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Perugia: La Piazzetta

Via Deliziosa 3/5 , Phone: 075.5736012
www.lapiazzettaperugia.com

Reviewed by: Jeff Whiteaker from Slovakia, review #3838

When: 2011

Wildly inconsistent dining experience, but the bad points of the meal were bad enough to make us never want to return.

This was the first time my wife and I had ever been to Perugia. There weren't as many restaurant reviews to go on as in other cities, like Florence, so we were at a bit of a disadvantage. When we met the guy we were renting the apartment from, we made sure to get a few restaurant recommendations from him. Asking the locals where they eat is always the way to go, right? Er, well, not in this case.

So, we went to La Piazzetta (apartment rental guy's favorite restaurant), and things actually started off pretty well. The waiter was this super sweet 18 year old kid who went out of his way to be helpful and friendly, while the owner of the place kept barking orders at him. The antipasti were actually quite good. We had crostini with ham of smoked duck and assorted wild mushrooms, which was possibly the best thing we ate that night. Expertly prepared and bursting with flavor. We also ordered these little ricotta-filled crepe-like things with black truffle shavings and porcinis, which were also quite tasty. Expectations were high for what was to come next.

But things fell apart rapidly with the abysmal pasta dishes. My tagliolini with funghi porcini had zero porcini flavor, and even worse, the porcini were not fresh, not dried, but apparently once-fresh porcinis that had been frozen, giving them an unappetizingly slimy texture. The pasta itself had a strange burnt flavor to it. Possibly the worst pasta of the entire trip. My wife's pasta with potato, leeks, and black truffle shavings was curiously bland, with nary a trace of that black truffle flavor. The sauce was like some uber-bland mystery sauce. Hugely disappointing. This experience suddenly made us worry about our prospects for finding some decent food in Perugia. This also taught us that asking the locals can sometimes backfire.

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

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Perugia: La Piazzetta

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