Mario Batali's Bologna: Have you been to any of these spots?
 

We recently did an interview with Mario Batali about his favorite haunts in Bologna---a city he spends a fair amount of time in every year.

Here is the interview if you're interested:
http://www.fodors.com/news/story_3011.html

He mentions Ristorante Diana and Ristorante Al Cambio as two of his favorite restaurants there.

I don't see many threads related to Bologna and Emilia-Romogna...does anyone have an upcoming trip there?

We spent a week in Bologna in late February. We did not try either of the restaurants that Batali mentioned. We lean toward casual trattoria and the one in Bologna that we enjoyed most was Annamaria at via delle Belle Arti 17 just behind the Teatro Communale. Typical Bolognese dishes at reasonable (for today) prices. I particularly enjoyed the roasted rabbit./

I also lean towards more casual places. Diana looked a bit on the fancy side for my taste. But I have used his recommendations in other cities.

We were in Bologna about 2 years ago and ate at the deli, Tamburini, he mentions. On top of being a fantastic deli, it has a cafeteria style restaurant attached. The lasagna was to DIE for. The best I've ever had...

Ditto on the Tamburini lasagna heaven! My mom is from Bologna and I always thought that her homemade lasagna was never to be topped. I wouldn't dare tell her that Tamburini's lasagna in a cheap foil tin was just as good!!! Yikes!!! One of my best memories of Bologna is eating at the Tamburini wine bar next door. We had a delightful glass of Lambrusco with a gorgeous meat, cheese and olive platter that was heavenly. My favorite was "ciccioli", it was this quasi-crunchy brown, mottled colored sliced meat and it melted in your mouth. http://www.tipicappennino.it/adon/files/ciccioli.jpg We also had some amazing fig marmalade on our platter that went so well with the cheese and wine.

We never ate at any of those restaurants either. However, my favorite dish was the cold frutti di mare seafood salad from Ristorante La Brace Via S. Vitale, 15. It was HUGE! Filled with perfectly steamed squid, octopus, and shrimp, drizzled with lemon and olive oil and perfectly anointed with flat leaf parsely. Their pizza and pasta dishes are lovely as well. The pizza had that perfect crust, not to thin but thin enough, nice and bubbly, crispy, yet chewy, it was just excellent pizza. There homemade pasta with artichoke and tomato cream sauce was mouth watering as well.

My second vote would be Il Doge Via Caldarese, 5, specicially for their "Pasta Il Doge". This was a nice thick homemade noodle (bigoli) with a light, non-cream based crumbled sausage ragu. Delightfully salty and fabulous with wine. The noodles were so thick and chewy that you could really savor each bite.

The little grocery store near our apartment also made tins of lasagna to take home and reheat which were excellent as well. It's embarassing when you think of what our US grocery stores sell for takeout dinners in the deli and then you see what's available at the grocery store in Bologna! For less than 4 euros each we bought tins of crespelle con funghi (mushroom filled pasta crepes), rosettes (lasange that's rolled and cut into pinwheels and floating in a bed of cream sauce) and of course Lasagna Bolognese. I actually ate those for breakfast in our apartment.

Oh the food, the food, the food of Emilia Romagna! It's enough to make your eyes roll to the back of your head as you groan with delight! LOL

We spent five nights in Bologna for the purpose of eating well, a goal we had no problem meeting. Osterie d'Italia led us to Serghei, Caminetto d'Oro and Meloncello, three wonderful tourist-free restaurants. We also ate at Cesarina,Diana and Tamburini but greatly preferred the other three. Diana was our least favorite restaurant. Trattoria Meloncello is half way up the 666 porticos to the church of Santa Lucia. After lunch we hauled ourselves up to the church and then back down again. Of course that only made us hungry and thirsty again...

We dilligently sampled gelato at most of the places recommended on this site. Our favorite was La Sorbeteria on via Castiglioni. Fortunately, we first tried it the last day (had to make two visits!), otherwise I don't know how much gelato we would have consumed there.

Definitely good eating in Bologna!

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I ate at Tamburini's enoteca. I looked at the cafeteria but the overall tone of the place didn't appeal to me. The enoteca was a great way to sample local wines by the glass and get a sampler plate of various meats and cheeses (try the lardo).

Aa for the other places - didn't go to any of them.

Click on my name to bring up my Bologna trip report from 2007

I will be going to Bologna next month and this thread is a godsend for me. I plan to eat my way through town. :-))

oooooh Tamburini is my favorite. I love their meat and cheese platters that come out on a cutting board with wax paper. The ciccioli is my favorite, it's like a crunchy sliced salami, sooooo good. I love the Lambrusco in Bologna, hey Reuniti on ice might be nice, but this was the real deal, LOL!

One word of caution about "eating your way through town"...make reservations!! All of the recommended restaurants that I tried were full very quickly, even if we tried to make reservations as soon as they were open for business. If it is important to you, make reservations as soon as you can.

We leave for Italy tomorrow and have our reservations made for Bologna. I think we will have to try the enoteca at Tamburini.

I'll post a report when I return.

Check out my pics of Bologna including the inside of Tamburini.


http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US

Thanks for the link, Katie, and for the restaurant recs to others on this thread.

We will be in Bologna for a week, arriving on October 18. On this trip we are spending seven of our twenty two days in Italy in Bologna mainly for the food.

I am making a list of recommended restaurants and appreciate all your input.

Cool to see that this was topped. Would love to be headed there now!

Hi K,

Tamburini is a top-notch deli.

Da Cesarina is one of the best restos we have had the pleasure of dining in in Italy.

Nuovi Notai is almost as good.

See my trip report.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

What doe Molto know? He's just a TV personality.

((I))

ira, all printed and ready to go...can't wait!

I spent a few days in Bologna last year. I loved it. We ate at Diana, I didin't think it was that fancy. Certainly a classic. We also ate at Ristorante Franco Rossi, Trattoria Bentivoglio and of course at Tamburini.

I agree that one of the best tings to see in Bologna is the Morandi museum (don't miss it).

A week in Bologna is not long enough.

Here is more Bologna food information (at the end of the trip report) from our trip in early 2006:





http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34743272

ekscrunchy, I had already used your report to make dinner reservations as I know you are a foodie as well:)

We're outta here!