Fondo San Benedetto

Excellent.

Top-notch.

The setting is lovely, and the complimentary plate of fritters and galani was good. They also served the pastries nicely with the cake we brought from home, and the coffee, bowl of raisins, and grappa on the table were good. The vegetables were adequate, but we skipped the main course because the choice was so limited: one appetizer, two first courses, and just a slice of meat as the main. The appetizer was mixed cold cuts with cheese and jam, all standard products. The cheese portion was a little square with a teaspoon of jam, tasty but meager, and a couple of pickles would have helped. The vegetarian appetizer took a long time. We were told they were making a small herb omelette and reheating herb focaccia, but what arrived was two little pieces of cheese, jam, and a few mandarin segments. The tagliatelle with duck sauce tasted quite good, though the pasta was thick maltagliati rather than the long, thin tagliatelle I remember. The radicchio risotto had no flavor at all. After all these years they still have no POS, and they don't seem interested in getting one. Someone should look into it. If people ask me, I'll tell them not to go. There's a lot of talk and not much action.

The homemade wine, oil, liqueurs, flour, and other products are a real highlight, alongside the excellent Venetian cooking. The farmhouse is set among the Veneto countryside, close to major roads, and makes a lovely place to stay. It’s about thirty kilometers from the sea and twenty from the Euganean Hills.