Osteria Francescana - MODENA

I went to Osteria Francescana on a trip to Italy with my culinary school. It was the most amazing night. Not only were the food and the service first...

Questa ricompensa ci rende ancora più fieri di essere italiani (soprattutto emiliani!!!). Un grande tributo a un vero genio... In attesa di...

Osteria Francescana is an experience that can not be fully described, it needs to be lived. Upon arrival, guests are welcomed and served by an elegant, skilled, kind, professional, and extremely prepared staff, that will guide and advise you during your permanence. Each dish is presented as a journey inside the chef's mind and vision, and the tasting menu particularly which I highly advise to try describes an entire cooking philosophy. Chef Bottura's dishes are exquisitely unique, and represent an Italian food experience like no other. I can't wait to see where his genius, accompanied and supported by a team of visionaries, will take him next.

Expectations were high, but they were met. Massimo dropped in to say hi on a Wednesday lunch sitting. Service was flawless, and dishes spoke for themselves. Gift on the way out was a nice touch.

I was so excited to eat here, but unfortunately it was very disappointing. We got the tasting menu, and while the food was good overall, considering the price and comparing it with our experiences at other world famous restaurants (like El Celler de Can Roca, Noma, 11 Madison Park, etc) it just was not worth the money. While a lot of the dishes were innovative, some of them were just not that tasty. I am all about innovative dishes and ingredients, as long as they still taste good. But some of these did not. Especially the quasi uno spaghetto and the tomato dessert were pretty inedible for me. The final main, which was a play on steak actually a small piece of lettuce with gravy on it was also deeply disappointing. That said, we did order one of their signature dishes as an additional course, the five ages of Parmesan. This was fantastic. Although the waiter actually tried to persuade us not to order this, because he warned that then we might not have enough room to finish our meal. On that note, my partner and I enjoy eating small portions, and often find it difficult to finish whole meals. We normally eat around half of a standard restaurant portion for a meal. That said, we finished this whole meal with ease, including the additional course. So for most people we think it would actually be quite a small amount of food overall. Considerably less than a standard four course meal at a basic Italian restaurant. There are also no cocktails available, just wines. To anyone else coming here I would advise them to skip the tasting menu and instead just order the great dishes which made this place famous in the first place.