La Korte Dei Sapori Persi - PAVIA

The best restaurant in Pavia for an everyday lunch.

Sunday spur of the moment trip to Pavia and where do we eat? A run through foodie sites and follow up calls turned up only landside menues of cheese and fat laden cooked foods. Nothing wrong with that, but not our cup of tea. Without much hope, we stumble upon this place in a nondescript square far from downtown. Once inside, we are greeted with warmth and friendliness in a well lit space with minimal clutter, other than wine bottles on minishelves on the walls. We went for, oh surprise, octopus appetizers, swordfish and eggplant pasta and seared tuna with zucchini. Everything was overwhemingly fresh and well presented. Service was blazing fast despite the warning that everything was cooked on order. The wine suggestion, a Gavi, was very good. Against our instincts, we went for dessert. It was good if you like buttery chocolate, which we don't, but we have noone but us to blame. Toilets were spacious and spanking clean. Only weak point: we weren't offered a wine list, so we went blind on the price of the Gavi. €18 possibly a little overpriced, hence the reticence. Not a big deal, though.

The place is very good if you need a quality restaurant with space (I went there with a dozen of colleagues). They have a small choice of dishes, but they are all extremely tempting and you will end up in trouble about what to chose. To start, they served us a plate of different hams and salami, and also some culatello, the best Italian raw ham. Then we took basically fish, all very good. They have a very wide choice of wines. The place is not in the center, but it can be easily reached with a walk, in particular if you come from the hospital. Maybe the service can be improved (one of us received his pasta when all the other had already finished).

We were x lunch on Easter day, nice location, eaten discreetly, excellent wine card, clean room staff prepared and friendly, prices a little altini.

Excellent menu, excellent presentation of the dishes, excellent wine paper . the dishes I tasted were really good and balanced. great service also. the right account . if I have to make a note: near us there was a large and very noisy company, so it was difficult to listen to people at our table. Maybe the room manager could have put it differently.