Ristorante Diana (Italian) – Bologna, Italy (8.5/10)
Jan 10th, 2008 by admin
Another restaurant that squeezed itself onto the Bologna shortlist was the famous Ristorante Diana, still considered by some to be the city’s best. My husband, who has eaten there, insisted that I would like it. Despite feeling a little sceptical, particularly as there were other restaurants I was far more keen to visit, I’m so glad we ended up at Diana.
It’s a formal restaurant, where classic Bolognese dishes have been enjoyed in an elegant, old school setting since 1920, and where the service from well-dressed waiters is guaranteed to be excellent. Incidentally, Mario Batali loves a ‘classic lunch’ there. We went for lunch too, having booked a month in advance, thus securing a prized table in the ‘front’ room. This is smaller than the back room, but it’s where all the buzz is, and you can watch everyone come and go. Apart from one American couple, and us, there were no other tourists there.
What we ordered:
Having eaten at Rodrigo the night before, I craved more truffles, and ordered the taglioline con tartufo (20 Euros). It was considerably cheaper than last night’s version, because it came with black, not white, truffles, as the waiter pointed out. Nevertheless, I wanted it. In fact, I wanted truffles so much that as my secondo piatto, I chose the Tortino di Patate al Tartufo (22 Euros), a potato gratin dish, with more truffles. By paying a truffle supplement, you could really have truffles with anything that takes your fancy. And as it was still truffle season, and we were in Bologna on an eating trip…
I had also consulted our waiter on meat dishes and he had suggested the carello degli arrosti (14 Euros), roast meats brought to the table on a trolley, or the ever popular bollito misto, boiled meats on a trolley, but neither really appealed. The roast meats did look good, but I’m not a fan of boiled meats, and from what I saw of it, I’m glad I didn’t choose it. Perhaps next time I’m in Bologna, but on my very first trip, I really had to pick and choose my dishes carefully.
Vegetarian husband (who also eats fish) chose the tortelloni al burro e pomodoro, tortelloni filled with fresh ricotta and spinach in a butter and tomato sauce (8.50 Euros), followed by the Baccala alla Livornese Con Polenta, salt cod with polenta (14 Euros), as he wanted to be adventurous and try something he would not normally choose. A side dish of cicoria with lemon and olive oil was ordered too.
Many of Diana’s items are dished out by the table on a trolley. So when my taglioline came, we had to turn around to observe the truffle being shaved over it. We’d never seen so much truffle used in a single dish. Although not quite as superb as last night’s white truffle pasta, I wasn’t complaining. In fact, if there was a complaint, then there was too much truffle in proportion to my pasta! The tortelloni was lovely and fresh, with the butter adding a special touch to the sauce.
The baccala came out in an enormous pot and was similarly served up on a trolley by the table. Husband said he’d never seen such a thick piece of salt cod in his entire life. It was incredibly fresh and succulent. And he couldn’t finish it or the creamy polenta. My fragrant potato and truffle pie arrived in a small dish. Despite its size, I nearly couldn’t eat it all, as it was both rich and filling. I love anything with potato, and this was perfect comfort food, with the added bonus of truffles. The chicory was disappointing though, stringy and tough.
There was no way we could have managed dessert, although the dessert trolley had been conveniently situated directly in front of our table during the entire meal. I enjoyed looking at the options though, and was particularly taken with a poached pear dish. Then we spotted home-made vanilla ice cream being served out of a metal container at a nearby table. Thick dark chocolate sauce was ladled over it. Knowing though that we would have to eat again in a few hours, at Caminetto D’Oro, we regretfully left without dessert.
The verdict?
Lunch came to 83 Euros minus service. Diana is not Michelin-starred, nor does it charge exorbitant prices, but it’s clearly up at the top with other institutions like Rodrigo, Pappagallo and Biagi. No famous designer was paid a fortune to design the distinctly unglitzy interior, and the food is definitely classic rather than modern. You can’t go all the way to the food capital of Italy and not eat at Diana. I nearly did! But I won’t make the same mistake again.
