Our taxi driver had a heck of a time finding this Michelin star restaurant. It’s certainly a somewhat out-of-the-way location, located at a small marina in Fiumicino. Appropriately enough, the Il Tino specializes in seafood.

But, what a destination Il Tino is.  Delicious and playful food, served by our distinguishedly mustachioed server.  We ordered a la carte and asked the multilingual sommelier to select wine by the glass for us.  She was spot on.

The chef first sent out small fish amuse bouche.

We shared an opening medley of delicious little snacks…

… and then moved on to spaghetti alla bottarga (dried fish roe from Sardegna). We had just spent a week on Sardegna, where we’d enjoyed this dish a couple times; we preferred the elegant version here!

Likewise, we enjoyed a very springlike (and green!) risotto with nettles (a flavor we have come to truly appreciate) with delicate shrimp.

Another hit was scored with the “dim sum,” tiny and delicious dumplings.  Add to that the dish at the top of this page, tuna belly “cured speck style” with tomatoes — a feast for both the eyes and mouth.

Our main courses were mullet, amberjack, and wild boar.

 

Il Tino offers very reasonable prices for a Michelin star restaurant. We will be back! Next time we will be able to show the taxi where to go — the odd location caused not only a problem in finding the restaurant, but we also had a very long wait for a taxi to pick us up. So, just keep that in mind when trying this delightful, if difficult to find, spot.