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San Gimignano: La Mandragola

Reviewed by: David from NY (moderator), review #237

When: 2001

Large seating capacity. Medium priced. Good food – soups, pastas, delicious roast pork with truffles. Good wine list.

We had dinner here with Liz and company. Recommended both by Karen, The Rough Guide and someone else from whom Liz got a recommendation. Nice restaurant for the 8 of us. Large seating capacity. Medium priced. Good food – soups, pastas, delicious roast pork with truffles. Good wine list. We had a terrific ’95 Poliziano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Asinone and a decent Vernaccia (we had to – we were there!). We kept asking different waiters what "mandragola" meant. The best answer we could get was that it’s an herb. "Mandrake" is the translation in Harper Collins. In my Garzanti Italian-Italian dictionary it describes the herb as (my translation) a poisonous one with white flowers and "lanceolate" leaves (whatever that means) to which at one time magical powers were attributed! So I guess that in naming the restaurant La Mandragola, they’re inplying that their cooking has a magical element? Well I wouldn’t go that far, but it was very good.

Reviewed by: Karen from PA, review #236

When: 2000

The only place open on Monday, but quite nice.

Attractive and welcoming with a vast menu of classic Tuscan dishes. With 18 people we tried just about everything and all were pleased, especially with the pasta and truffles. $27 pp.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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San Gimignano: La Mandragola

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