Enrico Bartolini al Mudec - Milan
Dinner at the museum
Rating: 18/20
Where: Milan, Italy
When: Dinner for 4 on 23 September 2022
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 300-320 Euro, Wine Pairing 220-230 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Delicious modern takes on classic Italian dishes, excellent service and wine program
Enrico Bartolini al Mudec is located on the third floor of the Mudec museum in Milan. During our visit, the Milan Fashion Week was in full swing, evidenced by the loud parties nearby. The museum is closed during the dinner hours, so we had to traverse a large empty lobby to the world's slowest elevator that eventually took us to the third floor and our destination. The restaurant is decorated in a modern style with black walls that are decorated by several art pieces. The windows face the museum courtyard, so the view is nothing to get too excited about. When it comes to Michelin-starred restaurants located in museums (seemingly a growing category), Zilte and The Modern have better views.
Two tasting menus were on offer, a "Best of" menu and a current menu that was simply called "Mudec". Contrary to what the printed menu claimed, it was possible to order both menus for a single table, which we happily did so that we could try all available dishes. It was also possible to pick a few dishes off the tasting menu to eat a la carte. Both tasting menus had an accompanying wine pairing, containing mostly excellent wines - some of them retailing at over $200 a bottle, it's quite unusual to see such wines included in a pairing.
A few sticks of grissini with 24-month-aged Parmesan started our dinner. Fine, but not as good as other breadsticks we had recently 16.
Suddenly, a whole barrage of amuse bouches descended upon us. First, we tried a sourdough bread ball that was filled with herbs and served with a cream of porcini mushroom sitting in a pool of delicious olive oil. My dining companions thought that the herbs smelled a bit of ashtray, but thankfully this didn't extend to the taste. The bread was nicely spongy, but the cream had only weak mushroom taste 16.
What looked like a small roasted eggplant was actually langoustine meat shaped to resemble an eggplant. It was served with more langoustine meat, caviar, kohlrabi pieces and surrounded by a smoked grapefruit sauce. The sauce was fantastic: tangy, acidic, and with minimal fruit, it was a great complement to the rest of the dish 18. A taco filled with crab meat was also excellent. It started with the lovely aroma of the herbs on top, and continued with the crab salad inside that was very, very good, maybe a tad too mayonnaisey, but the crunchy taco shell worked well with it 19. A cracker topped with a roasted lamb sausage was on the nothing-special side, with the cracker a bit too soft (maybe because we waited too long to eat it...) 14. Only marginally better was a pickled slice of cucumber: crunchy, slightly sweet, but not tasting of much else 15. What looked like pralines wrapped in edible gold foil were actually meats and nuts - supposedly a local specialty, but the lack of any seasoning made this taste a bit odd 14. A twisted breadstick was lovely, better than the grissini 17.
More appetizers and breads followed. A focaccia with potato and rosemary was very good 16. Black cod (really a cod colored with black squid ink) was adorned with ginger, crispy buckwheat and a tempura leaf. Not only pretty to look at, it was delicious, too - a slightly sweet dish served cold 18.
The best bread of the evening came next, a white bread made with spelt flour, carrots and seeds. Served warm, it was excellent, but I wasn't a big a fan of the accompanying butter seasoned with tangerines, oranges and lemons - it was too fruity 18.
Time for the official first courses of the two tasting menus. The "Best of" menu began with a single oyster topped with caviar and served on a bed of anchovies and pine nuts. It was surrounded by herbs, pickled radishes and a horseradish sauce. The radishes added some nice crunch and acidity, but the dish overall was very light in flavor, even the horseradish sauce was not particularly strong. Decent, but this could have used more of a punch 17. The "Mudec" menu did in fact start with a punch. Langoustine was served with a bouillabaisse sauce, verjus, bottarga, spinach and olive seeds. The sauce was truly excellent and bursting with flavor, the langoustine cooked perfectly and the olive seeds added a nice crunch 19.
Course two: the "Best of" menu featured a raw beef filet set in aspic, topped with mustard ice cream, caviar and beef jelly. The beef was very light in flavor, more salt might have been better 17. On the "Mudec" side, a pigeon "Albese" (think: carpaccio) came with an almond ice cream, radicchio and caviar. I thought that this was better than the beef, but not by much. A bit too gamey for my taste, it felt dark and heavy 17.
Next up for team "Best of": a tomato marinated with licorice and stuffed with almond cream and salmon roe. It was served with a king crab sandwich and a cup of tomato juice. I was a bit puzzled as to why the tomato and the sandwich were served together; I probably missed the explanation. The tomato was very light, and the sandwich somewhat ho-hum. The tomato broth however was extremely potent, it reminded us of the Kraft Miracoli sauce of our childhoods - in the context of Michelin-starred food, that's maybe not the most desirable association 16. Much better were the "Mudec" sweetbreads served in a tangy turnip tarragon sauce, and accompanied by a cup of white turnip broth. It turns out that the sauce was so strong and delicious that it overpowered any taste that the sweetbreads might have contributed. The texture of the sweetbreads also disappeared in the dish - it would have been tough to determine what they were without being told. I generally don't like sweetbreads (see the previous night), but this was actually quite enjoyable 18.