Have a look at the summary of our trip and other restaurant recommendations in Where To Eat In Bologna…
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the Italy restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact Details:
Ristorante Diana
Via Dell Indipendenza, 24
Bologna
Italy
Tel: +39 (0)51 231 302
Closed Mondays
Helen,
I must say your posts makes us want to move our flights earlier and extend our stay in Bologna. Outside our bookings at Giusti and San Domenico, we had planned on just bringing a list of must go restaurants while in Italy. I now have requested a good friend of mine to make reservations at Diana and Rodrigo. We have a week to go before fly half way around the globe from Hawaii and all we do is talk about our trip. Hopefully, we will be able to secure bookings at these places. Your blogs could not come at a better time for us. I’ll let you know how our trip goes. Thank you sooooo much!!!
Hi Vic. I’m really excited for you guys too! We haven’t stopped thinking about our trip since we got back, and every time my husband sees the photo of his white truffle pasta…
Do pop in for a coffee and sweet something, or aperitif at Zanarini too (latest post). It’s a great place. And there’s one more review about Montegrappa da Nello, out on 19 Feb, plus some about the Mercato Delle Erbe on Via Ugo Bassi, and you have to visit the gourmet food shops like Tamburini, Atti and Gilberto on Via Caprarie and Via Drapperie (that whole area). I’ve written about these, but they’re not going to be up before you reach Bologna!
Look forward to hearing all about your trip! Have a safe journey…
Helen Yuet Ling
Dear Helen,
Encouraged by your enthousiastic review of Diana we booked a table for a birthday-dinner and enjoyed the food wich really was OK. Nice fresh pasta’s, beautiful secondi (‘bocconcini di maiale’, ‘bressaola di manzo’) and rich & tasty housewines (Sangiovese ‘Diana’). Really bad was the service: lots of well-dressed waiters but all very un-mannered in the way they treat their guests. Nearly any kind word is spoken, they ‘throw the food on you’ without saying a word and there is nearly any communication possible. we saw this behaviour not only of the waiters but also the ‘trainees’ helping out were quiet unsympathetic.
So my opinion: very good kitchen staff earnes better colleages in the restaurant service! Otherwise Diana will loose her name and fame! Kor
Hi Kor
I’m so sorry to hear about this. There’s nothing worse than bad service ruining an otherwise great meal, and I completely agree that the kitchen staff should be matched and supported by better service front of house. It makes me really annoyed to hear this, about any restaurant in fact, not just Diana. But thank you for commenting on this, because it’s important to let others know about this negative and important point. I was going to send Diana my review anyway, even though I ate there so many months ago, so they will see these comments too.
PS The service at Meloncello and Rodrigo really was good. I promise!
Helen Yuet Ling
We recently went to Bologna and enjoyed several good restaurants. On our last night there we failed to make reservations at the place we wanted to go and found ourselves wandering around town looking for a place to eat, most with no tables left. We stumbled upon Diana and my wife remembered that it was on one of our lists of good places to eat. We looked inside and it was very busy but we asked and sure enough they had a table, right then, for the two of us and our two teenagers. We were elated. We were even more elated when we got our dishes. We had various classic dishes like tagliatelle with ragu, I had the lasagna,my wife had anolini (maybe torellini?) in brodo. We’d become ‘mini experts’ in these dishes the last few days and these were the best we’d had on our trip. The lasagna was sublime as was the torellini in brodo, making me feel really bad about the versions of this I’d prepared at home. We had a wonderful time and the service was wonderful. We speak a little Italian but the waiters filled in with English where necessary and were friendly and helpful the entire time. They were busy, yes, but very professional and the service was prompt. We cannot wait to go back.
George – thanks for your review and opinion of Diana! I’m so glad to hear you had a wonderful meal there, as not everyone seems to like it there. I’d certainly return if I had the chance. I love tortellini and tortelloni in brodo!
Helen Yuet Ling