Bruscello Bistrò — Restaurant in Siena

I have a confession to make - this is my favourite restaurant in Siena, and probably the whole of Tuscany. Every year I come to Siena for 2-3 weeks, I dine here at least 3 times. Ever since I stumbled on Bruschello, bought my olive oil at their cute concept store integrated into the restaurant, and decided to try the food, I have counted my blessings. Located only 5 min walk from Piazza del Campo, hugging the medieval wall, it is away from the crowds and where you also see the locals, especially on weekdays. This August (2024) I came for lunch with friends, and numerous dinners, and enjoyed such wonderful dishes as handmade gnocchi stuffed with gorgonzola and the most elegant creamy porcini sauce; lovely suppli starter stuffed with meat, wonderful tagliata steak, soft melting in one's mouth, perfectly cooked, accompanied with fresh porcini mushrooms, and the best herbed roast potatoes.

The Chef is a genius, as his pastas are a thing of beauty (and i rarely order pasta anywhere else, even in Michelin places, but I do here!) They also make everything else in-house, from mixed taralli, to at least two types of bread that one gets served with olive oils from top producers. All produce/ingredients used are exceptional and seasonal. Fantastic value for money for the quality of food, topped with doze of creativity and modern twist on Italian (and Tuscan in particular) classics. Even the humble lasagna for lunch here is creamy, melt in your mouth goodness. My friends really enjoyed the wild boar ragu pasta and handmade picci.

Some of my favourites heartily recommended are - gazpacho with burrata - if it is on the menu - get it! Beef cheek in Chianti sauce, fab, as is the rabbit roll. Also, pistachio cake is to die for. Great wines by the glass, go with Marco's recommendation, the wine list changes regularly, and profiles local producers, often bio/organic ones.

The place is vegetarian friendly, solo traveller friendly, and child friendly in my regular observation; pet friendly too. This place is a must. Dinner service, especially in the summer, is busy, so allow time to enjoy it at leisure and do book, especially if you prefer to sit outside with candles and fairylights overlooking the medieval wall and buildings...

Since I had never had so many emotions dining at a restaurant and do normally post no reviews, I felt obligated to write one.

When I arrived at Bruscello, I was fatigued and in a bad mood. My distress was continually blown away, as the host gave me such an affectionate, warm hearted reception, gave me well chosen wine suggestions and overall treated me almost as a member of his family.

The dishes, that I was especially curious about were the chicken liver parfait and the risotto with fresh burrata.

"Chicken liver parfait with brown butter, sour-sweet pickled red onion, toasted hazelnuts and homemade sourdough bread."

I could not believe, that somebody bakes it's own sourbread at a restaurant, since it's a very time consuming job. And yes, the bread is beeing baked by the chef himself, I even had the chance to take a quick glance on the procedure. The parfait put a spell on me, beeing a savoury dish by itself, it had a resemblance of a chocolate praliné. My brain was constantly switching back and forth between savoury and sweet, which awoke all my senses.

"Risotto with fresh burrata and porcini mushrooms"

The whole dish was as light as a cloud and the rice was cooked to perfection. The dark toned porcini powder sprinkles with the clear white of the risotto reminded me of the first snow in the year. Once again I was astonished, the pulverized dried porcini had almost cocoa like properties with an optical resemblance of a dessert.

The Chef is a magician, his dishes surprised and inspired me deeply. I left Bruscello with a warm...

We had a lovely dinner experience here and can recommend everyone visiting / living in Siena. The staff is super friendly and helpful, the atmosphere is welcoming and the food is the best we tried during our Italy trip. They recreated the Italian specialities with their own innovative touch which brings a different journey everyone

We started with parmesan eggplants and the beef tongue. I am a big eggplant-fan, and this was a very good example 😍 (my partner loved the beef tongue too) Then continued with gorgonzola gnocchi; one of the best gnocchis I have ever tried 😋 As we couldn’t stop eating coperto (different varities of sourdough bread), we couldn’t make the secondi. But secured dessert (delicious tiramisu 🥰). And all companied by great white wine from Toscana. The whole dinner experience from beginning to end has been unique 🤩

Couple of quick info: the place is easy accessible child friendly, there were couples with children both vegetarian & non-vegetarian options available great selection on wine (both bottle & glass), you can also purchase bottles as take away ask staff 😊 their recommendations made us to find the...