If you have been a YAMU reader for a while, you know how much we love to try restaurants with international cuisines. So when it came to dropping by Ristorante Via Torino, an authentic Italian restaurant, we surely did not hesitate.
Italy, home to some of our favourite food such as pizza, pasta, risotto, lasagna, Gelato and Prosciutto di Parma is proud of its unique cuisine.
The owners of Ristorante Via Torino spoke to me about the story behind their restaurant. They have actually lived in Italy on a street named ‘Via Torino’ and ended up doing business on that very street. In order to pay homage to their roots, they decided to name their very own restaurant ‘Via Torino’
The Ambience
The brick walls, the natural stone floor and the Italian music playing in the background definitely make you feel like you are dining in a restaurant in a small town in Italy. I really admire when International cuisine themed restaurants ensure that their interior & exterior remain authentic to the cuisine they represent.
The Beverages
We had a few options of coffee, fresh fruit juices and soft drinks to choose from. We decided to go ahead with a Latte and fresh watermelon juice.
- The Latte
The Latte was served at the perfect temperature and had a decent inclusion of sugar. But if you have a sweet tooth, you can add more sugar and stir your latte to get that extra ounce of sweetness. The ‘ristorante’ offers you sugar sachets along with your latte.
LKR 500
- Fresh Watermelon Juice
The Watermelon juice was also refreshing. However, I would have preferred it a bit cooler. And as a Sri Lankan, I am quite used to more sweetened fruit juices because we tend to add sugar to our fresh fruit juices. But the restaurant remained authentic by serving us fresh watermelon juice the right way and it was a refreshing drink.
Price: LKR 650/-
The Appetizers
- Amalfi Coast Bruschetta
This appetizer is Italian ciabatta bread slices with fresh tomatoes and basil and it was super crunchy and tasty. We also decided to try the bruschetta with a dash of olive oil and it was also tasty.
Price: LKR 700/-
- Truffle Parmesan Fries
These fries are french fries fried with truffle oil and topped up with parmesan cheese. Probably one of the best french fries I have ever tasted. It was really fresh and crispy and it was absolutely delicious even without a dip.
The restaurant also offers different types of ‘zuppe’ (soup) and ‘insalata’ (salads) as appetizers.
Price: LKR 850/-
The Mains
- Risotto con Tartufo
Ah, here we are at the juiciest part of the review. This risotto was absolutely lovely. I appreciate that the team informed us that they will take a bit longer to serve us the risotto as they were boiling fresh rice for the risotto. It was cheesy, creamy and the taste the truffle oil blended so perfectly with the risotto. I would highly recommend this to everyone.
Price: LKR 4,100.
- Quattro stagioni
Quattro Stagioni means four seasons. This pizza includes premium quality extra virgin olive oil, ham, olives, mushrooms and artichokes. This Neapolitan (an origin of Naples, Italy) 12” pizza was also delicious and was oozing with truffle oil goodness. It was topped up with chicken ham, cheese, olives and some vegetables which all added to its flavour.
The standard topping for this pizza included is pork ham but we requested for chicken.
The restaurant had a wide variety of pizza toppings to choose from, we couldn’t really pick one, so we had to ask the team for their recommendations.
Price: LKR2,300.
Aside from the risotto and pizza, the restaurant also offered Homemade Pasta & Gnocchi, Pasta, Lasagna and some other really interesting Italian mains.
Dolce (Dessert)
- Chocolate Brownies with vanilla ice cream
This was a chocolate feast in itself. It was oozing with chocolate and blended perfectly with the vanilla ice cream. The texture was really rich and soft and was the best way to satisfy my sweet tooth.
Price: LKR 790/-
- Panna Cota
We tried the vanilla flavoured classic Panna cotta. Panna cotta is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin. It was really moist and soft and absolutely delicious. We highly recommend this dessert to all our readers at Yamu.
Price: LKR 790/-
View their whole menu here.
For more information visit their website, their Instagram page @viatorinolk or Facebook page @Ristorante Via Torino
Price range: LKR2500 upwards
Contact Number:: 076 133 6675
Location: No,61 Dudley Senanayake Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
We had a really nice experience at Ristorante Via Torino and we are sure you will too.
