<a target="_blank" href="http://www.hotelmetropole.com/MET-Restaurant/eng/met_restaurant.htm">MET Restaurant</a>

at the Hotel Metropole

Riva degli
Schiavoni, 4149

Venezia

Tel&nbsp;: +39 <a target="_blank">041 524 0034</a>

The food:

Potatoes,
fondue and porcini mushrooms (Patate,
fonduta e funghi porcini)

Mantova-style
pumpkin ravioli (Ravioli di zucca alla
mantovana)

Spaghetti with
herbs and smoke (Spaghetti erbe e fumo)

Braised eel
and porcini mushrooms (Anguilla in umido
e funghi porcini) 

The wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 2013 Quintarelli Bianco Secco
 </td>
 <td>
 90
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2010 Peter Dipoli Sauvignon Voglar &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 92
 </td>
 </tr>
</tbody></table>

The MET is a
one Michelin-star restaurant located in the upscale Metropole hotel, about a
ten-twelve minute walk along the shoreline from Venice’s famous St. Mark’s
square.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1454092063066-met.JPG"> The restaurant’s interior is beautiful, if a little ornate, with almost
gawdy oriental touches in the Venetian tradition. The minute you walk in and
sit down, you realize it’s a place that deserves its Michelin star. The food
and wine list are of that level, and service is highly professional. But there
is one caveat: the wine list is simply too expensive. Clearly Venice attracts
moneyed visitors, but I found some of the prices on the wine list to be simply
too much above a normal markup.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1454091853195-porcini+patateCover.jpg"> 

Potatoes, fondue and porcini
mushrooms

Chef Luca
Veritti has come up with a curious and inventive menu in which the same main
ingredient is prepared two different ways: a traditional recipe followed by a
more innovative, modern interpretation. And so it is that a true Italian
classic, and one of the country’s greatest pasta dishes, pumpkin ravioli (the
traditional Mantova recipe dates back to the 1500s and consists of egg pasta
ravioli with a slightly sweet pumpkin and mostarda filling) is revisited in the
“contemporary” version as a pumpkin soup with juniper marinated trout and a
hazelnut butter-polenta sauce. 

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1454091871010-ravioli.jpg"> Mantova-style pumpkin ravioli 

I came away
impressed with the culinary talent behind the stoves after this recent lunch
The potatoes, fondue and porcini mushrooms appetizer was filling and savory; so
good in fact I could have easily gobbled down another portion. Even better (in fact,
the best dish of the day), was the aforementioned Mantova-style pumpkin ravioli (Ravioli di zucca alla mantovana), to which a generous dusting of
parmigiano reggiano aged 36 month added further complexity depth and
lusciousness. I matched these dishes with the lovely 2013 Quintarelli Bianco Secco Veneto, a blend of different local
and non-local white grapes including Garganega, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc,
Trebbiano Toscano, and Saorin, a rare native grape. Perhaps Quintarelli’s least
famous and least known wine, the Bianco Secco was &nbsp;bright and fresh, with sneaky concentration to
its orchard fruit and white peach aromas and flavors. It held up better than
expected to both dishes, with its cleansing acidity readying the mouth for more
morsels of food. 

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1454091895220-spaghetti+erbe+fumo.jpg"> Spaghetti with herbs and smoke

I then moved
on to the truly delicious 2010 Peter
Dipoli Sauvignon Voglar Alto Adige, one of Italy’s top five or six
Sauvignon Blancs. The 2010 had a little bottle age on it, gaining in
complexity, with the gooseberry, sage, rosemary and lime notes really deepening
with aeration. The very pure and not at all grassy aromas and flavors matched
well with my next two dishes, complementing rather than overpowering them. The spaghetti
herbs and smoke dish, a modern take on the classic Friulian cjalsons pasta, was laced with ricotta,
aromatic herbs, lemon and a dollop of caviar, which made for a delightful
combination. Another contemporary dish, the braised eel and porcini mushrooms,
though excellent, took creativity too far. Why bother calling this eel if white
sea bass was used?<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1454091998340-WINES.jpg">

For the most
part, Venice’s best eating spots remain small family run osterie and bacari), but MET&nbsp;is well worth a visit, especially given Venice’s lack of upper scale dining
options. True to the line that Arnold Schwarzenegger made famous…I’ll be back.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1454091918592-ponte+dei+sospiri.jpg"> 

-- Ian
D’Agata

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