RISTORANTE AGRITURISTICO IL MULINO DELLE ORTENSIE — Restaurant in Gaiola

What a surprise! We found Il Mulino delle Ortensie through the recommendation of our AirBnB host in the village. A brief stroll away from @LouEstella, we were greeted as if we were old friends, had a lovely prosecco to start with and then a dinner that was out of this world.

There is no menu, you get a six-course dinner (three starters, one "primi", one "secondi" and desert) for EUR 37 and it is basically a "menu surprise". And what a surprise it was: one course better than the next, nice manageable portions and just creative kitchen prepared by a family business with a passion for food. With wine, water and coffee, we paid EUR 120 for the two of us. Fantastic value for money.

If you are anywhere nearby, the beautiful patio, full of hydrangeas (Ortensie in Italian) is a...

Absolutely everything was wonderful, the food was amazingly good, and for such a cheap price I still can't believe it (compared to french standards at least) ; the service was immaculate with such a friendly staff that made us laugh even with our terrible Italian and accepted us even though we had no reservations (and it looked like the sort of place you need to book ahead of time because there's only a single menu with only fresh products and they don't look like the sort of people to waste food) ; the place was so pretty and cosy.... Oh and the portions were huge we were completely full.

Clearly one of the best food...

Cena di sabato sera, la prima volta nel locale, consigliati da amici. Non voglio dilungarmi troppo, quindi cerco di essere stringato. Il locale dev'essere carino, ma ammetto di non averlo visto in quanto attovagliato in un tavolino all'ingresso. Il personale è gentile, cortese e competente. Il cibo è buono, indubbiamente, ma non indimenticabile. Il problema, per me non secondario, è che non ho potuto scegliere nulla di quanto andassi consumando. Nulla. Nel senso che il menù non c'era, né cartaceo né nella scelta reale. Onestamente, di pagare 80€ in due con una bottiglia di dolcetto, senza acqua, con antipasto, primo, niente secondo, dolce, senza caffè e digestivo, mi pare eccessivo. Il problema, per quanto riguarda me (e non pretendo sia così per tutti), è che se tu mi proponi, a Cuneo, come unico secondo, un filetto al caffè con mango, e io non lo gradisco, o mi consenti un'alternativa più "classica", oppure non mi fai pagare i 32€...