This review is based upon the time when Pino Lavarra was the Executive Chef. He has left the restaurant and the new Executive Chef is Michele Deleo.

Of course it is not possible for a restaurant to achieve greatness without a complete set-up of talented staff, but Rossellinis Ristorante is a lot about Executive Chef Giuseppe Lavarra or “Pino” Lavarra as everyone calls him.

Super talented Pino Lavarra can not be more Italian and he is today no doubt one of Italy’s most gifted chefs. He has devoted his whole life to the absolute culinary heights and was almost raised in a kitchen since his mother was a school cook and lot of his childhood was spent close to cooking. Pino Lavarra was only 14 years old when he started to study in the catering school in Castellana Grotte and since then he has been completely devoted to the life as a chef. After several years abroad in Germany, Malaysia and especially several successful years in England he was given an offer he could not refuse – first he joined the newly opened Palazzo Sasso in 1997, but he went back to England again and first 2001 he was back at Palazzo Sasso and this time as the Executive Chef.

Palazzo Sasso is one of many five star hotels at the incredibly beautiful Amalfi Coast in the southern Italian region Campania, but certainly one of the very best hotels in the area and with the best restaurant. The hotel and its Rossellinis Ristorante is located in the amazingly conspicuous Ravello that is a must visit for everyone at least once in a lifetime.

Start your evening at the companion piano bar Café dell’Arte with a glass of sparkling and then prepare for one of Italy’s finest restaurants with a service of absolute world class and food to always yearn for. Start with the must buffalo mozzarella composition with different interpretations of the Italian cheese from Caprese to the sorbet and from the smoked eel to the tomato balloon. There are of course several pasta dishes to proceed with, but we can recommend the soufflé ravioli filled with crab and spring onion, zucchini, potato cream and roasted crab essence. For fish you should try the John Dory fillet cooked with Senise pepper flour, poached young broccoli, crushed potato & oyster, squid milk sauce that is close to as delicious as the ingenious lamb wrapped in Podolico cheese crust, spring vegetables and beautifully crafted mirrow potatoes. There are several other dishes just as good so we recommend the Gran Degustazione menu for a long and wonderful evening.

There is much more to say about Rossellinis Ristorante and Pino Lavarra’s brilliance, but the restaurant should be experienced on your own and ideally with the one you love because the restaurant has some of the most breathtaking views and romantic settings available.

Written by Andy