Il Terrazzino — Restaurant in Monaco

The best hidden secret in Monaco. This is where Alain Ducasse, probably the best chef in the world, goes to eat Italian in Monaco. Here it’s not about which Ferrari is parked outside, the Star is the food. What an experience, you start with the fresh mixed appetiser full of southern Italian flavours with olive oil you have never tasted before. Then the pasta are probably the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant; the ravioli were the top for me, perfectly balanced with an amazing tomato sauce but the gnocchi with Gorgonzola were out of this world as well. And it’s with simple dishes you can really test the quality of a restaurant. Next the meatballs, again simple in appearance but it was perfection. Moist, full of flavours, with little hidden pieces of melted mozzarella inside. A must have!! The dish of the day were scalopine of veal stuffed with mozzarella and Parma ham... this was the coup de grace, so much flavour, so well cooked... nothing was left. Had to try the deserts. The cannoli and panna cotta were the perfect end to a perfect Italian experience....

Due to the high reviews, we visited this restaurant. It’s nice and cosy and the staff is very friendly.

We ordered to Napoletano menu with pasta as main course. The starters were great: We got around 8/9 different dishes and the taste was amazing. It was a lot of food though.

Then came the main dishes. In our case 3 types of pasta: ravioli in tomato sauce, seafood pasta and sort of gnocci in cheese sauce. The taste of the pasta dishes were really disappointing in our opinion. Especially after the great starters.

(Note: you can choose meat or fish instead of pasta.)

Deserts were included in the menu, which we found a bit silly of how they serve it. We received two huge bowls (see picture), one filled with dough in limoncello syrup and the other filled with fruits. There’s no way that anyone can finish this, so I’m guessing this bucket will be given to other customers after we ate from it. Just to be clear, we used the scoop to take the food out of the bucket. But cannot say if everyone is...

This isn't five-star fine dining in Monaco. It's an easy place to go with kids, where a family of four can get a decent meal for less than €100.

There's no sidewalk seating or views. While the pictures show a warmly lit, cute place, the truth is that the interior is a harshly lit, garishly decorated place with paper napkins and plastic bottles of water. There's a large mural of a hot pepper volcano that dominates the main wall of the interior of the restaurant and a shrink-wrap picture of the Monaco coast along the back wall of the restaurant. I'd expect more from a restaurant with such high marks. Some wainscoting, subway tile, marble and dimmer, warmer light would go a long way.

The food is fine but not memorable. My gnocchi was overcooked, creating a paste with the underseasoned tomato sauce. My wife's ravioli was better, but again, not great. My son had penne arrabiata, which was our best entree by far. It was, however, not made from fresh pasta and had far too...