Enoclub — Restaurant in Alba

So this review is a one for both restaurants. They have Caffe Umberto upstairs and Enoclub downstairs. Same waitstaff, but different chefs and menus.

My wife was sick the night we had a reservation for Enoclub so I was lucky to secure a seat at the bar solo for dinner at Caffe Umberto. The staff couldn't have been nicer! Their focaccia bread is homemade and incredibly delicious. I started with their gnocchi which were like light pillows of air- so delish! For dinner my server recommended their fried calamari, which in this region just isn't a common dish. This was outstanding! The fry was so light and the calamari was so soft and delicious. This description just doesn't do it justice. Service was outstanding.

Two nights later, we came back for our dinner at Enoclub and again we had an outstanding night. Their somm recommended a fantastic wine and we were off. White truffles began in Alba that day and we enjoyed them on beef carpaccio, a lightly cooked egg, and finally on buttered pasta. WOWW.

Service was excellent and we truly recommend BOTH of these terrific...

We went to the place for dinner after spending the day arc the truffle festival. The place is a bit hard to find as it’s just a door on the street and you would have to press the bell to go in. Once downstairs the cellar is exquisite in its old world charm.

We were welcomed with some anti pasti and we ordered some wine. The wine suggestions were very good. I ordered veal sirloin and my friend had tajarin. The veal was really soft but served with some steamed broccoli it was nothing extraordinary. I liked it for the meal but it’s not special. For the dessert I ordered a caramel pudding which was really tasty. The waiter suggested a sweet wine with it which went very well.

The restaurant knows about it’s food and presentation was great. The servers were a bit cold and the food was not exceptional. The servers definitely knows their wine and can make good wine pairings...

We came to alba because we wanted to eat truffle. We wanted to eat white truffle and hoped that they have it. We found out that the white truffle season starts im October. So we ordere the dishes with black truffle. I had tartar with truffle and tajarin with mushrooms and truffle. My tartar was good but the addiotion of 10.- for the black truffle ( that tasted like nothing) was just not justified. Than I had very plain unsalted tajarin wit mushrooms and truffles. The whole dish was was a huge disappointment. I really expected more of a one star michelin restaurant. Especially the taste of the truffle were really disappointing. There are way better restaurants that cost less and taste way way better. You are in italy man the food is not that expensive and even if not it should be...