Great Lunch @ Ristaronte Pizzeria da T Levanto on 20Apr2014

frutti di mare - seafood salad

frutti di mare – seafood salad

we decided to trek to levanto on 20.4.2014. 🙂

many parts of the sentiero azzurro (blue path) coastal route no. 2 were still closed. anyway we walked the incredibly scenic route to vernazza on 19.4.2014. the route to levanto was longer & took us 3.5hrs. the view was marvellous though looking back at monterosso beach was not quite the same as looking at the postcard picture perfect vernazza town when approaching from moneterosso. 🙂

frutti di mare - seafood salad

frutti di mare – seafood salad

we were strolling along the streets close to the sea on arrival at levanto around 1.30pm. the ristaronte pizzeria da T levanto was filled with locals & looked quite exciting.

grilled prawns

grilled prawns

grilled prawns

grilled prawns

we ordered the seafood salad (around 11euro) & the grilled large prawns (around 15 euro) which we saw many tables were taking. both were very good, fresh & tasty. 🙂

mussels pasta

mussels pasta

prawn pasta

prawn pasta

we ordered 2 pastas, one with prawns the other with mussels. both were very tasty too, but there was a negative part – both were much too salty.  if we could eat more pasta, maybe we could have asked them to toss in more plain pasta – just a thought. haha! 🙂

panna cotta

panna cotta

sweet cake

complimentary sweet cake

the panna cotta was poor though. my daughter & i were still thinking of the fantastic panna cotta at pizzeria balognett at tremezzo lake como, but this was a far cry, no better or worse than the ones in singapore, the reason i hardly ever ordered panna cotta.

surprising we were offered a huge helping of complimentary sweet cake. it looked very sweet & it was, but it was much better than the panna cotta.

c.h.e.f andy

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Tak Shiok! (No Thrill) Dinner @ il Ciliegio Monterosso on 19Apr2014

scampi pasta

scampi pasta

we arrived at monterosso about 3.50pm on 18.4.2014 after returning the car (we drove from tremezzo lake como) at malpenssa airport & taking the malpenssa express to milano centrale to connect the train to monterosso.

we were booked at the very nice ballembra hotel in the old part of town & walked about 700m from the station. it was very pleasant as monterosso has a nice beach & there were lots of shops & gelato stalls.

for the first evening we had earlier made reservations & enjoyed a super dinner at miky, after strolling around.

the friendly proprietor of ballembra recommended & arranged for us to have dinner at il ciliegio, 200m up the hills the next day on 19.4.2014.

gianni, il ciliegio’s owner, came in his MPV to fetch us from the town centre. he stopped near the top for us to take photos of the monterosso coastline in the sunset. 🙂

the service was excellent. the view was actually quite limited as surrounded with trees, mostly ciliegio. afterall the whole cinque terre & monterosso offered awesome vista everywhere.

regrettably, dinner @ il ciliegio monterosso = tak shiok leh…NO THRILL! 😦

grilled zicchini

grilled zicchini

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swordfish steak

swordfish steak

swordfish steak

swordfish steak

scampi pasta

scampi pasta

food was quite mediocre & would be poorest if c/w miky OR even the cheap & very good trattoria scogliera at manarola.

scampi pasta was skimpy, 4 tiny scampis for 2pax portions (mike’s seafood risotto while 50% more ex had like 5times the ingredients so much greater value & of course superior taste & dining experience), trofie (a risotto like pasta that looked like our chinese “beetaimak”) pesto was totally plain, swordfish was ok, vege was actually good, very sweet.

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il ciliegio has a nice setting, but almost no customers. only 1 other table was occupied.10260019_10152334390929494_7737027130625861121_n 10171003_10152334390774494_7807149832331859890_n

the outside was pleasant. it was cold so more comfortable to dine indoors.10273369_10152334391954494_6956391925483448181_o 10153760_10152334391849494_2718618501736750980_n 10175067_10152334391549494_696552267939311361_n

we took some photos of the monterosso coastline & also in the direction of vernazza in the sunset. 🙂

owners gianni & rosanna are very nice people. after dinner, gianni drove us back to town below. he turned & reversed his MPV like >50m in one fluid movement on the narrow path like in car chase movies, but he drove safely & not fast.

food was ok, & i am sure if you speak italian, the company & conversation would be most pleasant. just on food however monterosso was filled with nice restaurants, so regrettably i would not recommend this. 😦

c.h.e.f andy