Andreina Di Bartolini Ave C - LORETO

Culinary experience: 5+star, chef is amazing Service instead was poor, definitely not appropriate for such a place and considering the important bill at the end of the meal

Very much a hidden gem in Loreto. Outside dining in an enclosed and shaded courtyard with interesting night time illumination. A long and outstanding service of courses over four hours, leaving after midnight. Not to be hurried but to savoured over a long and leisurely evening. An excellent selection of wines or let them choose two or three glasses for you, selected to enhance the dishes. Not cheap but what you would expect for fine dining. Highly recommended.

All in all a positive experience but there needs to be work on the menu. Staff excellent and discreet and very helpful and courteous. The menu itself was a bit confusing this year. They listed three different tasting menus but no a la carte menu instead the main menu was like a pick and mix; one could choose an antipasto and a pasta primo) dish from any of the tasting menus and then go to the main menu for the main course. In this sense there was a lack of choice because one was constrained to follow the tasting menus. We went for the pick and mix option and chose from the tasting menus and then a main course. What can I say? We have eaten in 1,2 and 3 star Michelin restaurants so we have a good idea what the standards are. The presentation of each dish was excellent in appearance. Many of the dishes were very pleasant but there were far too many of them! Too many starters so that by the time we arrived at the pasta type course primo) we already felt somewhat saturated with tastes and quantity. Subsequently by the time we got to the main course our energy was flagging and so too our ability to appreciate what was being served. Did they want to demonstrate their ability to produce many dishes? In my opinion it was overkill. We were there for over 4 hours for dinner and in the end felt we needed to get through it. Generally we find wherever we eat in a Michelin there is one dish we do not like but on this occasion there were three which I find excessive. The odd combination of some dishes did not appeal to us but we accept that Michelin quality restaurants aim to challenge clients at times. The most disappointing dish was the pheasant faraona) which was a bit of pheasant on the bone with very little taste and said nothing. This was below standard. The best dishes were certainly some of the starters and the ventresca di tonno main course). Wines good. Ratings: service excellent, food good, value for money good.

Very very nice service, despite the fact that we came late to a reservation spontaneously made by jumping into their kitchen before they opened. The food was extraordinary as to be expected from a 1 star Michelin, the wine selection great and they were not greedy at all. The menu even included aspects of molecular kitchen ... Furthermore To be highlighted: these people accepted our relaxed outfits we were just driving through Loreto ... Worth the price even when just in the area and in the mood for a special dinner experience during a nice Italian holiday.

Maybe it was because it was Sunday lunch, but the front of house service fell short of the standards experienced on two previous visits. The quality of food coming from the kitchen remains excellent, but service was not up to a Michelin standard. We asked for menus in English. Two of us were given the summer menu (I suspect) and one was handed a winter menu, so we couldn't coordinate what to order. Our request for an Italian menu was never fulfilled. We had to wait at least 30 minutes between our appetizer and pasta courses with no-one seeming to pay our table any attention. No apologies for this delay were forthcoming. On previous visits, and knowing our preferred language is English, dropped plates were described in English but on Sunday each dish was described by waitstaff in Italian. We had to ask for a second bottle of wine and when opened it was not offered to the host for tasting. It seems churlish to point out such service shortcomings when the the food was excellent, but it is such small things that make the difference between a good and great restaurant.