The best value restaurant in the world

As some of you may be aware, I have eaten in restaurants in many parts of the world, but I have yet to come across one that offers such outstanding value for money than da Mario in Genoa. I have been eating there on and off for the last seven years, but a recent comparison of one of the dishes that I had there with a high class restaurant in London, prompts me to write this report. I urge you all to try it if you should ever find yourself in Genoa.

First of all, I have to emphasise that this is not haute cuisine. Faîtes simple was Escoffier's motto and here you will find everything you might expect from your local Italian tratt., right down to the proper tablecloths and napkins. It's also one of the busiest restaurants that I have ever been to - it's ALWAYS busy, and it's easy to see why. Aldo, the owner (just to confuse you that it's not Mario) is not always the most gushingly welcoming bloke on earth (he's too busy for that) but he makes up for it with what you get on your plate at the prices he charges. Sell 'em cheap, stack 'em high is his motto and whilst the restaurant is not overly large (seats about 60 or 70), the tables are turned over around three times at each lunch or dinner session. You can't book (unless you are a table of 8 or more) and you are just as likely to be sharing a table with a lorry driver, or a railway employee (the main station, Genova Principe is nearby) or a tourist sent round from one of the nearby hotels. The last time we were there we sat next to a jeweller from Florida with his wife who was over for the Genoa Boat Show to buy a boat (which he did - so was obviously cutting down on other expenses).

Of course, it's all in the prices. Pasta starters average 4 euros a portion and main courses around 6. Salad and vegetables around 2 euros and delicious home made, mis-shapen chips one euro. There is pasta of all kinds with seafood, ragu (bolognese in English), pesto (the basil and pine kernel speciality from Genoa) and a delicious, properly and freshly-made minestrone to start and beef, veal, pork, fish and seafood as mains. All properly and freshly cooked (it has to be - the turnover is so fast EVERYTHING is fresh).

Over the past seven years that we have been there, we have established our favourites - the minestrone (4 euros), fresh sea bream, beautifully grilled à point (6 euros), salsiccia, probably half a metre of succulent grilled pork sausage curled up on the plate like a Catherine wheel, deliciously seasoned and accompanied by the above-mentioned chips. (Also deliciously seasoned) - 5 euros, too. But perhaps our favourite dish here is the spaghetti with lobster. When we first had it (some time after we first went there - I can't remember how we discovered that such an unprepossessing place could even do something like that), we were amazed. We thought that we might get some spaghetti with a few chunks of lobster - and we did, but this was also accompanied by half a lobster in it's shell! A kind of sauce armoricaine covered the spaghetti (perhaps without the brandy, but certainly well-flavoured tomato, onion and herbs) made most enjoyable if a little messy eating, but the real bonus was when we got the bill. 11 euros! 11 euros - and Aldo apologised for it being so much - normally it's hard to spend 11 euros on a whole meal there! It's gone up to 12 euros now and even with that price it persuaded the American jeweller to treat his wife to one after having seen us devour ours!

Our first encounter with spaghetti with lobster in Genoa was a few days before we first had it at Mario's - there it cost 40 euros in a rather upmarket place and certainly wasn't any better. A little while back, in London we ate at the Theo Randall restaurant at the Intercontinenal Hotel at Hyde Park Corner and on the menu there was - spaghetti with lobster. This was also good, but for my taste the sauce was far too spicy for the delicate flesh of the lobster - and of course the price (with the chunks but without the additional half lobster was £18)

There is, however, a downside to da Mario and that is the choice of wines. When we first went there, the wines were really dire. The cheapest of the cheapest Dolcetto from some wine factory was the House red and worse still, effervescent Bonarda was also on offer. Slowly, however, the wines have been improving. Best white is undoubtedly the Verdicchio dei Castello di Jesi Classico from Fazi Battaglia , (6 euros - £33 in Theo Randall) and there is some passable Vivace on a hot summer's day for 3 euros. Reds are improving - a Chianti at 6 euros is again passable but the other night we really splashed out by buying a bottle of Fontanafredda Barolo 2000 for the princely sum of 20 euros. Again apologies from Aldo for the price but he did tell us that it cost him 15! Hmmm!

The dessert trolley is also filled with a number of house-made goodies - tiramisu as good as you will get anywhere (3 euros) and there are lots of other cakes and ice creams. Pig out, enjoy and spende poco.

It's difficult to be precise in scoring here, under my criteria, I would classify this as "Good". As a simple trattoria, it merits something at the top of this scale - if you want to consider it as a restaurant, then perhaps a little less. Whatever it is, you shouldn't miss the experience should you ever find yourself in Genoa and there are plenty of good cultural reasons to be there, too .

Restaurant Ratings...
Food   30
Winelist    2
Service   9
Ambience    5
Value for money 15+
Total    61

Ristorante da Mario, Salita S. Paola 38, Genoa.
Tel: 010 25 64 69
Open for lunch and dinner.
Closed: Wednesday and maybe Christmas Day!
Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard
(But at these prices?)
Average à la carte spend: 10-15 euros, with wine!

The famous salsiccia of da Mario