Ariano Irpino: Very Good, Somewhat Pricey, Restaurant In Central Southern Italy

La Pignata

Viale dei Tigli 7

83031 Ariano Irpino, Italy

Phone number: +39 0825 872571

Website: ristorantelapignata.it

Prices: €€€€

Our camerieri (waiter) Ezio, the owner's son, was quite attentive, maybe overly attentive, as we were one of just three parties in the restaurant for lunch along with my wife and aunt and uncle who live 150 yards away in Ariano, Irpino. My aunt told it that the restaurant was a "cucina casalinga" (literally "home cooking"), so we expected a small, inexpensive place with good food and local wine.

As we entered, I saw several Michelin Guide stickers from recent years on the windows, so I realized that this was not at all a simple, local trattoria with home cooking and probably would not be cheap. The most I have ever paid at Michelin rated restaurants in Italy was about €25 per person, so I figured the tab (which we would be picking up) would come to somewhere between €80 and €100 max, maybe less because we were in the middle of nowhere and the owners were good friends with my aunt and uncle.

The restaurant was quaint, but warm and inviting. A pignata, by the way, is a simple, tall clay jug with large handles on both sides used to drink wine or other liquids. The walls and shelves were adorned with pignate (plural for pignata), copper pots, a double bass (like in an orchestra), an antique wine press, books, bottles of wine, fresh fruit and vegetables and a large blue stained glass wall with the scene of a dear in nature.

We started with mineral water and wine as is tradition in Italy. I asked for a vino locale (local wine), which is normally the house wine, likely made by the family or friends, and routinely quite cheap. What we got was a rather expensive looking bottle of wine, a Benito Ferrara 2014 Aglianico Campania I.G.T. "Passo del Lupo", a dry, smooth wine that is a deep ruby red with the "fragrance of cherries and violets". Made in Tufo, a small town of less than 1,000 between Benevento and Avellino about 30 miles away, I would hardly call that "local". Oh well.

The server told us there were no menus, so he started suggesting antipasti. I understood that he was bringing us a simple prosciutto, salame, and cheese board, but what arrived was much more than I was expecting. He first brought us a simple pizza fritta, a small flattened pizza dough that is deep fried and topped with a dollop of tomato sauce. The massive wooden platter that soon followed was full of antipasti, including crostini (toast) with pancetta cinghiale (wild boar), salsiccia (sausage), salame (salami), prosciutto crudo (raw, cured ham), three types of cheese (fresh mozzarela, a goat cheese, and another I did not recognize), and pancetta lardo (a delicacy of very fatty lightly cured pork belly). He soon followed with a large dish of artichoke hearts marinated in local extra virgin olive oil (EVO) and red onion agrodolce (a sweet and sour vinegar and sugar reduction). It was nearly a meal in itself with the accompanying fresh, local bread.

Then the next antipasto arrived. Beautifully presented in a bowl was a deep fried arancino filled with rice, funghi (mushrooms) porcini, pecorino (goat) cheese, sausage, and truffle carefully placed atop a base of a rich and decadent corn and saffron sauce. It was like no other arancini I have eaten, and I have eaten quite a few, being crispy on the outside, soft and slightly moist on the inside, and the saffron sauce was to die for.

Then the next antipasto arrived. Another one? This was one I would not have ordered, had I ordered it in the first place (which I did not), paccheri (a large tube shaped pasta designed for stuffing) filled with a mixture of bacala (salted, dried cod), yellow tomato, bread crumbs, and "grano Senatore Cappelli" (a hard, old grain originally from Foggia). It tasted like dried cod, not one of my favorite foods because I do not like anything that tastes "fishy" and this was very fishy.

Finally, the primo (first course) arrived, a hand made spinach papperdelle in a porcini mushroom sauce topped with an abundance of very expensive black truffles. It was a small serving, thank God, and was tasty, but somewhat bland and not very hot. I love all of the ingredients, but this dish did not rock my boat.

