Rating: 17/20
Where: Marina del Cantone, Italy
When: Dinner for 2 on 19 April 2024
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 280 Euro, Wine pairing 120 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Beautiful setting with a view of the ocean, good seafood and pasta dishes

“Quattro Passi” is a restaurant on the southern coast of the Sorrento Peninsula, about an hour's drive south of Naples. It's a few more than “four steps” away from the ocean, as its name implies, but the view from the dining room is magnificent, overlooking a bay flanked by small mountain ranges on both sides. The restaurant won its third Michelin star in November 2023, but was closed for a winter break at the time, reopening only on April 15th.

We drove to the restaurant from Rome, a trip that should have taken us about 3 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, while we were driving, Google Maps' ETA kept creeping upwards, eventually passing our reservation time. Multiple crashes had turned the A1 highway from Rome to Naples into a parking lot, and as a hail mary maneuver we finally switched to surface roads. It was a pretty stressful drive, since for the longest time we weren't sure whether we'd make it to the restaurant in time for our dinner. In the end, it took us six hours of nonstop driving, and we arrived with only five minutes to spare before the last reservation time. The staff were wonderful though and immediately made us feel welcome, even giving us the time to check into our guest rooms before dinner. (Which were pretty nice, by the way, and a good way to avoid driving tipsy on windy mountain roads after a dinner.)

Our table, when we were finally settled at it, turned out to be in a perfect location. Like most two-tops, it was facing the panoramic windows, and would have shown a dramatic sunset had we arrived in time for our reservation. Alas, there was only darkness to be seen during our much delayed dinner. I imagine that this lack of a view is part of the reason why the restaurant takes an extended winter break. Overall, about 3/4 of the tables were occupied on this first Friday after reopening. White table cloths and a flower adorned each table, but otherwise the experience didn't feel too formal, thanks to a great staff that spoke good English.

The restaurant offered two tasting menus: a “best of” menu and a more current, mostly pescatarian menu that featured fish and seafood from the Mediterranean sea. For both menus, it was possible to add two optional courses from the other menu. At the staff's recommendation, we went with the “best of” menu, and shared the two optional courses for good measure. An a la carte (or rather prix fixe) menu was also available. The wine pairing consisted of nice enough wines, with generous pours and additional top-offs in case one managed to run low regardless. For the price, it was a fairly good deal.

We ordered a glass of Champagne to start (and to relax after our drive), and the first two appetizers arrived soon thereafter. A choux pastry was filled with red shrimp and topped with osetra caviar. It was crunchy and lightly sweet, both from the sugar on the pastry shell and from the shrimp. I couldn't really taste the caviar, and unlike most choux pastries, there didn’t seem to be any cream inside of it 16.

Date mussels are, or rather used to be, a local seafood specialty. These days, it is illegal to harvest them since they burrow deeply into rock, and extracting them by force severely damages the local marine ecosystem. Quattro Passi served a recreation of this illegal mollusk, complete with a little “reef” that the bites were lodged in. A little sphere made from kombu seaweed and mollusk water was held inside a cone-shaped tuile. This fake seafood didn't have much texture, and its taste was hard to place. Earthy? Burnt? Bitter? In any case, it wasn't exactly selling the date mussel as something worth breaking the law for to eat 14.

Three more amuse bouches came next. A little pizza bread was filled with ricotta and topped with a tomato jelly, and served in a paper wrapping meant to ressemble a pizza oven. It was a reminder that the restaurant had originally opened as a pizzeria some forty years ago. The bread was decent enough, cheesy and a bit fruity from the tomatoes, but for an appetizer it felt a bit heavy 14. A little ball of fried eggplant had a doughy texture, and didn't actually taste much of eggplant. Again decent, but somewhat heavy 15. The best of the three bites was a tuile topped with an anchovy. The tuile was based on cheese (an interesting choice), and the fish had a slightly sour and quite fishy taste (in a good way). Some lemon zest completed the bite. Fresh tasting and thankfully much lighter than the other two appetizers 17.

Three kinds of bread were offered. “Sails” had been made from provolone cheese. Compared to normal cheese crackers, these turned out to be pretty bready, maybe a bit too much so 14. Grissini had a crumbly crunch and some spices - very nice 15. Finally, there were two sliced breads, one made with chamomile, the other a country bread. Served warm, they were not too remarkable, but went quite well with the provided, strong-tasting olive oil. The country bread was nicely crunchy as well 15.

Our first “real” course was an addition from the other tasting menu. What looked like slices of lardo were actually made from thinly-sliced cuttlefish and yellowtail. I think our waiter mentioned that a little bit of actual lardo had been added for the mouthfeel - so there might have been a tiny bit of cheating. The cuttlefish was really nice and creamy, and a bit of black pepper added some spice to it. The yellowtail didn't have too much taste by itself, so I assume its main purpose was to add a bit of color, to prevent the dish from being entirely white. On a separate plate was a small cracker topped with broad beans. The beans were nice enough, but the cracker was quite hard, almost stale (13 at most). Overall a nice dish, and already the second time where an ingredient was recreated by different means 16.

The next dish, called “squid flower”, was very pretty. Little slices of squid had been rolled up and stacked to resemble a flower. The squid sat on a langoustine tartare and some apple water. It was topped by Italian osetra caviar and there was some parsley powder on the side. In no particular order: the caviar was very strongly flavored and pronouncedly fishy - not my favorite when eaten by itself. The squid was tender and lemony, the langoustine very fresh and also lemony but otherwise light in flavor. So in summary, all components were decent by themselves. But taken together - wow! The saltiness and fishiness of the caviar, the lemon flavors from the other components, different kinds of creaminess from the squid and the langoustine, a hint of parsley - all of this went together beautifully, creating an excellent dish 18.

