Thankfully, it was a quiet night and there was a table available without a reservation being necessary. Most Italians, I think it is true to say, eat their main meal at home unless they are celebrating a special occasion or perhaps on a Sunday at lunchtime, when they might go to a restaurant with family. Consequently, restaurants are quite dependent on the tourist trade or at least on visitors from out of town. As we've mentioned before, Padua is not really on the tourist trail, an enormously favourable feature of the town as far as we are concerned, so we don't see here the kind of traffic of other places, and we are not constantly fighting the kind of touting that we have experienced in larger cities where restaurant owners try to coax you into their establishments as you pass by, and offer menus which contain dishes which tourists expect to find.
La Finestra is a small family-owned establishment, run by a husband and wife who really know their stuff. The table linen was of a beautiful embossed fabric, the crockery, glassware and cutlery of the highest quality and the service exemplary. The walls are interestingly decorated with take-offs of Magritte paintings, not presented in regular frames but in window frames, so that it appears you are looking through a window to these weird and wonderful visions outside. Quirky touch. I liked it a lot.
More to the point, the food was AMAZING. My entree was simply called "chicken salad" on the menu but turned out to be tiny jewels of chopped glace fruits, roasted pinenuts, moist morsels of diced chicken, baby green leaves of some description on a bed of wafer-thin scrapings of beetroot. It was absolutely divine. This photo does not do it justice, but I'm including it anyway:
I had a pumpkin risotto for my main course. It was golden, sweet, flavoursome and delicious and I couldn't possibly finish it, firstly because of its richness and secondly because of the size of the serving.
Like most people I know that carob is used as a kind of chocolate substitute, usually eaten by people who can't tolerate chocolate. The dried carob bean, however, can be ground into flour and used in all sorts of savoury dishes which bear no relationship to chocolate at all. David chose "carob ravioli" as his starter and this (he said) was probably one of the best dishes he has eaten in a restaurant anywhere in the world (high praise, no?). The ravioli parcels were light and delicate, filled with soft ricotta and served with (wait for it...) a potato sauce. Now that doesn't even sound appealing, does it? It was, however, wonderful. I know, because I tried it.
David's main course was fresh grilled tuna served on a bed of caramelised onion and accompanied by roasted vegetables. He said it was exquisite. I believe him; it looked so. Once again, I include below a photo, but it doesn't do the dish justice.
Our hostess, Helene, was very interested in learning about why we were in Padua and shared with us some interesting insights into her hometown. She was really good company and we enjoyed chatting with her and thought it added to our evening in a way that you don't usually expect when dining in a restaurant. She even introduced us to the chef, her husband, whom we were quick to shower with praise about our delicious meals. The evening finished with a complimentary digestif of rosemary, lemongrass and "serious" alcohol. It was clearly a "home brew" and an unusual but delicious combination of flavours.
So, hence consequently therefore (as a dear departed friend used to say), if you are ever in Padua, don't even think about eating anywhere else.
D1
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