Vineria.It

April 2011

It all fell into place. The great food, the authentic cucina atmosphere, the good service, the astoundingly brilliant ingredients. This wasn’t just a nice little new Italian restaurant (goodness knows, KL has enough of those), this was something a little above the ordinary. How had it escaped our attention?

A brief visit to their website to check the contact details for this review and suddenly it all made sense. Under their ‘The Theatre’ section (‘About Us’ would have sufficed but never let it be said Italians don’t appreciate good drama), it is revealed that the individuals behind Vineria.It were at legendary Italian eatery and long-time TOKL favourite, Neroteca, until they sold up in 2008.

The pedigree was evident in every dish. Our group was shortly tucking into aged Cecina beef ham, rock melon, venison Bresaola, bruschetta, black angus beef Carpaccio and goat (yes, goat) salami. And that, literally, was just for starters.

Our vegetarian had little choice but to go for the Vegetariana pizza, which to be fair she raved about. The rest of us virtually inhaled plates containing items such as a rich creamy pesto fusilli, a flavoursome and aromatic salmon steak with lentils and especially the duck and foie gras sausages, fried with rosemary and garlic and served alongside sauteed French beans.

By virtue of the atmosphere and company (and two bottles of a mindblowing cabernet shiraz zinfandel from Chile) we were there long enough to regain our appetites to close the meal the only fitting way: a tiramisu. They have two versions and unless you really love coconut and rum, swerve that one and instead spend your time with the traditional selection, presented with Sicilian marsala and espresso ristretto. Bellissimo. Michelle Whytcross