaning like a naughty nympho during the primi (first course) and secondi (second course). I feasted first on Spaghetti Gaetano, a veritable ambrosia of mussels, peppers, garlic, and a touch of parsley and tomato. I stole from my company some spaghetti with mussels and pecorino. We had ordered glasses of various white wines, and it was fun pairing and cross-​pairing the wines and primi to see what was the best combination.
The secondi brought things to the next level. The veal escalope was nice, and a first-​rate ambassador for the cuisine of Sorrento. But my tagliata di manzo served with arugula, juicy wedges of tomato, and slices of sharp provolone brought me to a higher plane of existence. In a moment that could only be described as serendipity and compared to fate, the beef was grilled perfectly as to order — rare — which I was informed made both me and the cook happy, as I «didn’t ruin his meat» by ordering well or medium. One can judge a kitchen by how it prefers to serve its beef, as only high quality beef can be served rare. That tender pyramid of pink, adorned with provolone, bejeweled with tomato, dressed in a skirt of arugula… ahhh, the first forkful set my heart aflutter when it landed on my tongue, and I spent the next many minutes in gastronomical ecstasy. It was all I could do to leash and restrain myself from devouring my plate in seconds.
Wine was there too. It was delicious. But it was a supporting role next to an Oscar-​winning performance by the actor known as Beef.
Dessert was a wonderful interpretation of the Sicilian cannolo. While not quite authentic, I certainly enjoyed it. The cream was light and slightly citrusy, and the shell was nice too.
I don’t know how much dinner cost (the tab was withheld from me), but it was worth every penny.
By the way, the waitress speaks amazingly fluent English, and I believe some German too. There was a cute moment at the end of the night when the proprietors gathered behind the bar with the waitress for a grappino and she was giving a short English lesson on toasting.
I heartily recommend this osteria to anyone looking for a top-​flight meal in Verona where it doesn’t have to be Veronese cuisine!

First off they gave us complimentary sparkling wine and an appetizer! The food was fresh, local and the atmosphere was A+. Best meal on the while trip… and the prices were some of the best!