Ristorante Del Cambio — Restaurant in Turin

Very bad experience for us today. We went for lunch to this iconic place as I was born in Turin and wanted to show my city to my partner. We arrived in this empty old fashioned place and asked to be sitted. They took a while to take care of us, and instead of bringing us to the table they asked if we checked the menu before, as we probably seemed like not from here. We reassured the woman that we did, and implied we were absolutely fine with the overpriced menu (I am from Monaco and we live in London, we are sadly used to overpriced food haha) , but she then imposed us that we HAD to take AT LEAST TWO SALY DISHES to be able to sit. I mean, this was lunchtime, can I be autorizhed to eat what I want as long as I pay? If I want to sit and have 3 “sugary” dishes, what is the problem? What if I just want one? If they want to place a “bareer” to client coming in 3 and sharing a salad, I get that, but this is not the way. This is the first time that I find a place worldwide that imposes that “you HAVE to order two SALTY dishes”, what on earth does that mean? I have never seen this, and I am used to go to places with minimum spendings or menus, but this was a first. If they want to find a way to turn off young international people to Get there, I think they managed, but I cant help but sharing how restricted and unwelcome we felt: I decied to leave because choosing what I want to eat in a restaurant feels like the bear-minimum right I want to keep: I am keen to spend money to a restaurant , but at least I want to be the one deciding how :-) guys, spend your money elsewhere, where you are at least you are the boss life is too short to get snob attitudes under the excuse of an...

We came to Del Cambio with high expectations from a place that apparently had great reviews. Three hours and 420 EUR later we left hungry, disappointed and with an incipient stomach ache. A 140EUR six course menu is nothing more than a sushi bar degustation. The "chef" hasn't cooked for us tonight. He only "arranged" on fancy plates raw meat or raw fish. There is no warning on the menu that raw food is coming, nor that the "le coup de grace", the final course, is the leg of a pidgeon soaking in its own blood and with a terrible taste of game meat. We asked for something else and luckily we got a very tasty lamb dish which, even with its reduced size, became our only real cooked meal of the night. It took three hours to get the check, with 5-6 waiters all in the room, hovering among the tables incessantly, always apparently busy with something but never efficient, seldom in the process of actually serving rather arranging dishes, moving trays, taking to one another or in groups. Clearly the waiters at Del Cambio are not trained, they are far from having any real 4-5 stars expertise. They all need to learn a lot to bring the establishment to a true high class restaurant. But, even if they do, the cook, young and clearly searching for something different, will never bring Del Cambio to the class apparently it was once. All in one Del Cambio was an expensive disappointment, and clearly a "never again" dining place...

We picked a tasting menue for eur185 pp and a wine pairing for eur140pp. The service was correct but very transactional. The food was mildly put disappointing ,if not irritating. At first we were served a big bowl of rice chips , something to nibble on. The first course “tonic water granita & caviar” was an incompatible clash of frozen sprite with caviar. A combination , which kind of ruined both. 1/10.The second course, scampi , watermelon , apple and green tomatoes lacked punch and taste. 3/10. Course 3 Cattlefish mozzarella and red bagneto sauce was interesting but again pretty bland in taste.5/10. Egg yolk Tagliolini followed , which artistically looks nice but had a mouthfeel of warm wax.0/10 Cod bottom with Mediterranean sauce was ok but again lacked character and taste. 3/10. Salanova lettuce and sorrel , was a folded leaf of salad without any dressing - terrible. 0/10. Lastly pigeon bisque and egg yolk. The meat was rare , luke warm and tasted like a raw pigeon more than anything else. 1/10.The desert we never ended up trying, as we paid and left, trying to find a trattoria in the late hours. Very disappointing dinner and not worthy of a 1 Michelin star rating at all. The wine pairing for eur140 was creative but not more. The room decor, historically impressive but...