To top off this massive lunch, Ezio insisted on bringing us their signature secondo (second - meat - course), agnello alle brace (braised lamb chops) in EVO and topped with fresh ruccola. We told him that we were stuffed, but he insisted that I (just me) at least try a small porzione ("portion" - aka one small piece) of their specialty. He arrived shortly thereafter with a plate FULL of braised lamb chops, there must have been at least eight of them and not at all what I would call a porzione. They were delicious as advertized, charred and basted in olive oil, eaten with the hands like fried chicken, never a knife and fork.

When I went to the front to pay the bill, while my aunt and uncle were engrossed in a conversation in the kitchen with his mother, Ezio tapped away on the POS screen, then said "that will be €140". I did not notice if he saw my jaw hit the floor, but I quickly whipped out my trusty Visa and let him swipe away. Do not get me wrong, the lunch was excellent and probably worth every penny, but I felt that he took advantage of the situation just a bit, not necessarily purposely with greedy intent, but by trying to show off for the Americans (at our expense). He poured me a complimentary glass of grappa and told me that the coffee had been included, making feel a little better, very little.

Actually, €35 per person is not a bad price for such a massive and delicious meal at a Michelin Guide rated restaurant. We do not eat at such expensive restaurants every week (hence the blog's name ... TravelValue), but when we do splurge stateside or anywhere else, the bill normally comes to about $100, including a bottle of wine, making La Pignata a pretty good value. The thing that bothered me most was that the waiter brought us much more food than we wanted or ordered, resulting in a deduction of one BOMB in my rating below.

CombatCritic Gives La Pignata 7 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Seven Bombs Equates To:

Read Reviews By CombatCritic:

Yelp - Elite '14/'15/'16/'17

Tabelog - Official Judge (Silver)

Zomato - #1 Ranked "Verified" Foodie





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Read Chris S.'s review of La Pignata on Yelp

Title: Ariano Irpino, Italy: Very Good, Somewhat Pricey, Restaurant In Central Southern Italy

Key Words: La Pignata, la, pignata, Ariano Irpino, Ariano, Irpino, Avellino, Michelin, guide, Campania, Italy, Pompeii, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, review, Yelp

Translation for Civilians: S&G = "Shits & Grins"

Beautiful Michelin Recommended Restaurant Falls Short Of Expectations

Pensione Bencistá

Guest House And Restaurant

Via Benedetto DA Maiano, 4

50014 Fiesole, Italy

Phone: +39 055 59163
Web: bencista.com
Prices: €€€€

This review is on the restaurant only.

Recommended by the Michelin Guide (no Michelin stars) and with rave reviews on TripAdvisor (this was their first review on Yelp), we were eagerly anticipating our 11th Anniversary dinner at Pensione Bencistá's restaurant. Arriving by bus (€1.20/person each way) from our apartment in Florence, it was a short walk down the road from Bus #7's stop "Regresso" following the signs.

The pensione is a beautiful 14th Century villa, overlooking the valley and Florence below. The Duomo and other landmarks are clearly evident from the terrace where we were taken and our reserved table awaited us. The tables were a bit too close to one another and the back of a chair from the table next to us made it awkward to sit comfortably. One of the owners finally moved the table when the guests arrived and it became clear that it was not going to work very well for either party. A nice young lady took our order from the fixed-price (€25 per person) menu with just four primi (pasta) selections and three choices of secondi (meat), including the tagliata (sliced steak - €40/kilo with one kilo minimum).

The wine list was reasonable and we ordered a Syrah (€32) from northern Tuscany which was very good. Wine is extra, but water, dessert, service, and coperto are all included in the fixed-price. The Syrah was good, a robust, deep red with hints of berry, complimenting the meal very nicely.

For our primi (first course), my wife had the penne con zucchini and I had the penne al ragu (meat sauce). They boast about serving only De Cecco pasta on their website which I found a bit odd because De Cecco is good pasta, but it is mass produced, not locally produced or handmade. My wife's pasta with zucchini was swimming in olive oil, a bit off-putting, but otherwise the dish was fair, nothing special, with small chunks of zucchini, onion, and little else. She had to add grated cheese to the dish to give it flavor, something she almost never does at her mother's house in Napoli or in restaurants. My ragu was very good, but like my wife's dish, there was very little pasta and it took little time to consume. Not overly impressive, after all De Cecco is not expensive pasta.

