Trattoria L'Ombelico del Mondo "Il Barrino" di Montisi — Restaurant in Montalcino

Our hotel concierge recommended this place or we would have NEVER found it or thought to go here. On the main street in the tiny town of Montisi, it looks to be a small caffe or deli from the outside, but you must go left and up the stairs to the restaurant. There are maybe 8-10 tables in 2 small dining areas. They start you with a complimentary glass of white wine which is delightful. There are no written menus, rather the servers come and tell you what they have for each of the courses. You have to kind of "hope" the prices aren't anything outrageous. But be assured, dining here will not break your bank - all menu items are reasonable. And delicious! The walls are lined with bottles of (mostly) local wine and you can peruse if you wish but there is also no written wine list. They asked us what type of wine we wanted - we said RED, something local - and they recommended a lovely, very affordable bottle from Montalcino. We had a delicious meat and cheese platter to start, some pasta dishes (the tagliatelle with garlic sauce was YUM), then I had a roasted chicken entree and my husband had a "meat loaf". The chocolate Cantucci for dessert was unique and delicious! Service takes a while, so try not to be in a hurry. NOT TO MENTION, Geoffrey Rush (actor from Pirates of the Caribbean fame) was sitting at a table right next to us. !! Apparently he lives...

This evening was something truely special. I don't know that I can ever rate a 5 again after this one, this place stands alone.

Gianluca greeted us as we came upstairs, sat with us for a few minutes to discuss what we may like. We gave him free reign- he sat with every table, and served every one, every course. Really impressive.

Five wines and four courses later, each unbelievably better than the other, we were stuffed. And dessert… Oh my!

It's not in a cave interior, but you can get that all over Tuscany- this is very nice, clean and elegant. This is about the food experience, and isn't that why we come here... to experience a meal? And what an experience it was.

The biggest surprise was when the bill came, half what I expected or would have gladly paid for this meal… €94, total- less than we've paid for any high-end meal.

It's a bit out of the way for the typical tourist, but well worth the drive. If you enjoy exceptional food with excellent wine pairings, don't miss this, you will regret it. It could not be any better. And tell Gianluca...

A seriously great experience. After a few difficult days of travel we finally made it to Montisi. We had to call to delay our reservation and it was no problem. We are a group of 6. We showed up and were seated right away. We were treated to a beautiful sparkling wine and some bread with amazing olive oil. The chef came out and made suggestions for our meal. We loved his suggestions and let him bring out what he chose for us. Our first course was an amazing array of mixed antipasto. . For our next courses he brought out 3 different pastas for us to share. Everything was amazing. The gnocchi with saffron cream sauce was a hit with everyone. And there aren’t even words to explain how much we loved the tagliatelle. We may have fought over the last few bites. We finished up with some ice cold limoncello. I think the chef was disappointed that we didn’t have dessert but we were so full. We will have to go back to sample...