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I’m a fan! This is all that I can say. Not a fan of the clothing brand but a fan of their restaurants visiting every time I have the chance, especially in Paris and Milano. I’ve been to the cafe two times already enjoying their signature saffron risotto and pasta dishes among many others. This time, I’m trying the Armani hotel for the first time and the first impression rocks! Excellent service, amazing amenities, and outstanding technologies all under one roof; let’s have lunch at the restaurant.
Choose the cafe down on the street or the restaurant up on the 7th floor by the hotel lobby. Walk through the lounge where a DJ plays soothing tunes for a drink at the bar. Open the glass door and access the restaurant. Enjoying the sunset over Milano at eight thirty in the evening, dinner couldn’t be better.
Glass, yellow-lit stones, reflective materials, and stainless steel; the floor covered with white and black tiles, modern and classy with a touch of luxury, the restaurant is soothing for the body. Round or square tables, choose your preferred choice and lay back to enjoy.
On the menu: two tasting menus for 150 or 240 euros. Starters, pasta, meat, and chicken dishes. The menu is complicated! Way too complicated for an Italian restaurant. Frogs, snails, suck, red shrimp, mackerel, tuna belly, caviar... people searching for simple food can’t find a choice for them.
Dinner starts with four kinds of amuse-bouche: four kinds representing the four Armani restaurants around the world. Start with a seafood inspired bite from Tokyo, a taco from New York, falafel from Dubai, and macarons from Milano. Excellent! Delicious creations where balance, texture, and flavors merge. A crunchy taco with avocado cream, gourmet falafel bites, shrimp toast, and sweet macarons.
Super fluffy, extremely airy, thick and moist bread with crunchy borders served with Armani’s olive oil; a great start!
Dinner:
- Corzetti: hommage pasta, rooster combs, Breton lobster, lobster bisque. Super duper complicated, a million flavors on one plate, sweet and sour, meaty and fresh at the same time, pasta in circular shapes cooked al dente bathing in a juice reduction and topped with lobster chunks.
- Mazara red shrimp, carrot, passion fruit, ginger, lukewarm butter: a yellow plate, circular shaped, containing one big sized ravioli covered with a fruity sauce and stuffed with red shrimp. Complicate but tasty.
The main dishes: tasty gourmet food. Saffron risotto with a crunch, served with a side of acidic bone marrow that gives a lemony touch to every bite. Pacchero cooked al dente with monkfish, madras curry, pineapple, coriander, and raisin; a beautiful balance of flavors and textures and that subtle sweetness the pineapples add.
Good food; but honestly not something I would crave again. It’s clear that The Armani Restaurant is aiming for a Michelin Star that they will unfortunately not get any time soon -in my opinion. Complicated flavors, a bit overpriced; next time I’ll have dinner at the cafe below. 300€ for four persons, no wine and no dessert! That’s a bit too much.
