L’Olivo - 2 Michelin Star - Anacapri
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, if I finished the rest of the report before I left for our Marathon Weekend trip, I would post at least the Michelin Star restaurant reviews from our trip to Italy.
My husband and I took our first trip to Italy between October 4th and October 15th, 2017. We stayed for 4 Nights in Positano at the Le Agavi Hotel, 2 Nights at the Grand Hotel Quisisana in Capri and 3 Nights at the Hotel Majestic in Rome. The trip was absolutely amazing and I have such high praise for Tauck! We will be traveling with them again in 2019 on a 13 Day Tour of Normandy, Brittany, Paris & The Loire Valley which we will add on a weekend in
Disneyland Paris to at the end as it is the Disneyland Paris Half Marathon weekend. While I know we could do Europe cheaper on our own - it was so nice to travel without having to think and being able to get access to things without worrying about it - like our after hours tour of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums, an amazing guided tour of Pompeii, luggage taken room to room as we changed hotels, and more. I posted some of my photos on Facebook if you are friends with me there or I posted highlight each day on Instagram.
On our 2nd night in Capri, it was one of the few evenings of the tour where dinner was not arranged for us and we would be on our own. As you are told what nights are on your own, I had taken the time to do some research of what was available and discovered there was a 2 Michelin Star restaurant on the island of Capri. I knew it would be an expensive meal but it didn’t take much to convince my husband that we should try this type of meal as we’ve enjoyed wine dinners in the past and this would be the next step up in a dining experience.
We took a taxi from the town of Capri to the higher area of the island, a town called Anacapri. We arrived 45 minutes early for our dinner reservation (true Dis_Yoda fashion) so we decided to take a look at the bar of the Capri Palace hotel and get a pre-dinner cocktail. The bar was very artistic, a theme that went throughout the hotel as similar decor was in L’Olivo when we arrived there. I ordered a wonderfully refreshing blue cocktail while my husband was classy and had a Diet Coke. They also provided us with some bar snacks and took our name. The bar snacks were a nice addition but we tried not to eat too much of the lovely cashews and potato crisps. We were shocked when they brought out another plate of food to us but as they had our name, they knew we would be dining on the other side of the hotel that evening and it was a welcome due to that. We knew at that point, we would be in for a long evening of wonderful food! Of the welcome appetizers, my husband and I both loved the meatball and the pasta. The seafood cannoli was an interesting experience that I’m still not sure over 2 months later if I liked it or if I didn’t. I did not eat the slider but my husband enjoyed his.
Cocktail - Sparkling Wine, Blue Curacao, Vodka, Sparkling Water, Lemon
Bar Snacks - Olives, Cashews, Potato Crisps
Welcome Appetizers from L’Olivo - Crab Slider, Seafood Cannoli, Lamb Meatball, Pasta w/ Chili and Garlic
We closed our tab and headed off the patio inside towards L’Olivo. They took my sweater at the podium and we were lead inside a white dining room and were sat in the middle section towards a window. It gave us a great view of the place so we could enjoy some people watching as well. I’m sure though if people looked at my husband and I, we were the fish out of water. (We also were the fish out of water on our Tauck Tour by age & occupations since we’re in our early 30s and have jobs that pay each of us less than 6 figures - no speciality doctors or lawyers here! - I’m sure it's going to be even worse on our next tour we just booked yesterday for 2019 as it’s a 13 day France tour)
Place Setting
In addition to the regular menu, we were also given a water menu. I had to laugh when my husband posted on facebook “This place has a water menu of over twenty options. I might be in over my head on this one…” This gave us great insight on the salt content of waters. We apparently like our waters ‘salty’ as our normal selections were on the higher end of the scale. We selected an Italian Sparkling Water that we hadn’t tried before since why order something we could get at home? We also ordered a white wine from Italy that at this point, I have no idea what the name of it is.
Menu
After we made our selections from the menu, deciding to order two courses off the menu instead of doing one of the prix fixe selections, we were brought out an amuse bouche that was delightful. The amberjack was fried to perfection and the cheese underneath really worked. Usually you keep cheese and fish far away from each other but in this instance, it worked.
Amuse Bouche - Crispy Amberjack w/ Pecorino Sauce
My first course was a rich soup. I’ll admit it was weird to have ‘spring’ onions in the middle of fall but they tasted still in season. The cold tuna worked well with the warm luxurious soup.
