Antica Osteria della Ghiaia — Restaurant in Parma

Hands down the best meal we had in Parma during our honeymoon. One of the best of our honeymoon, actually.

The place is very small. We were there over lunch and it had more than half of the tables busy with customers.

In the entire room only one waitress (probably the owner or the manager) who served us perfectly. Very efficient, she never made us feel like she was in a rush.

The food was unbelievably good. Quite heavy (you can't eat like this every day) but perfect for us who were on a special occasion.

I tried "cappelletti" e "anolini" in 3 different places and these were the only ones that I found good. These were super good, exactly how I was picturing them.

The starter of "radicchio trevigiano with gorgonzola" won us at the first bite. The rest was an easy battle.

We didn't have dessert purely because we had already too much to eat with the other courses.

As for the wine, we tried for the first time a Sparkling Barbera. We didn't plan to drink so much as we were there for lunch but in the end we finished the...

Service was rather slow, but not unusually so for Italy. Waiter was accommodating and attentive though. Atmosphere was wonderful. As for the food: for appetizer we had the standard salami and prosciutto platter. It was solid, quite flavorful, great texture. We also had Next we had the tagletti. What a disaster. Totally ordinary pasta, filling was weak, added nothing to the dish, and you couldn't taste it at all over the ever-present and overpowering parmesan coating everything. Sauce was an afterthought. Next we had the horse stir fry. Oversalted, plain otherwise, absolutely ordinary. The horsemeat just tasted like slightly rare ground beef. No cohesion to the dish, no depth, just some veggies, potatoes, and meat hanging out in a bowl together like awkward kids at a schoolyard, nobody wanting to talk to the other. Overall a huge letdown. Maybe it's just my wife and I. Make your...

The only problem with this place is its size: it’s small and probably not good for large groups (over six or seven). The food is great and the service very attentive. This is not the place for you if you are in a hurry. I had fantastic, home made, tagliatelle with funghi porcini. The mushrooms were exceptionally good. I also had tripe. Very, very good and filling. I agree that many would not choose it and you don’t have to, but tripe is a typical dish in Parma and this place is all about local flavors. The Tourist’s menu is not a bad choice. One in my group had it and he was very satisfied (he is from Parma,...