Al Tre Scalini - Soriano's Best Restaurant?

Last night, after two perfectly acceptable and enjoyable dinners at the restaurant located in the basement of Palazzo Catalini, we finally got around to eating at al Tre Scalini, the most highly recommended eatery in town. The Three Steps is situated at the bottom of the town square, across a narrow street from the church, down three steps (aha...) to its two entrances.

The service is friendly, the prices are reasonable, and the food is very good. We shared an antipasti plate of mixed appetizers. The eggplant, probably grilled with some olive oil and garlic and topped with melted cheese, was particularly tasty.

We decided to share or split our primi piatti (primo piatto?) of long strands of fresh house-made fettucini mixed with a porcini mushroom sauce. Porcini mushrooms are a major local specialty and mushroom hunters seek them in their private hiding places every fall. It was outstanding, but our generous waiter foiled our plans to show some restraint by kindly dividing our shared portion and bringing us each what appeared to be a full portion. It was delicious, and we couldn't have left as much as one strand on our plates.

For our secondi piatti Kathy chose grilled seafood and Brian chose tagliata. While Kathy enjoyed her plate, it did include some fried fish and she's trying to avoid that. Although she might not order it again, she'd still recommend it, if that makes sense.

The tagliata consists of chunks of quite-tasty beef sitting on a bed of arugula. It included olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction and it's topped with shaved parmesan. Tagliata is new to us, although our Internet searching reveals it's a well known dish, and it's a winner!

We'll close this with a note about dress codes in small-town Italy: While we feel conspicuous in short-sleeve shirts or light colors, we find our comfortable jeans are quite acceptable. Since our waiters in both of these Soriano restaurants wear jeans, we feel we're fitting right in, although much more pasta and the question of "fitting in" will take on another meaning.