As we headed south from the Dolomites we came upon the magnificent Lake Garda and the very touristy town of Malcesine on the east shore. We walked away from the tourists and entered through a charming garden to an open setting inside where the restaurant overlooks the town and the entire lake to the opposite shore. We were all enthralled with the view and then the food began to arrive.
Chef Leandro Luppi agreed to open the normally closed restaurant just for our group of 14! We celebrated with a glass of Gorgo Terlato Spumante Brut that had nice medium bubbles as they brought out warm bread with a "fish" butter. As we were on the lake, the local fish is the highlight of this Michelin-starred dining destination and this butter was amazing and reminded us of a cross between butter and tarama-salata, that divine Greek fish-egg spread/dip!
The first amuse was a "Carbona" off egg cream and smoked lavorello(whitefish) a fishy play on the traditional bacon carbona with this fishy egg cream slathered on several pasta shells. The second amuse was no less decadent in the form of a mini-prawn burger with veggie mayo (all photos on FB). More spumante was poured and we moved on to our next wine, a Valbruna Sauvignon Blanc 2022 from Prendina which was refreshing with a hint of citrus. This was paired with a "Fake" Tomato Lake Grada fish tartare made from local char and was indeed a wild creation where the small tomatoes were stuffed with the tartare, yet they seemed like they were not even broken (I have a picture on FB of one tomato broken open showing the tartare!).
Next came the main of Spigola--a Mediterranean sea bass with cherry tomato & basil sauce, shrimp & mussels. The tomato broth was simply divine and the wine was a Gorgo "Summa" 2021 made from Garganega, Ferranda, Trebbiano that was the color of straw and worked amazingly with the broth and fish.
Watermelon sorbet was a palate cleanser before the dessert of dark chocolate mousse with Sherry jelly raspberry, dried cherries and cherry gelee that was gone in seconds. A 2008 Banyuls Baillaury Grand Cru from France was the perfect chocolate pairing wine.
