The worlds best pasta at Lido84
Lido 84 has a location that is both perfectly hidden and depressing, but also absolutely stunning and open. Overlooking Lake Garda Lido84 was transformed from a boathouse to one of the best restaurants in the world. In the summer you sit either on the terrease overlooking the lake or in a small private house with just one table. Either is incredible and romantic.
The second thing you will notice if you are here in the summer is the backdrop of smells whether being figs, capers or just the flowers. The romance has comes full circle as you sit by ocean blue tables made of Italian tiles. The same smells you will encounter on the plate as well.
We would start with the traditional few snacks form a crunchy tempura fried leaf, a savory Madeline and a beautiful tart. Fragrant and delicious are words that well described these snacks and words to be used again and again about the dinner.
The first dish of the menu was possibly the biggest oyster I have ever seen. Served with fried sourdough bread it looked like any other oyster I had before but the bread had been season with laurel and pine vinegar which continued the floral notes that made it stand out.
A cuttle fish had been cured with gave it a firm and chewy texture. For me the protagonist however was a garlic and sheep cheese sauce with just a bit of green curry oil. A dish full of surprises whether it was the texture of the fish or the intense delicious garlic sauce.
We would continue with one of the highlights of the meal. A very lightly grilled piece of tuna belly was served with zucchini and the most wonderful spice mix of orange and timut pepper. End to end a surprising combination but wow did it work.
The first of a series of pasta dishes would follow. A series of pasta dishes that was to my memory be the best pastas I have ever had.
The first was pasta from the region of Bergamot where the brothers came from. A poor mans pasta made with just 1 egg for 1 kg of flower. The result is a pasta that can best be compared to that of thin noodles you find in ramen. Here they were served with spirulina, a sweet and sour tomato juice and herbes that made it wonderfully floral and light. A fusilli one pasta was next. A dish that took my breath away. An uber al dente fusillioni with pistachio and basil. As always with an excellent pasta dish it looked absolutely simple but the flavors would blow you socks off. However the best was yet to come. The most complex and easily best pasta I have ever had A dish full of flavors from the sea from razor clams and its liver. Roasted sesame and Marsala rounded off made it such a complex and incredible dish. With the almost one dimensional color what again looked simple hid complex and incredible flavors. So if you though the pasta at Lido84 was all about the calcio e pepe think again.
We would take a small break from pasta and have a simple and great dish of green asparagus both fresh and grilled where an eggplant molasses provided depth and oregano the familiar floral element.
It was now the signature dish and the last pasta dish of the evening. Rigatoni calcio e Pepe prepared inside a pigs blatter. Being cooked inside the blatter no water is added. The pasta is cooked by the generated steam and with no added water the texture is naturally harder but also much more focused than normal. Where the previos pastas showed great perspective of flavors this dish was more about texture and techniques of preparation.
We would end end with a simple grilled piece of duck with a red pepper and capers sauce. Again the sauce was protagonist of the dish and it was delicious.
To finish a lavished amount of desserts were placed on the table from different sorbets to incredible baked goods. A blow out finish to a perfect evening.
There are a lot of amazing restaurants that serves incredibly beautiful well prepared food with equally incredible service. A description that fits many of the absolute best restaurants in the World. However there are few that have an emotinal impact. Lido84 does. After arriving to what initially looks just like a parking lot a new world opens up. An idyllic setting right by the water takes your breath away. A obvious place to propose or celebrate an anniversary kind of romantic. However take a breath and open your senses. The smells of fig, capers and flowers hits you because they are all around you. These wonderful fragantes are passengers for the meal. They are an integral part of the experience and at least for the summer menu the flavor profile was fragante, floral and wonderfully composed. To me it represented an interpretation of Italian cuisine I have never experienced before. Fx instead of having the sauces at the center for the pasta dishes they put the pasta it selves front and center. Prepared with similar scientific approach as Noma has to the fermentation to bring out the very best version of the pasta.
The menu changes 5 times pr year as most of their clientel are locals and for the same reason the menu is priced at 140 euro which is probably the best value for money experience I have ever seen. So for all Danish people if you fly Ryan air to Bergamot, rent a car, drive to Gardonia, stay in a hotel, eat at Lido and fly back the next day it will still be cheaper than the most expensive restaurants in Copenhagen and it will be worth it.
Practical information
Location: Gardone Rivera, Italy
Head chef: Ricardo Camanini
Menu: 10 course tasting menu (€140)
Website: www.ristorantelido84.com
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