Spring Onion Velvet Cream w/ Prikly Lettuce, Red Tuna Fish Tartare, Lime and Chives
My husband went with a pasta for his first course. The red prawns were plentiful on top of the fresh burrata and pasta. The red prawns were plentiful and worked well with the lemon pasta. Something about Italy and how amazing their lemons are makes me sad for the lemons I have here in Naples!
Lemon Scented Homemade Tagliolini Pasta w/ Burrata Cheese, Sea Asparagus, Oyster Leaf and Red Prawns
I’m sure it will shock no one that has been a reader of my reports that I ordered the duck. Duck is my favorite meat to eat but my least favorite to cook at home! This duck was perfection. The spring onions ravioli were a nice twist for the dish and executed nicely. I wish there were more of them!
Smoked Duck Breast w/ Carrots Cream, Celery, and Spring Onions “Ravioli”
My husband shocked me when he ordered the lamb entree. My husband has never liked lamb much when its been served to him previously. You could imagine my shock when the conversation went like this:
Mr. Dis_Yoda: “This may be my 2nd favorite thing in the world”
Dis_Yoda: “What’s your favorite thing in the world?”
Mr. Dis_Yoda: “You because you brought me here so I could eat this lamb”
I think he liked it
I didn’t even get to steal a bite!
Lamb Loin w/ Stewed Chard, Chickpeas, Liquorice Powder & Saffron Scented Rice
After our entrees, we then got to embark on what I’m going to call a study in desserts or how one orders a single dessert and you end up with 5!
Dessert Menu
After we ordered our dessert selections, we were brought the amuse bouche of the desserts. The cashew ice cream was rich but the lightness of the cake cut that richness well.
Dessert #1 - Cashew Ice Cream, White Chocolate Cake
Not knowing I was going to have cashew ice cream prior to this course, I had selected the Hazelnut dessert. The panna cotta was light, filled with hazelnut flavor. I had ordered it as I thought it would be a very light dessert after the heaviness of the meal and it was that so I was happy.
Dessert #2 (Dis_Yoda’s) - Hazelnut, Panna Cotta, Sable’, Black Chocolate and Caramel Sauce
My husband has not met a brownie he didn’t like so you can imagine I wasn’t shocked at all that he ordered the brownie based dessert. This was dense and rich! He was happy that there was the fruit sorbet to help cut that but he reached “full” really quickly with this dessert.
Dessert #2 (Mr. Dis_Yoda’s) - Chocolate & Passion Fruit - Milk chocolate Mousse, Nuts Brownie, Passion Fruit & Tropical Fruit Sorbet
So imagine our surprise when there were more sweets brought out to the table after our dessert selections. The selection of small Italian bites were plentiful. I really enjoyed the mini-Tiramisu along with the gelatin based fruit treat.
Dessert #3 - Petit Fours
But wait, there’s more! Not long after they brought us the small bites, they brought us 4 Zeppole along with two dipping sauces - a chocolate based one and a lighter cream one. They were the perfect warm temperature to enjoy with that lighter cream sauce. I really don’t know how I found the room to enjoy my 2 but I did.
Dessert #4 - Zeppole
And because we weren’t full enough - at the very end of the meal as we were paying, they brought over a massive candy cart. They did offer to let us have our selections “to-go” so we decided that was the best options for us.
Dessert #5 - Candy To Go
It was at this meal, I also learned how wonderful limoncello is for an after dinner drink. It did help with my digestion and gave me enough umph to head out of the restaurant down to the taxi station so we could head to the town of Capri and walk back to our hotel.
Limoncello
Looking back at my credit card statement, we got out of here for about $450 US. I can say that my husband and I have had more expensive meals here in the states on a handful of occasions (meals at Victoria & Albert’s and Wine Dinners) but they don’t hold a candle to this meal. The service at this restaurant was exactly what you would expect it to be. They anticipated your needs before you could even think to ask. They were polite and not overbearing. They knew how to keep the meal timed as to not rush you but at the same time not take too long. I state that but I would also expect that at a 2 Michelin Star restaurant as you have to have both the food and service to get that recognition. I’m so glad we decided to try this place as it was truly a memorable meal!