A red mullet fillet came sandwiched between two thin waffles, and the whole had been prepared like a panini. In a bowl next to it was a potato foam on top of an orange marmalade. To be honest, the fish sandwich was not my favorite. First of all, the fish itself didn't taste of much - maybe more salt would have helped. Also, the sandwich had a fatty, fried flavor, kind of like a fish stick sandwich. This felt a bit too rustic for a three-star meal. The potato foam was much better, and the addition of orange was interesting, the fruitiness actually worked quite well here 15.

On to the second optional course from the other tasting menu. Mazzamanica pasta was served with a yellowtail butter, caper water and pine nuts. The pasta was very al dente, with a slightly creamy texture. The butter had a very light fish taste. It was made by cooking the yellowtail for a long time, then extracting the juices of the cooked fish and combining them with butter. The pine nuts added some welcome nuttiness to the dish. It may have looked simple, but this was an excellent pasta 18.

The following dish was also pasta, linguine to be precise. It was served with small slices of zucchini and seasoned with a mixture of 12- and 24-month-old Parmesan cheese. This preparation was inspired by a dish from Sorrento that used Provolone instead of Parmesan. The pasta was again cooked al dente, the zucchini nicely roasted, but (for better or worse) the cheese flavor felt a bit straightforward - no hidden complexity here. Good, but not mind-blowing 17.

Gnocchi were also presented Sorrento style. They were filled with a lamb ragu and surrounded by a San Marzano tomato sauce and a mozzarella foam. The gnocchi were extremely light, almost airy. The meat flavor was pretty weak though, it paled in comparison to the intensely aromatic tomatoes. The mozzarella foam tempered the exuberance of the tomato flavors and thereby added some elegance to the dish. Wonderful 18.

Finished with the three pasta courses, we moved on to a seabass filet that was wrapped in roma lettuce. It was served with a beurre blanc that contained some sorrel leaves. The fish was nicely cooked, but relatively light in flavor. Most of the taste of this dish came from the sauce, which had a nice acidity and lemoniness, but felt a bit heavier than would have been ideal 17.

Our final savory course was a filet of veal, served with a demi glace lemon reduction and a healthy helping of herbs. The veal's texture was a bit soft, we wondered whether this was a case of too much sous vide, and too little pan-frying. The sauce was a tad too acidic for my taste. But what truly made this dish were the herbs: they were full of flavor, and added freshness to what would otherwise have been a somewhat heavy, wintry dish. Very good 17.

The pre-dessert was a lime sorbet finished with mint foam and kiwi. These three green ingredients went really well together. While the lime had the strongest flavor, the kiwi and mint rounded out the result. Incidentally, this dish was paired with a peppery cordial liquor instead of wine. The sweet, lemony, slightly spicy drink was also quite tasty 17.

We received two different desserts, one per person. Mine was a saffron rice pudding that was served on top of a chocolate base filled with pistachios. The consistency of the rice was great, and it had a strong saffron flavor. The pistachios added some nuttiness to the dish. My dining companion (my sister) would have rated this a 19 - she loved that the chocolate shell was a bit salty and peppery, which added a savory component to the dish. I thought that the rice in combination with the chocolate made for a relatively heavy dessert. Not bad, but something lighter would have been better 17.

The second dessert actually was just that - lighter. Inspired by Tiramisu, it was made with a cream of coffee and Baileys that sat on top of a meringue. The cream was covered with cocoa powder and a potato (sic!) ice cream. Thankfully (?), it turned out that the ice cream didn't really taste of potatoes. Overall this was wonderfully light dessert whose components (other than the potatoes) were easily identifiable: Baileys, coffee, cocoa, meringue. Very nice 17.

We had already seen them next to the entrance of the restaurant, and on various serving vessels: colored eggs, apparently the logo (or the mascots?) of the restaurant. I asked our server for the story behind them, but I only gathered that the family running the restaurant also had lots of hens at some point. Whatever the case, the petit fours were dominated by a collection of little chocolate eggs, each of them a different color and flavor. Before we got to the eggs, though, there were two other bites. First, a chocolate praline flavored with eggplant, which was about as weird as one would expect based on the description - savory and only slightly sweet 13. Next, a Santa Rosa pastry that was filled with vanilla cream and topped with a cherry. Crunchy and tasty enough, but a bit on the heavy side, and not really that distinctive 14 (my sister would have rated it a 17, though, so it definitely wasn't bad).

Finally, the chocolate eggs. The first one we tried was flavored with ruccola, and did indeed taste a bit bitter and of salad 14. Better, but more conventional, was an egg flavored with coffee 15. An egg containing an orange coffee liquor tasted a bit of aniseed 13. Another liquor-filled egg tasted simply weird to us 13. Better was an egg seasoned with pepper, which started out tasting sweet but finished with a peppery aftertaste 14. Even better was a rosemary flavor that went well with the chocolate 15. We ended on a high note: orange and chocolate with a caramelly note 16.

Overall: A delightful dinner with a few outstanding courses, great service and an amazing view. Everything was enjoyable, and there were no real misses among the main courses. My only nitpick would be that a fair number of the courses were on the heavier side, especially considering that they were part of a long tasting menu 17.