Uliassi - Senigallia
Tables with a great ocean view … at least during the daytime
Rating: 17/20
Where: Senigallia, Italy
When: Dinner for 2 on 7 December 2022
Cost: Tasting menu 210-240 Euro, Wine Pairing 120-150 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #12 on Top 50 Restaurants list (2022)
Why: Inventive seafood cuisine based on local dishes
Uliassi is a Michelin three-starred restaurant in Senigallia on the Italian Adriatic coast. I had plans to visit Uliassi in September, but it was not to be: heavy rains caused floods in Senigallia, and the restaurant, right at the mouth of the overflowing river Misa, had to cease all operations. I received the call canceling my reservation the day before I was supposed eat there. After seeing the devastation - mud-caked destroyed furniture heaped on the sidewalks - with my own eyes, I was happy to return a few months later and see nary a sign of the unhappy event. This time, the weather cooperated - it was time to check out Uliassi after all.
Uliassi's dining room faces the sea, and we had what would be considered prime seats. Unfortunately, it was way past sunset by the time we arrived, so there was not much to see except for darkness. But I imagine that in the summer (or even for lunch) this would be a lovely sight from the around ten tables split over two dining rooms.
Regarding food choices, there were two “classic” tasting menus (of six and ten courses, respectively), and two more tasting menus that had to be ordered ahead of time: one showing the latest developments of the kitchen, the other concentrating on game. The classic menu is heavily seafood-centric, with only the main course entitled “Sea or Game” allowing for a true meat choice (in our case: pigeon). We went for the ten course classic menu, and chose fish as the main course. Two wine pairings were available, one with Italian wines only (120 Euro), the other with wines from all over the world (150 Euro). I went for the Italian pairing, and the wines were fine, but not particularly remarkable, with most hovering around a $20/bottle price point. Not necessarily recommended.
After we placed our order, the first few amuse bouches appeared at a rapid clip. A play on the ubiquitous Neapolitan wafers contained frozen hazelnuts and foie gras, and was paired with a Kir Royal cocktail. Compared to the supermarket version, this hazelnut wafer was much heavier - I have to admit that I prefer the original that lets me pretend that it barely contains any calories. The Kir Royal was surprisingly dry, probably meant to balance the sweet wafer 17.
Corn grissini were served with a herring butter and a gelee containing rosemary. The grissini had a good crunch, but the butter was very, very fishy, a bit too much for my taste. Rating mostly the grissini, 17.
A dish called “#slidetotaste” contained anchovy paste (masquerading as the letter “o”) as well as celery and parsley (all other letters); there was also a small cracker and some cream that didn't fit neatly into the hash-tag meme. I loved the salty, fresh, herbal taste of the green letters, but the anchovy got a bit lost among them. Also, although we were meant to slide the anchovy across the green letters, that was nearly impossible - a hard, rather than soft “o” would have been more convenient 16.
Several breads were served next. A “pecorino cheese pizza” was brioche-like with cubes of cheese - nice. Multigrain crackers were tasty as well and had a light crunch. Oatmeal sourdough bread had a slightly stronger crunch. All were served at room temperature 17.
The first official course of the tasting menu consisted of raw “red” shrimp that were served with several sauces of citrus fruit. The dish looked very pretty, and the shrimp were more savory than sweet. The light citrus sauces added some texture, but overall this dish was not particularly exciting 15. I should note that my dining companion chose to avoid raw foods, and the kitchen had no problem swapping dishes, or, as in this case, cooking the shrimp instead of serving them raw.
The shrimp were followed by a gift from the kitchen. It was a bowl containing bread cubes, frozen uni and almond slivers, all topped by an almond foam. For this dish, less would have been more. If I had been served just the frozen uni and nothing else, I would have been ecstatic. As it was, there was very little of said uni, and it was overwhelmed by the rest of the dish. The predominant flavor was of almonds, almost to a marzipan-y extent. The almond slivers added some nice texture, but the bread cubes varied from crunchy to soggy. I'm not sure what the intention behind this dish was 15.
The non-raw alternative to the uni dish was a cuttlefish tagliatelle with nori seaweed and toasted quinoa. The “noodles” were actually long strips of cuttlefish. The texture of these squid was amazing: it was as solid as an al dente pasta, and it was hard to tell that it was squid at all. The only fishy taste stemmed from the nori, and the toasted quinoa added some nice crunch to the pasta. Overall, a very fresh tasting dish 18. (Note that the replacement dish was better than the original, a pattern that would be repeated in the following.)
Next up: the second official course. Steamed sole was served with some lettuce and bergamot. The fish was very dense: well cooked, but nobody would call it “delicate”. The lettuce underneath was lovely, as it was soaked with the light sauce. I thought the bergamot was too bitter, but thankfully there was very little of it in the dish, so this was more of a distraction than anything. A decent dish, but not wowing 16. The paired wine played well off the bergamot.
