contact: info@bownsbest.com
contact: info@bownsbest.com
Chef-patron Giuseppe Aversa is one of the glories of Sorrento. He likes his friends to call him ‘Peppe’, and he has many friends. I like to think I am one, for I have been enjoying his magnificent cuisine for a good many years. The photograph shows me with this remarkable gentleman. Great restaurants, too, can become old friends: jolly, welcoming and comfortable. Thus it is with Il Buco. When you ask the residents of Sorrento which is the best restaurant in their beautiful city, the answer comes over and over again: Il Buco. It is why they throng its attractive rooms and show by their smiles and the buzz of their conversation that they are enjoying themselves. The Michelin inspectors are entirely right to give it one of their coveted stars.
Il Buco is down a sloping alley, off the bustling piazza San Antonio. Its outside tables are on the right and its front door is on the left. I have become accustomed to all those dining al fresco being so taken aback by my sartorial efforts that they stare in admiration (at least, I hope it is admiration) as I make my careful progress to the entrance. However, I should concede at once that this is a place where the other diners are also often dressed well – a consequence, I think, of the fact that a meal here is regarded as a special occasion. And so it should be, for great care is taken in this establishment to select and prepare the finest ingredients from this part of Italy.
You will probably be given a choice of places in which to eat, for there are several handsome chambers inside as well as those various tables under awnings on the street outside. I always choose the vaulted main dining room, and I like particularly my usual table, in a shallow alcove on the left. Here I sat on a chair upholstered in bright blue and admired the Zafferano glassware, while enjoying the excellent meatball offered in welcome. Waiters flitted this way and that, and one of them opened my mineral water and then poured it into a glass jug, before setting it on my table. I like this little ritual with the water, and – unusually, for me – I like the canned music, which was of the chanteuse variety.
The menu is straightforward in its descriptions, and those descriptions make clear that this chef and this kitchen are not afraid of complexity and hard work. Four tasting menus are offered at 110€, 120€, 130€ and 150€ (with wine pairings at 80€.) I chose four courses from the carte, for which you should allow around 120€+.
I began with steamed lobster with cream of carrots and ginger. The crustacean was so tender, so full of flavour and so carefully flattered by the sauce that I thought this would be the highlight of the meal. But no: the pasta course soared heavenwards in its brilliance. This tagliolini, with porcini mushrooms and abundant shavings of black truffle atop, was so perfectly realised that I could easily have gone on for the entire meal with repeat orders. But then I would have missed the fine Laticauda lamb with umami of peppers, potatoes and broccoli and the lovely tart of wild strawberries with meringue foam and orange sauce. This was a magnificent dinner and confirmed that Il Buco’s kitchen is full of intelligence and generosity of spirit.
The wine list of over one thousand labels is, like the menu, contained within an ‘ipad’. For someone of my supreme level of technological incompetence, this can present something of a challenge, but the members of staff at Il Buco are used to directing me through its hundreds of entries. Many temptations from France are offered, alongside the Italian selection. Prices are friendly, and you will find lots of bottles for 50€ or so. Grand clarets abound and, if your pockets are deep, you can indulge in the likes of Latour and Pétrus or stay in Italy to sample sublime super-Tuscans like Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Solaia and Masseto. But I had clear proof that very good drinking could be done here for modest cost, when I quaffed a big, buttery chardonnay (Bellavista, Curtefranca, 2018) and revelled in a well-balanced, elegant aglianico from Paestum (Kleos, Maffini, 2021).
Sorrrento is rightly proud of Chef-patron Giuseppe Aversa. He is one of its glories. And Il Buco is a wonderful restaurant.
2a rampa Marina Piccola 5 (Piazza S Antonio), 80067 Sorrento, Naples, Italy.
Telephone +39 081 878 2354
Email: info@ilbucoristorante.it
Closed: Wednesday