Eataly: Paradise

A couple of years ago, on a cold winter evening in Turin we discovered paradise, well, foodies' paradise. 

It's called Eataly and you have probably heard from its branches in New York, Japan and several locations around Italy.

Eataly is a supermarket for quality foods, wine and beer. It brings together farmers, fishermen, butchers, bakers, beermakers, winemakers and cheesemakers who produce quality products.

Eataly Lingotto

In the Turin Lingotto branch that we visited there are also some delicious restaurants where you can taste their products, located in the different areas of the supermarket: Coffee and desserts, Gelato, Pasta, Pizza, Vegetables (where they have salads and vegetarian choices), Cheese and cold cuts, Meats, Beer bar (where you can choose among several types of draught beers or any beer you choose among the 200 different beers they sell), Wine bar (wine tastings paired with delicious food) and our favorite: Fish.

If you come here, even if you have just eaten, you won't get out without at least having a bite in one of these restaurants, all their dishes look delicious (we haven't tasted them all), staff is/are great and their prices are not as high as you may think given the high quality of their products.

The first time we had dinner at the Fish restaurant, we both had the grilled tuna and a glass of wine. When the tuna touched my mouth... I guess that was the moment I decided I wanted to become a foodie, it was the best I have ever had (no NYC's Buddakan, Milan's Claudio or any place else can compete with this one): so soft, tasty and delicate, as a side dish they give you some songino salad with carrots julienne and a teaspoon of coarse salt which are the perfect side to exalt the taste of the tuna. It was so good that we also came for lunch the following day and had exactly the same!

So this time we came and we knew exactly where to go:

a Barolo that is my age!

1st stop: Winery - We found out that they had one of our favorite wines (Lafoa Sauvignon Blanc from Südtirol) at a great price and also many other really good ones (obviously the variety of the Piedmont region's wines is higher - local wines). Unfortunately on both times we came to Turin by train so we couln't buy as much as we wanted to.

2nd stop: Beers - I'm not a beer person (as I worte in my Köln post) but the variety they have here is impressing, they also have the Baladin, a brewery from Piedmont, in the heart of the wine country of the region. They produce a good variety of award-wining beers inspired by the belgians. Here I found my favorite beer, the Bellevue Kriek, a sweet Belgian cherry beer (the beer for the girls).

3rd stop: Bread corner - They have the best coarse salt one can get (the same they use for the grilled tuna).

4th stop: Fish restaurant - After all the wine and beer excursion we deserved our tuna! It was as delicious as I remembered, only this time we got an extra side of potatoes and a teaspoon of mustard which goes very well with the tuna. (We payed 20 euro per person for the tuna and a glass of Sauvignon)

Best tuna ever!

We also visited the new branch in the centre of Turin (Via Lagrange), they have a smaller version of the supermarket, a good coffee shop and a restaurant that serves dishes with pasta (from the smell I could tell it was good), and, if you choose a bottle of wine from their supermarket, they open it for you (and chill it if it's a white wine) so you can drink it with your pasta, no extra charge! We were getting ready for a special dinner elsewhere so we only had a drink: a glass of Bellavista Franciacorta Satin and oysters, again, delicious. (10 euro per person)

Inside Eataly Lagrange

Unfortunately the Milan branch is not as good (it's in the -1 level of Coin in Piazza 5 giornate), and we've noticed prices are higher so we'd better start planning our next visit to Turin.

Eataly is a must for a foodie visiting Turin so, what are you waiting for?!