Offered a table at the Langosteria bistro in Milano during prime time seems scene on a Saturday night seems rare. What can you say about a beautifully designed restaurant in Milan with excellent service – Bellissimo

No doubt, there is a lot of attention to detail but when you want to eat seafood in Milano, I am not the expert to ask. In the past when you wanted to eat fish, many would argue the unmistakable Milanese charm of ristorante da Giacomo was top on the list. 

Langosteria is contemporary, trendy and has a good vibe, you either adore or dislike it, it all depends if desert is important or not. The room is beautifully designed modelled after some historical bistro ideology, it has a good sense of style and a terrace in the summer, a definite advantage to city life. But the tables seem too narrow for sharing a platter of seafood, and that’s either cozy or crazy.

The difficulty with any fish restaurant is trying to convince clients all the fish are caught longline and not farmed, something quite difficult to do. Can you imagine how many fishermen we would need to maintain the supply to please all those insatiable appetites, clients in major cities across Europe demanding the freshest. The fish was presented to us, one sea bream and one Saint Pierre, it was obvious the Saint Pierre was the better choice.

Some thought the St. Pierre was over cooked, a little more cooked than we expect but cooking St. Pierre as a whole fish is very difficult. The fish has an uneven carcass and once cleaned the thickness varies making it difficult to cook perfectly, a little like a chicken, the legs protein cook differently and are bulky, while the breast cooks quicker.

The fried seafood they offered us, a basket of red shrimp and calamari, the batter was modelled after classical Japanese tempura, light and fluffy it was delicious. The menu seems extensive and contemporary yet below the fluff you have the very foundations of all Italian styles.

The al cartoccio cooking en papillote, or alla mugnaia typically “a la meuniere” as we know in France butter on butter, or the Livornese-style Italian seafood dish smothered in a flavorful crushed tomatoes, capers, olives was probably on the menu. I missed the Sicilian-style Agrodolce /ah-groh-DOLE-chay/ the zing of sweet and sour one of the signature flavors of the Sicilian kitchen. Simmered capers, pine nuts, raisins, fresh mint, wine vinegar topped with sliced marinated onions.

This night we settled for a 1.5kg St. Pierre simply grilled the Ligurian way cooked in the oven using basic ingredients, taggiasca olives and extra virgin oil. I am not going to critique Langosteria to the nth-degree but what I can say is; once could be enough for some.

Cool and clean the crab slice with virgin olive oil