“Rimini fest” was the name of the next dish. On a plate, we received a skewer of squid pieces that had been breaded with panko and topped with little frozen balls of lemon juice. On the side were a small salad and a bowl of what was billed as “mango gazpacho”. The squid in this dish was excellent with strong flavors; it had a nice solid texture, almost like a dense fish. The salty fried panko together with the iced lemon drops (a play on squeezing lemon on a fried fish) made this a great rustic fried fish dish. The salad however was a bit nondescript, whereas the gazpacho was decent - a nice palate cleanser after the fatty squid, but more fruity than acidic. Not exactly what one expects after hearing “gazpacho”. Oddly, I also found a frozen ice cube in my soup, probably not an intentional addition 18.
Raw amberjack and shrimp were served alla puttanesca, with a tomato, caper and olive marinade. The shrimp were sweet and creamy, but the fish was unfortunately overshadowed by the capers, olives and tomatoes, even though the puttanesca wasn't that strong 17.
On the non-raw side of things, we received a potato puree that was served over roasted prawns and covered with black truffles. The result tasted mostly of potatoes (which is a plus in my book). Sadly, there was not much truffle flavor, but the shrimp were nicely succulent. A pretty good dish 18.
The next dish was the only one that was not pescatarian. Veal marrow in the bone was served with codfish tripe, and cooked in a clam broth with celery seeds. This was a very heavy, cloyingly fatty dish; marrow and tripe coated the mouth, with the parsley on the dish trying its best in being the only non-fatty ingredient. Wine worked as a palate cleanser, but I figure some more acidity in the dish itself might have helped, too. As it was, its taste was fine, but the texture was trying 14.
After being unable (unwilling?) to finish the marrow dish, my dining companion received a replacement dish (unasked!). Smoked eel was served with small dollops of horseradish and apricots. The eel tasted like sausage (bratwurst), and the horseradish was a great spicy addition, I just wish there'd been more of it. The sweet apricot was a bit of an odd-one out, I'm not sure what it was doing in this dish - maybe adding a tiny bit of acidity? Still, this was very, very good, maybe the best dish of the evening (and it wasn't even on the regular menu...) 19.
The next two course were pasta. Pasta a la Hilde were pasta tubes topped with tomato sauce and a fig leaf infusion. The pasta was cooked al dente, but in the sense of being quite chewy and literally sticking to the teeth - not an ideal texture. The tomato sauce was light, the fig leaf sauce a bit bitter. Not a bad dish, but very simple for what you'd expect at a Michelin-starred restaurant 14.
Somewhat better were the following smoked spaghetti with clams and roasted cherry tomatoes. This time, the pasta was cooked nicely al dente without any issues. The seafood sauce was light, and the clams cooked very well. A good dish 16.
For the savory main course, we each received a different dish. The better one was a seabass with a white wine sauce, roasted mango and morel mushrooms. The lovely fish was perfectly cooked, very savory and with a great texture thanks to a crunchy topping. Wonderful. The morels were oddly a bit acidic, as was the sauce. The mango cubes were fruity outliers in this dish, leaving them out wouldn't have been a loss 18.
The originally intended main course for the tasting menu was a turbot served with a squid ink sauce and roasted baby cuttlefish. The components (fish, cuttlefish, and sauce) were not bad, but they combined in a single-note dish dominated by the squid ink. The alternative seabass dish was not as one-dimensional 15.
Our pre-dessert featured an ice cream made of cocoa fruit combined with almonds and coffee. Cocoa nibs and shaved almonds created texture, the ice cream managed to be both sour and sweet, and the coffee added some savory notes. A lot of stuff going on here, and a fairly good result 17.
The main dessert was a play on the Paris-Brest dessert. Called Senegallia-Brest, is was a choux pastry filled with vanilla Chantilly cream, frozen cherries and dried and caramelized black olives. The cream was very tasty, but this dessert felt a bit conventional 15.
Petit fours arrived next. A white chocolate praline filled with blue cheese ice cream tasted mostly of white chocolate, there was at most an ephemeral aftertaste of blue cheese 16. A dacquoise of pistachio ganache was heavy, and very autumnal in flavor 15. A cherry glazed with Disaronno liquor was actually frozen. The cherry was very tart (it's December, I suppose) and there was a bit of an almond taste thanks to the liquor 14 (my dining companion rated this a 17). A piece of apple seasoned with another bitter liquor and mint gel was mostly sour 15. Strawberry jelly with maraschino and lemon zest was very tasty and sweet 16. Finally, a chocolate crumble with pop rocks was fun, but the chocolate quality was at most average 14.
At the very end, we received a slice of house-made panettone with zabaione. The classic Christmas cake was on the heavier side, clinging to the mouth, and the zabaione was not very distinctive 14 (dining companion: 16).
Overall: Our dinner was introduced as a reimagining of the local cuisine, the location being hemmed in by the mountains and the sea. Not being familiar with said traditional cuisine, I probably (and unfortunately) missed out on much of the raison d'etre behind the dishes. As it stands, this was a good seafood dinner, but most dishes didn't rise beyond a one or two star level. Oddly enough, the few that did were not part of the original tasting menu. So clearly the kitchen is able to cook at a three-star level, they just don't do it for the tasting menu - bizarre 17.
