Panson dal 1790 — Restaurant in Genoa

Pansön is a tourist-friendly restaurant serving Ligurian cuisine, heavy on seafood and pasta dishes -- both done fresh and with high quality. The menus are in Italian and you will feel most comfortable if you can read Italian, but there is generally a manager on hand who is eager (perhaps overly so!) to translate the menu into English and make suggestions, highlighting specialties of the house.

For starters we had smoked tuna and bacala (salt cod) which each came served on a bed of arugula, accompanied by fresh black pepper and a large bottle of olive oil for drizzling. We opted for primi -- pasta dishes -- and were delighted with our pesto alla Genovese and seafood risotto, both expertly done. The dessert was sublime: zuppa inglese, which is a cross between a blancmange and a tiramisu; and sacripanti, which is a panettone-like cake layered with chocolatey rum-based cream. We asked for a wine recommendation after ordering and were delighted with our bottle of Bianchetta, a medium-dry white wine from Liguria that went well with all three courses.

Beyond the food, the staff make Pansön very special. The waiter is a jovial and hard-working fellow who connects with his diners; he loves to joke and to make small talk, but renders top-notch service while he does so. He truly made us feel at home, speaking well-enunciated Italian and keeping his vocabulary simple, switching to basic English when he felt we were lacking comprehension. The manager was hovering in the wings with his fluent English in case things got out of hand, but hospitality is truly an international language and we never felt the need to call for backup.

One downside of the restaurant is that it's located in a large and very busy square adjacent to several bars; the noise can be quite intense at times, ruining what would otherwise be a beautifully romantic environment. On the other hand, this makes the restaurant easy to find and there are plenty of other tourists about, rendering the walk there and away relatively free of the claustrophobic I'm-going-to-be-mugged feeling that Genova's small alleyways can so often inspire.

If I return to Genova, I will make Pansön my first...

Stayed at this place in September. Rooms small and very basic but very clean.||Comfy beds.||Lots of stairs to the rooms but not a problem, beautiful building, marble staircases.||The host Sandro is very welcoming and very charming.||Perfect location to visit the old town of Genoa.and Porto antico .||Rooms overlook a vibrant piazza Della Erbe with lovely bars and restaurants. No live music just the sounds of people chatting and eating.||You MUST go to the restaurant downstairs as the food is simply delicious proper authentic Italian food and very reasonably priced, and meet the lovely Raffaele the restaurant waiter.||On arrival you need to go the restaurant first where Sandro welcomes you and humoured my husbands Italian, you then are shown to your room with access to a different staircase.||Genoa is an Italian hidden gem , lots of local produced products and food.where English is rarely spoken.and the people as so proud of their town.||Definitely...

Stayed at this place in September. Rooms small and very basic but very clean.||Comfy beds.||Lots of stairs to the rooms but not a problem, beautiful building, marble staircases.||The host Sandro is very welcoming and very charming.||Perfect location to visit the old town of Genoa.and Porto antico .||Rooms overlook a vibrant piazza Della Erbe with lovely bars and restaurants. No live music just the sounds of people chatting and eating.||You MUST go to the restaurant downstairs as the food is simply delicious proper authentic Italian food and very reasonably priced, and meet the lovely Raffaele the restaurant waiter.||On arrival you need to go the restaurant first where Sandro welcomes you and humoured my husbands Italian, you then are shown to your room with access to a different staircase.||Genoa is an Italian hidden gem , lots of local produced products and food.where English is rarely spoken.and the people as so proud of their town.||Definitely...