Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy: Chases Michelin Perfection

The cooking here is exacting and meticulous. To eat at Piazza Duomo is not only to consume: it is to be cradled garden to plate. Chef Enrico Crippa and his Esercito Italiano pluck vegetables and herbs from land moments from Alba, specifically, the Monsordo Bernardina Estate belonging to the Ceretto family.


Piazza Duomo’s Vaggio Menu second course: uni carpaccio with pecornio and tomato jam served with a Moscato d’Asti (out of shot)

Our dinner mostly delights and challenges us course by course. A collage of uni carpaccio with pecorino cream and tomato jam is served with a nutty and exceptionally smooth almond ice cream laced with even more sea urchin and coffee. An assembly of incongruent ingredients come together harmoniously. This is paired with a meringue-like Moscato d’Asti cloaked in a black wine glass which, we are told, is deliberately provocative. We are instructed to trust the process and lean into the pairing. They are right, of course. Sea urchin, pecorino cheese and tomato begs for Moscato in its afterlife.


Piazza Duomo’s first starter course includes an array of salads including this featured mushroom course and a crisp ricotta-stuffed ravioli

The first starter is no less than eleven bowls of various salads including cress clippings stained in a sprightly, umami-rich pesto. Chickpeas coated in sesame seeds add warmth (but I do know a hummus salad when I see it). Milky ricotta supports gardens peas — so deliciously fresh — they are practically still growing in the bowl. A single leaf coated in an exuberant lemon vinaigrette is munched on before candy-like pumpkin morsels. It is misleadingly simple stuff but Mrs EatGoSee and I revel in choosing bowls together and swapping notes.

I slip a spoon into a boisterous burnt lemon and Parmesan risotto further dusted with the darkest, lip-puckering burnt lemon ash and a scattering of thyme flowers. It is equal parts comfort food and refreshing wake up about three hours into dinner.


Piazza Duomo’s amuse bouche is a ballooned foam scented with ginger (first); candy-sweet pumpkin morsels from the 11-plate starter course (second)

This Burnt Lemon Risotto is so good that I would board a flight to Milan and endure 2 PCR tests just to eat it again

A shallow bowl of cherry tomato gazpacho tastes every inch of summer studded with cherries laced with black olives, basil and tarragon skates between fresh and aromatic. A whole crispy prawn head is sacrificially-presented in the slickest, deepest bisque. Despite these two dishes appearing side-by-side, I am unclear whether they actually work together but, as our waiter told us, there are no rules here.

A Mattise-inspired pannacotta plank is colourfully dressed with fruit and vegetal infusions reimagining La Lumaca. This is served just before an elaborate petit fours course featuring profoundly rich chocolate and hazelnut bites and iced, pert cherries lysing with juice and the unmistakeable goodness of being bang in-season.


Piazza Duomo’s refreshing cherry tomato gazpacho with cherries, olives, basil and tarragon.
Matisse-inspired pannacotta with fruit and vegetable extracts.

Is Piazza Duomo Worth it?

Finding value in a dinner equivalent to a monthly mortgage instalment is always tricky business. Yet, Mrs EatGoSee and I agree this was one of the best five hours spent in a restaurant together, ever. That’s right, five hours. The Piemonte wine pairing stands firmly as a necessary, integral experience. The sommelier is generous refilling glasses throughout dinner. I do not know what I am missing from the €40 Salads, but the 11 leafy starter bowls gave me enough.

Now is the moment to unpack an earlier seeded observation. Piazza Duomo soars and creates expectations course by course. This precision cooking, like an Italian sports car, is finely tuned, focused engineering. At its best, Chef Enrico Crippa at Piazza Duomo delivers on the countless awards in spades. Piazza Duomo gracefully hand delivers that rarest of things: the realised abstract of all your hopes and dreams.


Piazza Duomo’s crispy prawn head served with the tomato gazpacho and cherries (first); While quite pricey, the Piemonte wine pairing is an essential add on to the menu and comes highly recommended (second)

However, precision engineering often means compromise for both driver and designer.

Piazza Duomo does present some lows and one dull thud. A sous-vide codfish blanketed with a saffron and ginger gossamer is subtle to the point of missing in action altogether. The fassona veal shingled with bedsheet-thin black truffle over a foie gras smear underwhelms. No one ingredient stands out on its own nor above the others to the point of feeling pointless. Lastly, the deer loin under a hedge of sea fennel leaf with a sidecar of Mexican cucumbers does not deliver the red meaty wallop I longed for after 6 rounds of daintiness.

Lastly, it does feel churlish to say but Piazza Duomo could be a little more, well, fun. The staff provide flickers of charm and amusement and the ‘bowl swapping’ during the starters sparks joy. Yet overall, dining as a form of entertainment feels a bit missing. I do not want circus performers and, for god’s sake, no dry ice, but all this exacting execution lacks the roaring thrill of the Italian sports car. I regularly eat out on my own and I am a little relieved I did not do so at Piazza Duomo.


Piazza Duomo’s codfish under a blanket of saffron with ginger spiced broth was not memorable for the right reasons (first); The truffles were only visually present but otherwise undetectable with this Fassona veal and foie gras

Piazza Duomo’s deer loin main course is disappointing as this is a red meat main course that fails to deliver a gutsy impact after many delicate courses

Would I Return to Piazza Duomo?

Nonetheless, I waddle away knowing this is once in a lifetime experience: rare, enjoyable and lives rent-free in my memories. I would return as unlikely as that may be.

Who Should Come to Piazza Duomo?

Michelin star foragers, fans of modern dining and modern Italian dining, a monied set. People looking for a very special occasion restaurant.


Piazza Duomo’s memorable petit fours include chocolate wrapped hazelnuts and these perfect cherries on ice