Réva

We loved the bistro food, some of the best we’ve tasted. The Parmentier Cream, Smoked Pasta and Morone fish were all delicious and refined, which makes sense since the kitchen is shared with the One star restaurant. The waitress was excellent. Just a small gripe: the house white was very good, but far too expensive for such a small pour. Grazie

We’d mainly come for the restaurant, which we thought was good value, but left with mixed feelings. The food was high quality, though the attempt at avant garde new flavour combinations felt overdone to us. It didn’t feel like an Italian restaurant, more Italian dishes “revus et corrigés” by a French chef with a modern take on an approach à la Escoffier. My wife and I didn’t enjoy it much; the flavours felt unbalanced and didn’t complement each other. Maybe the absence of Yannick Alléno, who was looking after another of his many restaurants, had something to do with it. The pastry chef was the saving grace: his chocolate bar with pollen was outstanding, though that alone may not make the visit worthwhile. The setting was very bare, aiming for minimalist but coming across as cheap, and the plastic seat covers got sticky after a while. In a starred restaurant? The bathroom was dirty in mid-morning, and the bin was overflowing with old sanitary products. How does that happen in a Michelin star restaurant? The young sommelier, Salvatore delle Donne, was especially welcoming, knowledgeable, passionate, interesting, well travelled and courteous. Despite his improbable name, he recommended delicious wines, especially a very good value Barbera from Elio Grassi. The hotel itself was overall very disappointing. I booked directly, then found out later I’d paid 30% more than through online booking sites. They know about the difference and offer a small rounding-out discount if you book non-refundable. On a grey day, the relatively new building’s grey colour felt unwelcoming. It sits halfway down a sort of basin without views, and there was hardly any cell signal. There’s no TV, and the walls are paper thin, seriously. Our room was small, with a tiny but clean bathroom. The shower was so small I could turn around in it. Soundproofing was nonexistent: noise from rooms above, below and beside us carried through, and people in the corridor sounded like they were inside our room. Creepy. Heating and A/C worked well. Staff were generally professional and welcoming. The “spa” felt like an accident waiting to happen. There’s no handrail for getting in and out of the jacuzzi, and the floor is slippery barefoot. I got a second degree burn on my ankle from the badly designed steam outlet, which shoots out a dangerous jet while you’re trying to work out the hand shower. When I mentioned it, the person at reception casually said, “ah, but it’s never happened before...” There was no apology, offer to help, medical help, or urgency about fixing it. I said problems should be fixed before they turn into accidents, but they didn’t seem to understand or care, or read the comments sheet I handed in when we left. Although we’d booked our visit, the sauna and hammam were cold, and the sauna had no water bucket or ladle. There were no towels in the pool or spa areas. The pool and jacuzzi bubble jets switch off quickly, so you have to keep pressing the button to turn them back on. Don’t take children there, the spa and pool entrances aren’t secured. Breakfast was good and plentiful, though the coffee didn’t meet Italian standards. I think this avant garde place, as it describes itself on its website, risks taking too many chances and getting squashed by trying too hard to be innovative. A restaurant visit without staying at the hotel might be acceptable for more adventurous diners. Maybe we just caught them on a bad day.

The dishes looked great, and the cook clearly takes care with how they leave the kitchen. Well done! The food quality was good, and the brand new restaurant, opened in October 2016, is gorgeous. It’s in a valley, with vineyards on one side and forest on the other, so there’s no view from the place, though the website has some really cool 360-views. Service was okay, but if one person finished, their dishes were taken away while others at the same table were still eating. We had to pour our own water and wine. If you like XXL portions, you’ll be disappointed. The price is why I rated it poorly: we paid 251€ for four people and two bottles of wine, which felt like too much for what we got, with no view, service or quantity to make up for it.

The hotel looks very good when you first arrive and the accommodation is nice, but there are some real flaws. The pool and spa have no lifeguard, and they don’t open until 10:30 am, which is way too late and not good if you’re an early riser. There’s no conditioner in the bathroom for washing your hair. The restaurant is quite good, with yummy food and a good wine selection, but it’s completely closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. That leaves you having to drive out at night on the hillside roads, which is hard because they’re tricky. The hotel was nice otherwise, but the receptionist was quite rude.