Casa Vicina is not just any Italian restaurant. It is run by the Vicina family, and by the fourth generation of this Piemontese restaurateur family. Claudio Vicina and his wife Anna run the kitchen while Stefano Vicina heads up the dining room. They started their journey at the Vicina family restaurant in Borgofranco d’Ivrea and then moved to Turin in 2003 and in 2007 they opened up at Eataly.

If you have not already been to Eataly you are in for two great experiences. Eataly is the gourmet supermarket and the centrepiece of the slow food movement. The store in Turin was the first, and now more stores have opened in Italy and around the world. Here you will find a great selection of olive oils, hams, cheeses, it is the place in the world if you are looking for premium Italian produce.

Casa Vicina is hidden away in the basement of Eataly. It is situated in the wine cellar part of Eataly. Since Casa Vicina co-operates with Eataly it means you have a selection of 2,200 different wines, the majority Italian with a focus on Piemonte. Thanks to this, Casa Vicina probably has one of the better Italian wine lists in the world and especially Piemontese wines with its Barolos, Barbarescos and Barberas.

The restaurant itself is clean and modern and spacious which makes up for being in a cellar. The dishes are traditional, but the cooking style is current, creative and lighter. So you will find classical dishes such as vitello tonnato, insalata russa or agnolotti, but reworked for today. Which means the veal tongue will have the traditional flavours, but be tastier and more elegantly served, thinly layered as a mille-feuille.

If you are in Turin, dining at Casa Vicina and shopping at Eataly is a must. Fourth generation restaurateurs Stefano, Claudio and his wife Anna are a guarantee of flavours and with the fifth generation working there you know they will develop in course of time.

Written by Joakim