Description: The Hotel Ritz recommended this restaurant, and it turned out to be a nice experience. The total package is romantic--dim lighting, rustic decor (marble-topped farmhouse tables, rush-caned chairs), local "comfort" food of Tuscany. As is true of most Italian dining rooms, this restaurant runs at a leisurely pace, allowing couples time to look into one another's eyes over a glass of lovely house wine ($4.50 for a half liter).
Italians and tourists alike were dining there on the night we went--it was full by 9:00. The menu featured lots of meat (pork ribs, chicken, sirloin, mixed Tuscan sausages, tripe, duck), but Dave and I found plenty of "fish-etarian" items. We started with the yummy pappa al pomodoro (tradition Tuscan peasant soup made with day-old bread, tomatoes, basil, and garlic) and sottolio (marinated cooked vegetables--olives, artichokes, red pepper, and little onions). The vegetables were a little high on the vinegar content.
For our secondi piatti, Dave had the lasagna with wild porcini--a small rectangle of 13 (yes, we counted) layers of thin pasta filled with white sauce and porcini (SCRUMPTIOUS, but rather small), and I had the asparagus flan, a fritatta, really, that was very nice but too salty.
The service was leisurely but polite. The girl behind the front counter told us that I'Francescano was under new ownership as of January 2001. I'm not sure that their chef was tasting what he or she was serving, though.
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