Restaurant visit: Il San Pietro (Positano - IT)

Here I am back the keyboard trying to blog all about the food which we tasted and cooked in the past weeks, which were heavily disrupted (blogging speaking, of course) by the wedding and work. How could we come to Italy and not pay visits to some restaurant? Well, of course we did. So I want to start with the only Michelin starred restaurant we visited: Il San Pietro * ... placed in the San Pietro hotel a couple of kilometers out of Positano.
Why did we choose it? It has a very nice description in the Michelin guide, located very near our hotel, Belgian chef (so intrigued by it) and a menu seeming to scream about fresh products.

The short review
What a waste of time, calories and money this has been! And we even brought my parents along to try and offer them a great meal.

The long review
The restaurant is on a fantastic spot, but the view is wasted. Most tables are inside and the view on the terrace is basically nothing special and mostly dominated by the large pizza oven ... and the pizza is not on the menu! The decor is 'grand' ... in Las Vegas style. Kind of like the Caesar Palace ... statues, fake bronze, etc. etc. Not my taste ... but hey that's personal.

The service ... lot of people. Talking as the place is heaven, but clearly not having a clue about the food itself. Very very fast ... a bit over an hour for a complete meal! Tables not well made ... I mean we were four and I was destined to have a dish completely not fitting with the rest. I know that the famous Vietri China is always different .... but there is always a theme. Service here messed it up.

Ah, and the food ??? Let's go a course a time.

Amuse. A slice of pizza for each of us. Probably the best pizza I have eaten in a long time. But does it fit with a glass of champagne (the aperitif we were suggested)? Not to mention they tend to push people to get a Dom Perignon with it. Besides, a bit too little for a starred place.

First courses. My father and I took paccheri (a large pasta shape) with vongole, patelle and squid. The sound of it is delicious ... the taste ... well, I could barely taste the fish. There was very little in portion as well (was it 5 paccheri?!). Elke and my mum took "Ravioli filled with escarole and scampi on a tomato comfit". No taste of the scampi and the comfit taste killed everything else (it was more like a concentrated tomato juice). Very disappointing.

Second courses. Here it even got worse! My mum and I took red mullet with a squid sauce and fried gnocchi. The sauce was ... well almost absent, but fantastic. The mullet was tasteless and definitively stale and old. The gnocchi disgusting! Must have been some supermarket stuff. My father had rosemary-scented baccala' on polenta and vegetables. The fish tasted ok, the poleta was water (I mean really yellow water like!) and the veggies ... I could not see them. Elke took Seabass with asparagus ... Elke is Belgian and the chef too. They both must know out of years of eating them that white asparagus should be well cooked. Well they were served somewhat raw and crunchy. The fish nothing special. This course is a shame for any Michelin chef.

Dessert. We looked at it, but after two disappointing dishes and seeing some guests not enjoying it, we passed on. Not for us. We told ourself: let's go to Amalfi and get a decent dessert there.

Coffee. No coffee, but we got some little sweets anyway. A chiacchiera (fried pastry) which was horribly oily. Decent chocolate truffle and marshmellow. An horrible lemon whatever.

The positives of this restaurant are its price (not less or more than other restaurants in Positano or Capri) and the wine list (nicely priced and really with interesting wines).

Avoid this place if you can .... their vallet even scratched my dad's car at the guarded parking!! I only once had a similar experience in a starred place (Maison Vandamme) and they lost the star the year after. I wish that "Il San Pietro" either improves or looses it for the sake of everybody visiting such a marvelous spot like Positano.