Hungry for pizza and carbonara, I was looking for the best Italian restaurant in Seville. A town known for its food, and proximity to Italy itself, my expectations were high for this highly-ranked TripAdvisor restaurant.
Upon entering, this building is magnificent. As told by the waitress, this was an old bank that shippers would use to deposit their money. The architecture is stunning. If you are not hungry, you should at least check this dining room out with a glass of wine and take in its beauty.
Where the building was gorgeous to look at, the food was another story. I take is this place is living off it’s old glory years and taking advantage of its location and architecture, rather than focusing on the kitchen and perfecting Italian dishes.
The prices were very reasonable for this place. However, I would rather have paid more money for better quality Italian food – and expected a higher price given the location and setting of this place.
Did I mention I really liked the architecture? 🙂
I started off with my favorite dish, Spaghetti Carbonara. If a ‘popular’ Italian restaurant can properly make this dish, then it deserves more stars.
This particular dish deserves ZERO stars. And whoever cooked this in the back should just stop making Italian food… or at the least fly to Rome and understand what Spaghetti Carbonara should taste like.
What came out of the kitchen looked to be a bowl of unflavored cooked noodles, thrown into a pan of cream and mixed for 5 seconds. The cream is all at the bottom with the dry spaghetti on top, and some cheap pork bacon on top. If you are this close to Italy, and have a ‘top rated’ Italian restaurant, why not at least serve some authentic guanciale versus cheap pork bacon.
While I can probably count on both hands how many dishes I have ever sent back to the kitchen in my lifetime, this was one of them. I refused to subject myself to eating bland, dry noodles, with a puddle of cream at the bottom of the bowl. So I pushed the dish aside and told the waitress ‘this was horrible’. At least they refunded me the cost – which was not the point… I really just wanted a great Carbonara to eat.
My second dish was the pizza. Thankfully, the kitchen redeemed itself and did not completely ruin this authentic Italian dish. While the dough and crust were cooked perfectly crisp, the ingredients were not good quality and tasted like cheap pepperoni and sausage you find at a basic grocery store.
To finish off this (poor) experience, I decided to give the cannoli’s a try. These were ok. The taste was good, but the shells had been refrigerated and were not that fresh crispy taste you get from a bakery.
Rating = 1 Star
Overall, this place deserves 1-star for its well-kept architecture building. As for its food – I recommend not to waste your time and eat authentic Italian food somewhere else.
I will not be back.
Acquiring miles & points for lifetime experiences to blog about 