Silene — Restaurant in Unione dei Comuni Montani Amiata Grossetana

Acceptable, not exceptional.

We decided to come here as it was the only Michelin restaurant open for lunch nearby us. My partner and I both work in the Michelin world so we are very familiar with the general experience of a tasting menu and of course because of that, already have a level of expectation. Our comments are mostly constructive so I would like to add that the staff and overall experience was pleasant, however we were looking for more.

Menu: We had the 38 year tasting menu however one was modified to be vegetarian. First thing to note is that portion sizes are very small even for this style of dining. The majority of dishes were great, the canapé and the unusual salad was particularly enjoyable, the spinach ricotta ravioli were exceptional.

The vegetarian menu was lacking on a few courses and the menu descriptions ideally need revisiting to reflect this. The Borage Saccottini was so salty it was hard to finish, pre course was a single porcino mushroom, not plural, and the main course read “eggplant steak with yogurt” however what was presented was 2 baby melanzane that were deep fried served with Crème fraîche and berries, which were mouldy. This course was therefore not eaten and this was not addressed by anyone after we made them aware.

We were then asked to “do you want the cheese before the dessert?” we were surprised and said we I didn’t realise there was a cheese course next, yes before dessert is better. We later discovered this was a chargeable extra and felt frustrated that we were positioned the course in such a way that implied it was included.

Dessert disappointingly had none of the delicate flavours or aromas of panettone, it was overwhelmed with a flavour of hot batter. Petit fours were tasteless and dry with the exception of the chocolate which was delicious but had not been tampered correctly and was slipping from our fingers when we tried to pick it up.

Wine: We started with a glass of champagne, presented with only one option and poured before tasting. Our glasses were far under the correct measure and one glass had noticeably more than the other.

We chose our bottle, a Sangiovese with 19 years of age was brought from the cellar without a cradle and then placed upright. The sommelier doubted the first bottle was good so went to get a second but didn’t mention anything when they took the bottle away from the table. The second bottle was good, and to our surprise poured into our glasses directly from the bottle. We had to ask for it to be decanted. Given the beautiful Zalto Burgundy glasses, the wine would have been able to open up, albeit much slower, without decanting. The primary concern was the sediment. Unfortunately our glasses had sediment from the first pour and decanting was done without any light so very disappointingly we had a considerable amount of sediment throughout. The decanter was washed with wine from our bottle when there was already wine in a glass from the test pour that could have been used. The end of the bottle was filtered and added to our glasses without asking if that is what we wanted.

We still had a good time, but can’t help but feel we could have made a better choice. Any small acknowledgement of our celebration would have made a huge difference, we were celebrating something very special and came here hoping our experience would...

Chef Roberto’s ‘Silene’ in the village of Pescina in the Val D’Orca sets an untouchable standard for other more featured go-to’s in the Montalcino and Pienza area. Those towns have a size, accommodations, culture, wine and history to recommend them, true … along with deluges of expectant and/or indifferent tourists ticking their boxes… But tiny Pescina has a single star to guide discerning diners to it, a Michelin star at that — SILENE. Must-tries are any of the house-made duck egg-bound pastas with fillings and sauces directly sourced from the immediate area including restaurant’s garden, in a word — love. Fig-fed chicken nestled into field-on-a-plate baby vegetables, every moist and delicate texture surprised by a scattering of fresh horseradish. Desserts of hand-crafted gelato, mousses and millefogle unsurpassed, the highest quality chocolate ‘kisses’ filled with Silene’s own olive oil perched upon a salted disc of feather-light crunch. I was longing for others I saw going to different tables. The restaurant’s manicured garden has comfy chairs and tables alongside a fishing lake. They sprout up among the vegetables, herbs and a packed greenhouse. A beautiful, relaxing grace note to the lunch. A destination. A constellation of 6 tables. A staff who has to pass courses in un-snootiness as well as food and sommelier service. A charismatic and multitalented chef that comes out and talks to you like a pal. Can’t wait to go back. (I discovered later there is a hotel in the...

We read about Silene before our trip to the south of Tuscany, but did not plan to eat there as we planned to stick with osteria-level restaurants. Since the ones we had in mind were all closed on Tuesdays on our way back to the house after a long day of sightseeing we decided to check if there was a table for two available at Silene. We were lucky and started our experience in the lovely orchard enjoying the sunset. The food was exceptional: Veal tartare, tagliolini filled with pigeon meat, lamb, duck - it was all quite an amazing experience of taste and texture. The wine menu is offering some of the best wines of Europe and should offer a wine for everyone’s taste. We also liked that the chef went from table to table during the desert - a good habit to welcome the guests personally and get direct feedback in that class of restaurants. What spoiled our experience a little was that he didn’t stop at our table whereas he had longer conversations in Italian and English with all other guests. Maybe he was not so happy about our outfit, that admittedly wasn’t perfect for such an evening. Maybe he mixed us up with someone else since when he went by he quickly said “Benvenuti bentornati”, but we have never been...