Il Paiolo — Restaurant in Milan

Il Paiolo is not messing around, there are no bright lights, shiny signs and bravado here and it doesn't need it!

This is a restaurant for food and for wine that is simple but fantastic.

The host was a great professional, courteous and had great timing in his interactions with me.

For wine I went with the 2015 Barolo which did not dissapoint.

Food I had a generous starting plate of the salami, alongside crusty but internally soft bread.

Secondly the ravioli with ragu and creme, this dish was so good that I ended up using the remaining bread to clear the sauce and ragu once the ravioli was baked in my memory.

For the main course I opted to go with a fillet of beef, topped with creme and green capers. I did not order anything additional to accompany this as I wanted to simply enjoy the fillet, the creme sauce was fantastic and paired very well with the capers.

The steak was cooked medium rare which for me was perfect, it cut easily and so I knew it was going to be tender and juicy which didn't dissapoint.

After more Barolo and a small break dessert was the classic tiramisu which I cannot fault at all.

Overall a great experience and would recommend to anyone visiting Milan and wanting to get a little bit away from the...

We did a quick search for a nice, comfortable place for a simple dinner, & found this place. Reviews were pretty good so we just showed up, without reservation. There was some doubt as to whether they could accommodate, which was surprising as there were plenty of empty tables. The no-nonsense cameriere/host (maybe owner?) found us a table & later it became quite crowded, with some waiting outside, so maybe reservations aren't a bad idea. The wife had what she hoped would be a spicy spaghetti dinner, while I opted for a house specialty of ravioli. Sadly, the only thing spicy in her dish was one hot pepper, so she had to resort to her old standby of Tobasco (she loves her food spicy!). Mine was quite nice, with a nice meat sauce. Not a huge portion by American standards, but just the right amount. We finished off with tiramisu made to mama's recipe. Pretty good, although we thought tiramisu we had in Venice was a bit better. The price of everything, including the glass of house wine, was quite reasonable. There was a €3 per person seating charge, so there was no need for an...

I don't usually post reviews, but this particular experience bothered me. My husband and I had walked from La Duomo Cathedral, to IL Paiolo restaurant. It was a lovely evening, but a long, hot walk nonetheless. It took us 30+ minutes to get there. We were seated rather quickly. After sitting for a good 7-8 minutes, I had to tap my glass on the table to get some attention. A busser brought over a water bottle and plopped it on the table. We did our own pour. We also had to ask for menus and then ask for our order to be taken. Food was good, with good portion sizes, and reasonable prices. And while all other tables had breadsticks and a plate of flat bread, we had nothing. I had to ask for bread. After our meal, the server came over and reached across in front of me to grab the cheese dish, without an "excuse me" Then, we waited about 7 min and had to ask for our bill. Needles to say he got a stingy tip. I felt like we were a bother. Will never go back, no matter how good...