PUMPKIN SOUP!

Winter Garden by Caino is a one star Michelin restaurant located in St. Regis Hotel Florence. You can have an unforgettable Tuscany tasting experience at Winter Garden. Chef Valeria Piccini also has another Michelin starred restaurant and she comes to Winter Garden three times a week. Unfortunately, she was not present when we were there.

Ambiance

The ambiance was quite fascinating. It feels like you are in a magical garden surrounded by flowers all around. The ceiling was so high, you don’t feel you are in a closed room. A huge chandelier was hanging from the ceiling, building a magnificent ambiance. The lighting was dim and romantic. There were special rooms separated by a curtain where you could dine in isolation. There was live piano playing all night. It was extremely pleasing and harmonious with the ambiance. The restroom was wide and clean as well.

Taste     

“Tasting menu by Caino” mostly consisted of traditional Tuscan dishes. One of them being the Tuscan bread, it was baked in-house. Tuscan bread lacks salt, consisting of only three ingredients; flour, yeast and water. The other bread was foccacio, brown bread and a pizza-like bread with tomatoes on top. Foccacio was really salty. Although the pizza-like bread was tasty, it was very fatty as well. I have been informed by the staff that it was made from fifty years aged yeast. A very delightful olive oil accompanied the bread, which was made from three different kinds of olive.

Amuse bouche was my least favorite course in the tasting menu, a grilled tuna with tomato sauce and onion. The taste was mediocre.

You start off your main courses with a revised “Pappa al Pomodoro”. I have been informed that it was the new recipe of the chef. I found it very innovative and delicious. It mainly consisted of the very harmonious ingredients; tomato sauce, garlic bread, toasted bread and basil.

The next course was grilled scallops accompanied with mashed potato, mashed green peas and lemon. Peas and potatoes were a great couple to accompany scallops. Extra peas sauce came in a gravy boat so that you can pour the sauce as much as you want.

After this, linguine pasta with red prawns was served with a celery sauce and garnished with almonds. The linguine was perfectly al dente cooked, still being a bit firm.

The following dish was a loin of pork braised at low temperature. It was served with fennel, raspberries and a crumble of special Tuscan “finocchiona” salami. The crispiness at the top of the pork was incredible. The sauce of the pork was obtained while cooking the pork with its fat and bones. I prefer my fennel a bit undercooked but this one was too firm for me to eat. Raspberry sauce was quite creative and it was a good pairing with the pork.

Sorbet with mango gel and milk cream was extremely impressive. Indeed, a very smooth and a refreshing taste. The dessert of pineapple, coconut and rum was a great finish. The top of it was caramelized and served with a coconut ice cream. Petite fours had many different varieties, however, I didn’t find them all very tasty. The looks were much better than the taste. I loved the fact that there were some fruits such as raspberry, blueberry and cranberry. There was a different selection of chocolates flavored with mango, jasmine, white and pistachio. Their taste was mediocre like the macaron and lemon tart.

I drank a very good white tea with a rose aroma and was able to see the tea selection from the menu. My advice for the restaurant would be to bring a separate plate to put the tea bag afterward.

Creativity 

I found some combinations of the ingredients very creative. Pork with a raspberry sauce, linguine with celery sauce and grilled scallops with green peas sauce was very creative and well combined. The presentation of the dishes was just average in terms of creativity but they were still pleasing to the eye. “Pappa al palmodoro” was the most creative dish in the tasting menu and also very experimental. If you didn’t know what it was, you could easily think that it was a cheesecake.

In terms of the decoration, it was a charming idea to make the place look like a winter garden.

Service 

Service was excellent with a first class hospitality. Dishes were explained in great detail. The staff was cheerful and kind all the time. After each and every course they asked whether we enjoyed our food. Olive oil on the plate was renewed constantly.

It was very easy to make the reservation from the website. You may also find the menu and prices.

Value

Taking the quality of the dishes into account, the tasting menu by Caino was of great value. The price per person was EUR 95. I was very satisfied at the end of the tasting experience. I highly recommend you to not to eat a lot of bread.

Our sommelier recommended a Contrada Guardiola Sicilia IGP 2011; a great wine from Mount Etna with lots of minerals. He was well informed of the wines.