Radici Terra e Gusto

Over every expectation.. Good service, wine list and atmosphere. Needless to say that the food was incredible!

Not that wow effect I was expecting.......... good selection of wines and place elegant and nice but quiet long wait between dishes........ Some things can be easily improved........

I enjoyed Radici, and applaud the kitchen’s innovation and creativity. Unfortunately, not everything tasted good. That is the point, no? Alinea in Chicago, which was one of the most heralded restaurants in the world, also one of the most expensive, sometimes forgot food is supposed to taste good. Hushed and elegant, I was compelled to keep my voice down at Radici. That’s hard after several vodkas. Service matches the elegant decor, formal but pleasant, whisking plates away in almost a choreographed manner. We ordered the 7 course, 75 Euro, ILMARE E LA LAGUNA menu. Radici offers several set menus including a blind degustation along with an a la carte menu. There are so many combinations on offer, it became dizzying figuring it all out. It was just easier to settle on one without deciphering the menu puzzle. There were several aspects of Radici that stood out: Bread was taken seriously and the origin and ingredients of the two types of bread explained and described. Bravo! and Brava! More restaurants should do this. I enjoyed the lightness of the cold Spaghettino with sour cream, caviar and oysters. It was unique. The highlight dish was the Sogliola, farro, spinacino e foie gras, a deconstructed thing with foie gras foam. It was creative AND delicous. The other dishes were either unmemorable, tasteless, or tasted bad. Our final bill was a bit over 200 Euros with 3 cocktails and two glasses of wine. High considering our dinner at the one Michelin star Iacobucci, an hour away, was less. If I lived in Padova I would visit Radici every few months, just to check in to see what the kitchen is up to. As a tourist, I would not make Radici a destination restaurant.

In short, slow, badly paired flavours, repetitive, lack of preparation and not the best quality. Want to know why I shall explain in detail: Having read many reviews both positive and negative, and also talking to friends who have been before it was always in the balance. I was told it is an experience and it was certainly that: however not a positive one. Let’s start at the beginning; the book was made four days in advance alerting the restaurant to allergies of one of the dinners, acknowledgment of this was made with the booking confirmation, so far so good. Then we arrived, shown to our table and given after a few minutes the cocktail menu, as yet no problem. After about 5 minutes of the drinks having arrived we asked about nibbles with the drinks, to which the response was the kitchen is making them, well 20 minutes passed and they finally arrived, microscopic in size and we had almost finished our drinks. After 40 minutes we were finally given a menu for the food but had to ask for the wine list. The waitress asked who has the lactose intolerance and can they eat butter??!! Clearly no understanding of where butter comes from, as for the other allergie a similar question was asked ‘just the juice of the whole part of the food’. Well after an hour and fifteen minutes, the first course of the taster menu arrived ( we were also told we could not have different tasting menus as it was too difficult for the kitchen, this did start to ring alarm bells if a kitchen can’t cope with different orders). A tongue dish with a pickled cabbage; too sour to eat and did not match with the dry meat. After another 20 minutes the second course arrived, bearing in mind they had had the notification of the allergies in advance, the option for the guest with the problem was a cold raw pumpkin dish and not meat (remember we had all chosen the meat tasting menu). So the guest did eat this as it was just not good. Now let's get to the third course, again for the guest with the allergy a vegetarian dish of pumpkin again, this was sent back as where was the meat and pumpkin again, somewhat unimaginative and repetitive. The tasting menu option was a Raviolo, which was dry undercooked and of not great quality. We are all now starting to laugh at the slowness of the service, two and a half hours after sitting down at the table with still have four dishes to go and the hunger is increasing with the passing of time; also by this time we are just starting to laugh at the manner of service and attention to detail. I was looking for a clock in the room: there was not one, one guest suggested that due to the slow service they would be better having a calendar. The next dish does not even deserve comment, then came the pigeon: not cooked (there is a difference and we all know the difference between pink and red because it is raw) and when we asked the waitress about this she said ‘the chef does it like this otherwise it becomes dry and hard’, indeed it was rubbery and difficult to cut. Being someone that has often eaten pigeon in various places this is just not the case, it is more to do with the chef not being able to cook it in the right way, sorry it was not the raw ingredient it the the way it is prepared. Remember the allergy, it meant that of the two deserts on the tasting menu there was only one for the guest with the problem so when the second desert arrived for the rest of the table they were just left with nothing to eat, it was only because we said and for him, the response came we have nothing he can. When we had finished the first bottle of wine we were not asked if we wanted another, a real lack of detail here. Finally we left, one menu was given by the restaurant for the guest that really didn’t eat anything due to the lack of foresight by the kitchen who had had warning days in advance: an effort to redeem what even they I think understood was a disaster, but unfortunately to little too late. A shame as the place could be great but just not with this attitude or kitchen staff.

Beautiful location, every detail on point, and good service. We started the experience with some amazing cocktails, accompanied by some discrete appetiser. Following, we ordered 4 different starters, 2 first dishes and 4 second courses. Satisfied by the explosion of taste of the starters, we were a bit disappointed by the first dishes, the ravioli came at the table pretty cold, and the tagliatelle, unfortunately, were breaking while rolling them up with the fork. After that, the second dishes helped to cheer the experience up again, even though, we would have expected more. Besides that, the wine matching was superb. For me was the first time in, and sincerely I wasn't really satisfied, expecting to have the amazing experience that my family have told me about having at Radici some others times. I'll probably give it another try, but I don't know if, so far, I could recommend it.

Just a perfect restaurant in Padova to try the traditional Italian cuisine with the touch of very elegant innovation. Highly recommended.

Walked into restaurant, with no booking. Table available. Ordered Tramezzini as starter then main course Tagliatelle with burrata and Spaghetti Amatriciana. Over every expectation. Good service and atmosphere. Food was incredible! Clean and covid rules followed.

High quality restaurant, very refined dishes. It's the type of restaurant you go for a gastronomical experience. We went and got the menu degustazione "La Terra e La Collina", which has a total of 5 dishes. The highlights of this menu for me were the starter and the dessert. The starter with horse tartar is something incredible! The dessert is a type of tart with Mango and Chocolate that is a perfect combination of the different ingredients. Of course you pay accordingly for the full experience.