Buon Ricordo restaurants in Rome, Florence, Venice
 

Can anyone give me current information/personal experience with any of these &quot;Unione Ristoranti Del Buon Ricordo&quot; restaurants? I've looked at the web sites for those that have them (most are available only in Italian), and I've done searches here and on chowhound. Looks like all require reservations and may be on the more expensive side of dining choices. Only a couple of them have been mentioned in recent (last year or so) threads. Are they really special or just pricey? Are jackets &amp; ties required for men? Thanks for any help.<BR><BR>Rome - Trattoria Checchino dal 1887<BR> Ristorante Dante-Taberna De'Gracchi<BR> Ristorante Il SanPietrino (new in 2003)<BR>Florence - Osteria N.1<BR>Venice - Fiaschetteria Toscana<BR>Venice Lido - Trattoria Favorita<BR>

Rookie,<BR><BR>We ate at Fiaschetteria Toscana in Venice this past December and I was unimpressed. I had heard great things about this place and IMO, it didn't deliver. I ordered the &quot;serenissima&quot; plate (fried seafood) as I had heard it was good &amp; you got a free souvenir plate as well. It was ok &amp; I got no plate (and no mention of it anywhere that I saw so I didn't ask which I probably should have.)<BR><BR>The men in our party wore jackets but no ties. Can't remember what others wore. There's 2 floors. We ate upstairs. I've heard downstairs can be noisy but it didn't seem to be when we were there and it was a Fri. or Sat night. The bill wasn't too bad for Venice but IMO, not worth going out of your way. One &quot;secret&quot; we learned for keeping restaurant bills down in Venice is to order LOCAL (Veneto) wine. It's very good and cheap. Our hotel had made reservations for us.

mclaurie -<BR>Thanks for the quick reply. Your report is very helpful. Thanks for the tip on the local wines - that will definitely help.

Trattoria Checchino dal 1887: Definitely need reservations and coat. Tie would be even better. Expensive but worth every penny. They now have two plates available. If you order the &quot;menu di Buon Ricordo&quot; you get the current plate. Then there is a &quot;collector's menu&quot; and I believe you get the former plate. We are going to eat there on April 24 so I can let you know for sure. <BR>Dante Taberna Gracchi. Reservations recommended but not essential. Can dress casually. The dish, bavette, is delicious.<BR>SanPietrino. Will eat there this Friday so right now have no good information.<BR>Osteria no. 1. Reservations necessary. Can dress casually. The dish is very good and the desserts are wonderful.<BR>Fiaschetteria Toscana. Reservations mandatory and make sure you specify seating on the first floor or outside. If they sit you upstairs you will be with all the tourists and get poor service. I thought the dish was wonderful. May dress casually.<BR>Trattoria Favorita. Reservations recommended but not essential, unless on Sunday. May dress casually. The dish is a very nice light John Dory. Skip dessert.<BR>When you eat at your first Buon Ricordo restaurant, they will give you a booklet which lists all the restaurants all over the world, has a picture of the dish and a description. If they don't automatically bring the plate and book,be sure to ask for the &quot;piatto di Buon Ricordo&quot;. When I say dress casually, I don't mean shorts and tee shirts but nice casual clothing is fine. If you have some time before you leave, go on the Buon Ricordo website and order a free &quot;Buon Ricordo card&quot;. It will give you discounts at Checchino (for lunch)San Pietrino, and gifts at the other restaurants (except Dante Taberna). Favorita's gift is a piece of Murano sculpture.

Grinisa - I can't THANK YOU enough for sharing your wealth of knowledge. Checchino's web site indicates they no longer have the former plate, so if you find differently, I'd like to know (although I may not get there - since I've convinced my husband to pack light, he's not thrilled with the idea of taking a jacket for dinner). I have sent Buon Ricordo an email requesting a Card. We leave for Italy in 3 weeks and I'm not sure that gives enough time for regular mail both ways. I hope you enjoy your meal at SanPietrino on Friday. Please post your experience. One last question for now - are the Buon Ricordo specials available for both lunch and dinner or is it meant to be for dinner meals only? Again, thanks so much for all the details. You gave exactly the help I was hoping for.

Rookie: Glad to help a fellow piatto hunter. The specialty is available for either lunch or dinner.

For what it's worth, it doesn't take much negotiation to get a plate even if you don't order the special. Usually a &quot;would it be possible...&quot; does the trick when you are ordering otherwise from the menu.

Coco - Thanks for your reply. That's nice to know especially if a restaurant for some reason doesn't have the dish when I'm there. From what I've been able to find, the meals all look to be worth ordering. (I'm still working on getting my husband to take a jacket &amp; tie so I can try the lamb dish at Checchino).

It really depends on the restaurant as to whether or not they'll give you a plate without ordering the specialty. I know that Buca di San Francesco in Arezzo is a particular stickler for the rules because I know someone who went there, didn't realize about the plate, ordered something else, then saw someone being presented with a plate at the end of his meal and then she asked for one too. The reply was &quot;no fegato (the chicken live specialty at the time) no piatto&quot;. BTW, the new dish at Checchino isn't lamb, but pork and beef involtini. But I think if you order the &quot;collector's menu&quot; you may still be able to get the lamb and the lamb plate.

Hi Grinisa<BR>I wouldn't blame any of the restaurants for taking that position. If we are supposed to order a special meal to get the dish, then that's what we should do. I think I would only ask for consideration if the restaurant could not serve the particular meal for some reason. I would hope they would make an exception in that situation. Thanks also for the update on Checchino's meal and plate. I got my information from their web site. Guess its a little out of date. Maybe (if I'm lucky) I could get my husband to order the meal I don't so we could get both plates?

