Milan, Italy: Caffe Letterario

Caffe Letterario at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan is memorable for the wrong reasons. After having had so many delightful meals throughout the trip, I finally hit a brick wall with this deceitfully established restaurant in downtown Milan. Service was lacking and the food was... edible but not worth a single calorie. You must be wondering why I'm still blogging about this place then, but this is just to let you know (in case you may have been thinking otherwise) that not everything here in Italy is absolutely delicious. I'd be lying to you if I were to go all out to make my trip sound extremely perfect by gushing over every single thing.

Bread


Or at least, what Italians think bread should be. This was so hard and tough that even my seasoned meat-tearing teeth could do little to tear it apart. Might as well keep it to hit those Indian con-men in front of the Duomo.

Zuppa di Cipolla alla Francese


I have little idea about the travel buddy's fascination for French onion soups, even more so when he has the tendency to order this in Italy. While it may look terribly simple and not necessarily appetising, the travel buddy thought it was more flavourful than expected.

Rissotto ai Frutti di Mare


You've read enough of my Italy entries by now to know that "frutti di mare" refers quite simply to seafood. While the seafood pastas and pizzas that I've had in Italy were all pretty good, the same however cannot be said for Caffe Letterario's risotto. The rice was just too moist and sticky, and the seafood ingredients turned out to be terribly tasteless.

Tagliatelle alla Bolognese


The travel buddy was looking for a repeat of the awesome tagliatelle that we had in Florence, but I think it's just too much to ask for from Caffe Letterario. A tad too watery bolognese sauce and the pasta was more tough than al dente. Pity.

Service
Poor, quite impersonal and hurried.

Price
€13 for the zuppa di cipolla alla francese
€19 for the rissotto ai frutti di mare
€17 for the tagliatelle alla bolognese
€7 for a 1-litre bottle of mineral water

Place
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele,
Milan, Italy.

Pictures taken with the Canon Ixus 80 IS.