Pasta courses came next. "Best of" featured bottoni (think: spherical ravioli) filled with an olive oil/lime emulsion, topped with a slice of roasted octopus and surrounded by a cacciucco sauce. A very strongly flavored and lovely sauce, with a pasta whose center seemed to consist of liquid cheese (we were instructed to eat each piece in a single bite). Excellent! 19 "Mudec" presented spaghetti that came with lemons, caviar and a parsley cod sauce and were spritzed with whiskey at the table. Nice, but much simpler than the bottoni, and a step down on the flavor intensity scale 17.
More pasta for the next course. This time spaghetti for the "Best of" menu. They were served with eel, baby squid and a confit containing bay leaves. The eel was served ground up and shaped into pearls. Overall a rich, heavy, savory dish with lots of flavor 18. For "Mudec" we received gnocchi with balls of 'nduja, as well as a rich sauce containing shrimp, chicory, herring and salmon roe. A shrimp consomme was served on the side. The sauce(s) were wonderfully rich, the remaining ingredients adding great texture 19.
"Best of" stuck with Italian staples: a risotto flavored (and colored) with beets also contained gorgonzola and was sprayed with a walnut perfume. The rice was cooked perfectly al dente, there was a nice sweetness from the beets, some nuttiness from the walnuts and creaminess from the cheese. An excellent risotto, probably the second best of the trip so far 18+. "Mudec" started on the proteins: a turbot was served with sea snails and a beetroot sauce. The fish was fine, but its flavor was overpowered by the slightly sweet sauce. The sea snails added some welcome chewiness to the dish 17.
Pork with watercress, oranges and (we think) mustard arrived for the next "Best of" course. A small portion, but with an excellent pork and an even better sauce 18. "Mudec"'s dish was more complex. A ravioli filled with honey-glazed duck was served with a foie gras sauce and a bit of mustard-crusted duck meat on a fir stick. A great ravioli (I wish there had been more than one), but without much duck flavor. Even the duck on the stick tasted mostly of mustard, but if one wasn't too hung up on the MIA duck, this was a great dish 18+.
The final savory dishes come next. "Best of" starred a beef fillet on a plate with a savarin cake, shallots, foie gras and a stick of cow heart and beets. This was a dish where less could have been more. The beef with its sauce was excellent, and might have garnered a 20 by itself. But the accompaniments were hit and miss: the onion/foie gras was good, but the other nibbles ranged from so-so to weird. Putting this all together gets maybe a 18. For "Mudec" an excellent lamb was served next to a gyoza filled with lamb shoulder, and a spinach ball filled with lamb kidneys (I think). The lamb and its sauce were marvelous, not gamey at all and very tender. The gyoza was just ok, and the spinach ball a bit better. Averaging all of this: 18.
Two desserts arrived next. "Best of" had a traditional zabaione with orange mousse, fresh oranges, and a pistachio ice cream with olive oil. This dish was way to sweet for me, only the fresh orange pieces cut through the mountains of sugar. Admittedly I tried the other (less sweet) dessert first, and this might have fared better the other way around 16 (to wit, the rest of the table would have rated this dessert a 19). "Mudec" concluded on a chocolate souffle. The souffle was served next to a plate of pineapple, sesame seed crackers and a caramel emulsion. Rounding out the course was a cup of "fake beer" made from pineapples. All very good: a terrific souffle, the sesame crackers with a wonderful crunch, the caramel cream lovely, and the "beer" nice as well 18.
Petit fours came last, borne by little glass-blown animals. A donut filled with fresh cream was lovely and reminded me of the "Berliners" from my childhood 18 (others at the table thought this was only a 15). A lemon praline made from white chocolate and filled with passion fruit was good, but quite sour thanks to the passion fruit 17. "Black forest cherries" were chocolates with a liquid center that was a bit too bitter for my taste 16. Finally, a kumquat was simply that: bitter and without any real preparation involved 13.
Overall: A delightful dinner with truly excellent, unhurried and friendly service. This dinner took us over four hours, which was a relaxing pace compared to some of our recent meals in Italy. Both tasting menus showed modern and effective interpretations of Italian cuisine, where even staples were done in a new way. Comparing the two menus, there was no clear "better" or "worse", both were excellent. We found the flavors of the "Best of" menu a bit more subtle compared to "Mudec", so interleaving them (like we did) can cause a bit of whiplash and lessen the overall enjoyment. Regardless, the restaurant is definitely worth a special journey, whether you're going for fashion week or not 18.