I would agree with Grinisa that one could not count on a restaurant giving you the plate without the special, but would also like to add that it would be best to ask before or during your order, not after. <BR><BR>I have not dined at any of the restaurants on your list, and would not actually select a resaurant just for the plates, but have brought home 9 or 10 plates for my sister over the past maybe 7years. I actually had the specials only 3 or 4 times. The first time I ever heard of this was at the Locanda della Amarosa in 1996/7 (no longer on the list I believe). I explained that I'd come for the steak (not the special) but would love a plate for my sister...what to do! what to do! Well, they gave me the steak on the collector's plate and then as we were leaving they gave me a 2nd plate...one for my sister and one for me! And you wonder why I fell in love with that place!<BR><BR>Anyway, if there is something else on the menu that you might prefer, it doesn't hurt to ask...<BR>

Rookie:<BR>Many restaurants are very generous as Coco says (Locanda Amorosa)and won't have a problem with giving you the plate even if you don't order the specialty, but then there are the sticklers. Anyway, I love trying the specialty of the house, and in over 50 plates that we have had, I'd say only two or three weren't very good. Most were delicious and showed off the regional cuisine of that particular area. Your idea about your husband ordering one and you the other is a good one--in fact, that's what my husband and I are doing next week, although I already have the lamb plate.

Coco - <BR>What a loving sister you are. I'm sure she appreciates the effort you make to bring the plates to her when you can. Locanda Amorosa sounds like an outstanding ambassador for Italy the way your request was handled. Sure makes me wish I could dine there. What city is it?<BR><BR>Grinisa -<BR>Wow - what a collection! Do you display them all? <BR><BR>Thanks to both of you for your helpful and informative replies.

I am jealous to hear of Grinisa's collection!!! (And all the wonderful dining experiences and &quot;good memories&quot; they represent.) I've still got my one plate and actually use it! <BR><BR>Locanda del Amaros is in the countryside outside Sinalunga (E by SE of Siena). You will find many warm words on this Forum about the place. After dining there over mnay years I finally had occasion to stay there 2 years ago and now love it even more than before!<BR><BR>Grinisa: looking forward to new report from you on your plating!

I have 3 extra plates from Manuelina in Recco. They are the older &quot;Lasagne al Corallo&quot; design. Anyone interested in trading for any doubles you may have?

Grinisa --
Checking back for an update: How did you like SanPietrino? And, does Checchino still have the lamb plate? We'll be there in a couple of weeks, and I am turning into the kid on Christmas Eve who can't fall asleep.
Thanks so much for your replies.

Hi Rookie:
We returned Sat. night. Loved Il Sanpietrino. It's a lovely restaurant tucked into a corner of a quiet piazza in the Ghetto. You need to ring a bell to enter. The owner was very helpful and friendly. The special dish, Pennerelli e ceci, was a mix of tender beef bits, chick peas, vegetables in a spicy red sauce. Because it was Good Friday, they offered to substitute shrimp for the beef, but my husband wanted the authentic version so got the beef. It was delicious. All our food there was excellent. Lunch was 90 Euro for the four of us (our little girls split a pasta and some proscuitto and melon) including wine. Highly recommend this restaurant. We had lunch at Checchino on Thursday. Here's the deal. They have three plates available: the new plate for the new specialty, involtini di carne alla romana, the first plate for the oxtail stew they invented, and a plate from the convention of Buon Ricordo member restaurants that took place in Sicily. You can get the new plate by simply ordering the involtini or, as my husband did, order the &quot;menu di buon ricordo&quot; and get an antipasto, pasta, the involtini, vegetable and dessert. The other two plates are only available if you order the &quot;collector's menu&quot; which also gives you an antipasto, pasta, saltimbocca (not the oxtail stew!)vegetable and dessert. You then choose which collector plate (oxtail or convention) you want. The oxtail stew is on the menu, but if you order it from the menu itself, you won't get the plate. That was disappointing since I wanted to try it. I now realize that I should have ordered two collector's menus, have my kids split one of those meals, and I could have chosen both the oxtail and the convention plates and walked out of Checchino with three buon ricordo plates! The lamb plate, while displayed at the restaurant, is not available. You can order the dish, abbacchio cacciatore, but no plate will be given. We also took a day trip to Padua and ate at Antico Brolo. The special dish there was veal jowl in balsamic vinegar with a salad on top. Very greasy. Not recommended but you can order a fettucine verdura and still get the plate. Apparantly, after the mad cow scare, no one was ordering the veal jowl so they came up with this alternative dish for the plate. But you still get the plate depicting the veal jowl.
Have fun collecting! Let me know how you enjoy the restaurants and what plates you get. Yes, I display all of mine around my kitchen and breakfast room.

Welcome home, Grinisa. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. Your reviews have fueled my appetite. I too wish you had thought to have your daughters split an entree at Checchino. Its amazing to me sometimes how I miss opportunities like that. Appears you had a nice trip though. Will post when we return-late May.

I am intrigued by this card!

I have only just started planning my first-ever trip to Italy in November. This deal with the plates sounds like fun. And delicious, too.

I went to the web site and sent an email asking for the card. I took a look around the site but it is hard to tell exactly where the restaurants are.

We will be visiting Venice, Florence and Rome, traveling by train. We won't have a car so we will be going to restaurants in the cities. When I tried to look up some of the Venice restaurants it looked like they were a little ways out of town.

I will continue to look but if anyone has recent info about Buon Ricardo restaurants in these cities I'd love to hear about it.

This site is great! I an so excited about the trip!

OO

In Venice, Fiaschettria Toscano is fairly easy to find near the Rialto Bridge. Trattoria Favorita is also an easy walk from the vaporetto dock at the Lido. The Florence BR restaurant is very good and a short walk from the Ponte Vecchio. Rome has several BR members, all good, but the best is Checchino dal 1887.