LA VITA È BELLA: Bring on the Minstrels
The first thing that strikes you on entering this Italian restaurant just off Valencia’s main square is the decor. It’s pretty hard to keep your eyes on the menu (or even the wine list) when there is so much to look at all around you. To try and describe it would take up too much space, so let me just mention: wood panelling, ceiling fans, statues, stained glass lamps, decorated mirrors and a minstrel gallery.
Yes, you heard right a minstrel gallery; apparently the restaurant used to be a haberdashery or something and a lot of the décor seems to have been passed on.
With such a visual feast, the food needn’t be so great and yet it is. Simple but very tasty genuine Italian dishes using quality fresh raw materials.
The restaurant is owned by Antonio from Turin, who speaks very good English.
We had a couple of interesting salads with goats’ cheese and various interesting green leaves including mint and something called “rúcola”, which according to my dictionary is ‘arugula’ or ‘rocket’ in English, followed by pasta. If you’ve never tried genuinely fresh pasta then it’s very hard going back to the supermarket stuff afterwards. The various pastas here are served up with excellent sauces and very well presented.
There were various fish, meat and pizza variations, but by that time we had had enough. The wine list includes both Spanish and Italian wines. Expect to pay about 20 Euros and expect to go back frequently.
There is a nice terrace on the pedestrian street outside, and the inside is larger than it looks with a romantic little corner around the corner.
La Vita È Bella: Calle En Llop 4. Telephone: 96-3510737.
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