The best Italian chefs: Valentino Marcattilii, San Domenico restaurant review

Spending an evening at the San Domenico restaurant is always a great pleasure: it’s like entering a haute cuisine temple. It’s not for nothing it is a two Michelin star restaurant.

Every little detail is designed to make you feel special, the mise en place is impeccable, the quality of all the ingredients is commendable, the care put into preparing each dish is astonishing, but above all is the constant search for perfection in every small gesture to impress (eyes and palate).

The first thing to do when you sit down is to sample the marvelous butter with delicious bread. A simple approach, but already from this delicious flavor, you understand what turn will take the dining experience.

About the ingredients: nothing is left to chance, you will find plenty of treasures from Romagna and Emilia and delicacies such as truffles and foie gras, which, by the way, are used wisely and never to be pretentious.

What we like to emphasize is the constancy, the continuity of the “kitchen project” and the research that lies behind every San Domenico recipes. The kitchen is, as always, entrusted to Executive Chef Valentino Marcattilii, but from few years his grandson Massimiliano Mascia joined him with brilliant results.

The style of the San Domenico’s cuisine is classic, sumptuous, fruit of lifetime experimentation, but also of aesthetic research that culminates in dishes with incredible flavors, full of nuances, enriched with brilliant insights,

Take the veal cheeks with fossa cheese, for example, it’s a plate of silent simplicity but ennobled by the unique taste of the great pit cheese of Sogliano.

As local director, we find the owner, Gianluigi Morini, a true living culinary encyclopedia, who is always a pleasure to chat with.

Two words about the menu

The classic menu is a journey through San Domenico history and at the cost of 150 € is more than adequate. But you’ll find plenty of promotions, like menus for business lunches, menus for couples who want to celebrate an important event and the “70s menu”, 70 € for all the persons born in this decade, in honor of the birth of the restaurant in the 70s.

Dishes you must eat before you die

The most famous and celebrated is uovo in raviolo a triumph of all the autumn flavors and one of the most brilliant food invention of all times.

The carré of Mora Romagnola pig is well worth a quarter of an hour of your life.

Risotto mantecato with toasted onions and gravy is pure poetry, while the eggplant parmesan, with mozzarella and amberjack will amaze you with its delicacy.

Smooth and hearty is a new entry: red potato gnocchi with Arnad lard broad beans and cherry tomatoes confit with thyme.

And to finish on a sweet note, an evergreen like the Florentine chocolate cake with gold leaf should never miss.

Notes

The wine list and cellar, which you can visit, are the dream of every wine connoisseur, with wines from around all the world, with absurd vintages.

Not to mention that there is an impressive spirit and liqueur selection.

The choice of wine by the glass often changes and adapts to the needs of the menus, with special attention to the boutique wineries from Romagna.

On a 1-10 scale is near the perfection with a sound 9,5.

The service, managed by Natalino Marcattilii, is impeccable, precise and thoughtful, one of the strengths of this restaurant that makes elegance its focal point, both in the presentation of the dishes that the service.

The seats are 50, divided among elegant private rooms and intimate, well-spaced tables. During summer the dehors overlooking the garden of the complex of the San Domenico church is one more reason to return.

The restaurant San Domenico is located in Via Sacchi, 1, Imola, Bologna.
Phone: 0542 29000
The restaurant is open every day except Sunday evening and Monday.
Price menu: € 70-150