Prices

All prices are VAT included.

No service charge applied.

Tips are welcome.

One bill per table (Sorry, no split bills).

Services

Food or drink from outside: Consuming food or drink from outside is not allowed (see also “Corkage fee” below) . Transgressors will be fined 2000฿.

Corkage fee: On special request, customers can bring their own bottle of wine/beer to be served. A corkage fee of 500฿ per bottle will be applied.

Charging electric devices: Charging electric devices is not available. Please don't try to use the electric outlets. Transgressors will be fined 2000฿.

The Authentic

Italian Restaurant

Experience

You made the first step getting inside an Italian Restaurant, so we will make a second step for you, making you eat authentic Italian food as you were in Italy.

The following one is a list of tips to better understand Italians’ behaviour in a restaurant, their habits, and what is right, tolerable or definitely wrong for Italians when you’re at your table.

This is not a set of rules, you can follow them or not, but they can help you to have the best Italian restaurant “experience”.

Because... when you’re in an Italian Restaurant, do as Italians do.

The classic Italian meal is traditionally composed by the following succession: “antipasto” (starter), “primo piatto” (first course, usually a pasta dish or risotto), “secondo piatto” (meat, fish, vegetables…) with one or more “contorno” (side dish), “dolce” (dessert). When going for pizza, it can substitute first and/or second course (usually both). Everything can be followed by a coffee (rigorously espresso) and/or a digestive (a shot of amaro or limoncello). This is the traditional schema, but very often some steps can be skipped.

Salads are considered side dishes, and never eaten as a starter like it typically happens in other countries. Moreover, if you ask to an Italian what step of the previous list would skip first probably he’d answer the side dish. Nowadays, with the growing focusing on “healthy” food, salads and all the side dishes are becoming more considered in Italy too, but they still are a side dish and really rarely assume the role of a main course (and never of a starter).

When Italians want to eat a pasta dish, they never start thinking something like “I want to eat ravioli” or “I would like some gnocchi”. The choice of the kind of pasta is always a consequence of the choice of the sauce. The contrary sounds really weird.

Some sauces can be eaten with many kinds of pasta, others ask for a particular one. It’s not only a matter of tradition, but traditions “work” for years, sometimes centuries, to select the best choice for you. As an example, though it is a classic in many westerner countries, you’ll never find a “Spaghetti Bolognese” in a real Italian restaurant. It would be considered a bad choice that would spoil the dish and damage the reputation of the restaurant.

Some sauces like ketchup or tabasco are not part of Italian cuisine in any way. Asking for them in an Italian restaurant would be like asking for mayonnaise in an Indian restaurant, or chimichurri in a Japanese one.

Not all pasta dishes ask for grated cheese. In some pasta recipe, cheese (that can be Pamigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, etc.) it’s an integral part of the recipe itself, so there’s no reason to add more. In other recipes it can be an optional and, in case, you should be careful asking for the most appropriate. Then there are those pastas where grated cheese is a real no-no, like Puttanesca, Carlofortina, Checca, etc.

Garlic bread is not an Italian thing. Bruschetta is a classic Italian starter that is somehow similar (actually it’s the “father” of garlic bread). Anyway it’s a starter and it’s not used to accompany any dish. If needed we use simple bread, but mainly with second courses or side dishes. The combo carbohydrates-carbohydrates like pasta-bread or, even worse, pizza-bread makes really no sense to Italians. But when you’ve finished your pasta dish, you can surely use some bread to finish the sauce in your dish. We call this habit “scarpetta” (literally “little shoe”) and its a classic sign of appreciation.

Recipes come from tradition or from an idea of the chef. Those that come from tradition are the result of years and years, sometimes centuries, of try and fail and variations and corrections and improvements. Chef creations undergo the same process even if in a shorter time. Italians respect the job of the chefs, and traditions even more, so it’s really rare that Italians ask for changes in a recipe. If there is anything in a recipe that you want to change, probably that is not the right dish for you, and you’d better consider changing your choice instead. Obviously any change request due to allergies or intolerances is well considered.

Pizza too for Italians obeys to the same rules. Pizza is always listed as a dish, with it’s recipe, same as for a pasta or every other dish. Italian pizzerias don’t work with “toppings”. Italians are always confident that if a pizza is in the menu, it will be good as it is, so we never ask for changes or additions.

Another thing that usually never happens in an Italian pizzeria is that pizza arrives at your table already cut. If you can cut a steak with your knife, then there’s no reason why you cannot do the same with your pizza. Moreover cutting it by yourself let you choose for a slim or a big slice, with more or less crust or condiment. In the end for Italians it’s a proper part of enjoying your pizza.

Pepperoni too is not an Italian thing, as it is an American kind of salami created by Italian immigrants in the 19th century. Its name comes from the Italian name for bell peppers (“peperoni”). While there is always a pizza with salami in every pizzeria, it is prepared with one of the dozens of kind of salami produced in Italy (114 are now officially recognized as traditional regional products by the proper Italian Ministry), but not with “pepperoni”. So, if you don’t want to end up eating pizza with bell peppers, please don’t use that term.

Chicken and pizza live in different parallel universes that never meet.

Spaghetti and Risotto are not side dishes. They are main dishes and never eaten besides other food (there are few exceptions for traditional regional dishes like “Ossobuco alla Milanese” that asks for “Risotto alla Milanese” besides it).

Spicy food often can be adjusted to the taste of the customer, but asking for a “Pizza diavola” or “Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino” or “Spaghetti all’arrabbiata” with no chilies makes no sense. Some recipes are born around chilies and without them would lose completely their nature.

What about drinking? With pasta is recommended water or (better) a proper wine, while pizza is perfect with a refreshing beer. Cappuccino is usual for breakfast but never for lunch or dinner. Same for “caffellatte”. If you try to order a “Latte” in an Italian restaurant you’ll probably end up drinking a glass of milk, because that’s what the word “latte” stands for. A good coffee (espresso and not americano) is optional at the end of the meal. Same for a good digestive liqueur (amaro, limoncello…). Cocktails are usually never considered in a classic Italian meal, even if they could be consumed at the beginning as aperitif, but never during the meal.

Wines are a whole world apart. Nobody can really claim to know everything about them, probably not even the best sommeliers. Who comes from countries like Italy or France is probably favoured by the familiarity they have with wines. So, how can you manage to choose the right wine for the dishes you just ordered? No problem. There are a few general rules that can help you to facilitate the choice, and there’s always someone in the staff of an Italian restaurant that can help you with that. Furthermore, it's like a big game that can be played on a "try and fail" basis. The goal is failing better and better as Samuel Beckett used to say...

In an Italian restaurant (as in any proper restaurant) all dishes are prepared to order, and need the right time to be correctly cooked (less for pizza, more for risotto…). Good restaurants are not fast foods, and don’t use frozen ingredients if not strictly necessary or pre-assembled ones with really few exceptions. If you like microwaved food, a good restaurant is not the place for you. So, please, don’t expect your food served after 5 minutes from the order.

There’s lot of food around the world that brings the label “Italian” or the colors of the Italian flag (Italian soda, Italian seasonings, some soap-tasting parmesans…), but very often have nothing to do with Italian food. Lots of pizzas you can find around are so far from the Italian concept of pizza. Lots of “Carbonara” share that name only for marketing reasons but could never be recognized with that name in Italy. Same for many “Bolognese” and for a lot of other traditional Italian dishes. “Spaghetti Alfredo” or “Spaghetti with Meatballs” or “Chicken Parmesan”, are never to be found in a true Italian restaurant, and often Italians know them only by American movies.