While eating our pasta, the French family next to us received their secondi (main courses), porchetta, which is one of my favorites and not offered to us an as an option by our server. They were also served their contorni individually by the waiter whereas ours would later arrive on our plates from the kitchen. Maybe they were French celebrities we had never heard of, the King of France perhaps? I am joking obviously, but I thought it a bit odd in any case.

When our secondi arrived, there were the potatoes, peperoni (sauteed red bell peppers), and a small portion of melanzane alla parmigiana (eggplant parmigiana) even though I had specified in my reservation that my wife was allergic to tomatoes. We pointed out the faux pas, they apologized, and her plate was removed. My tacchino rollatini arrived shortly thereafter, but we waited and waited, seemingly forever, until her veal sans tomato finally arrived. The owner also asked if we were having the porchetta, but I told him that the server had not given us that option, so he promised to bring a few slices as a courtesy.

The tacchino (turkey breast) was rolled with ham and cheese inside, then lightly pan-fried. It was delicious, but extremely small once again with just one little rolled breast. The potatoes, melanzane, and peppers were all very good as you would expect at any decent restaurant in Italy. The scaloppine was also quite delicious, a reasonable portion, not small, not huge, white and tender as real veal should be. It is just a shame that we could not enjoy our anniversary main courses together.

For dessert we were offered a choice of plum cake, torta di mele (apple pie), or biscotti (hard cookies with almonds) and a small glass of Vin Santo. We shared the torta di mele and biscotti con Vin Santo. The apple pie was simple and tasty, an Italian version slightly similar to American apple pie but drier. The biscotti were good, looking store-bought, and the glass of Vin Santo, a sweet white wine famous in this region, was very small, but big enough to dip the three cookies in as is the tradition. Again, the French family received dessert and something we were not offered by our server, fruit and cheese. Why our server failed to tell us about the additional options for secondi and dolce (dessert) is still a mystery.

For the price, the meal was good and a fair value in Florence where comparable fixed-price meals start in the €30 to €40 range (including wine however). The setting idyllic, a beautiful ancient villa with an incredible view, the experience was better than the meal alone. The food was very average, with very few basic selections and small portions. The service was very friendly and punctual, but the numerous mistakes detracted greatly from our overall experience, particularly being our wedding anniversary.

Recommendations for a better experience:

1)      Handmade pasta or a least a top-quality, local pasta like Pastificio Chelucci for example

2)     Much less olive oil in pasta dishes

3)     Better consistency in the treatment of guests, making sure all options are available to everyone, not a select few

4)     Slightly larger portions

5)     Attention-to-detail. When someone has a food allergy, it is critical that they are not served the food in question

Keep in mind I am comparing this dining experience to establishments with similar formats and prices in Italy, for example, Incontro in Ariano Irpino where the same €25 fixed-price meal has five abundant, delicious courses (choice of meat or fish, two antipasti, primo, secondo, contorni, and dessert - pastas are made in-house), including all the wine/water you require, coffee, limoncello, service, and coperto. When comparing Pensione Bencistá to Hotel Incontro's superb restaurant (10 Bombs Out Of 10) and other excellent restaurants we have tried around the world, we enjoyed our meal well enough with the result being …

CombatCritic Gives Pensione Bencistá 6 Bombs Out Of 10 … More Bombs Are Better!

Read More Reviews By CombatCritic On Yelp - "Elite '14/'15" - And On TripAdvisor - "Top Contributor" - And Don't Forget To Subscribe To TravelValue TV on YouTube

Title: Beautiful Michelin Recommended Restaurant Falls Short Of Expectations

Key Words: Michelin, Pensione Bencistá, pensione, Bencistá, Fiesole, Florence, Firenze, Tuscany, Toscana, Italy, restaurant, villa, anniversary, fixed, price, travel, value, Yelp, TripAdvisor, star