Piero Selvaggio; I Salute You!

Valentino, the 40 year old restaurant in Santa Monica is still around and is going strong. The secret is Piero Selvaggio; the owner who literally started from the bottom, being a busboy at Chasens to owning his very own restaurant.

My friend Mary and I took advantage of the "Dine in LA" week. Our waiter, Paolo brought us the wine menu which was bigger than the Holy Bible. Not surprising as they have one of the best and most comprehensive wine cellars in the world! They have over 2,000 choices; 130,000 bottles. Lets just say, we ordered a good chianti which was less than $1,000. We decided on the 3 course menu which looked inviting; we pondered awhile which items we both liked so we can have a real tasting feast. For our first course, we ordered the Tortino di Melanzane with pappa al pomodora, e.v. olive oil. It looked like a flan with a strong tomato taste with olive oil; it had just the right zing to it.
The other appetizer was the octopus salad which I normally would not order but I figured, this was the place to do it. Boy was I ever so happy..it had tender (not rubbery) pieces of octopus with celery and bottarga. The dressing was perfect!

For our second course, we tried the two color fettuccine with meat ragu and the mezze maniche cacio e pepe with pecorino, pepper and dried chilies. These 2 pastas were heavenly. Mary and I both looked at each other and really thought we just died and went straight to heaven.

The third course arrived; the veal milanese with arugula and cherry tomatoes and the lasagna with vegetables, ricotta and tomato. The veal was a generous portion so it was perfect for 2. The lasagna was very good and went well with our veal.

After this sumptuous meal, we decided to split the tiramisu. If you like tiramisu, make sure you don't split it; order 1 for yourself as it is so light you won't even notice you're consuming it.

This was a perfect dining experience as our waiter, Paolo gave us the attention we expected for a fine dining restaurant. The next time I go back, I will be sure to ask for Paulo as he truly understands what fine dining is all about.

So, Piero Selvaggio, I wish you another 40 years of success.

Note: The pictures are not clear since the place was dark. Hopefully you get the picture..