But what is remarkable is the food. The chef’s goal is less to surprise than to please with hand-picked ingredients.

Appetizers and salads

For instance, the delicious serving of antipasto rustico – one is plenty for two or even four people if combined with other appetizers - is a showcase for the “salumi” or charcuterie like prosciutto, bressaola and salami of the region of Pisa; black and fleshy green olives from Sicily, pickled onions and grilled veggies drizzled with a very good Tuscan olive oil, and fresh-tasting creamy mozzarella and a farm-fresh, silky burrata from Mondragone oozing with velvety cream. Even the bread, a crusty baguette I haven’t found elsewhere, is carefully picked.

Other antipasti and salads are worth a try like the tuna carpaccio,  the jumbo sea-scallops pan-seared with bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, capers and white wine; the Niçoise salad with fresh tuna; and the warm octopus salad with pesto and boiled potatoes.   Don’t miss the chef’s own creation: a cone of smoked salmon-wrapped scallops  served with spring greens with a delicate lemon dressing and arugula sauce.

Primi

When I tasted the gnoccheti di patate with Genovese pesto, I was transported back to Genoa.  Chef Simone Mua is originally from Milan, but makes homemade gnocchi with a pesto just like it is on the Ligurian coast: with a fragrant basil-pine nut pesto in superior olive oil, Maldon sea salt ( made from salt crystals from the salt marshes that border the Blackwater river in Essex, UK), diced potatoes and green beans.  The dish is a winner.

Another dish I would go back again and again for is Linguine with langoustines and fresh tomatoes, ciboulette, mint  and other fresh herbs, white wine and a lot of flair.

However, some ingredients are hard to come by regularly, and the fabulous prawns from the coast of Florida are not always available. We were lucky on a couple of occasions, and were in heaven. The prawns - or langoustines, were fresh, their firm flesh crunchy and sweet with the right zing from pepperoncini and fresh herbs. But then, when they are not available, the kitchen falls back on what Italians think Americans expect from seafood pasta: Linguine allo Scoglio with a lot of sauce, a lot of seafood and little taste.

Most pastas are freshly home-made: The wonderfully light pasta Ravioli dough is stuffed with branzino and served in a creamy herb sauce. Also freshly homemade:  spaghettini alla chitarra in an intensely tasting yet light tomato and fish sauce, and eggplant-stuffed tortellini with a rich tomato, kalamata olives and fresh basil sauce topped with aged ricotta cheese. The slowly simmered family ragù sauce - a classic with prime beef, tomatoes, and Montalcino wine, combined with herbs and a few “secret” ingredients- is  served with paccheri pasta , a Bolognese specialty.

Then, come black squid risotto with garlic and parsley and creamy asparagus risotto studded with fresh asparagus.

Secondi from Sea and Land

The aromas wafting from the oven are rich and make you pay more attention to the dish when it arrives, piping hot to the table. Chef Simone Mua is a whiz at oven cooking, a tradition he brings from his native Milan and skills that he has honed in restaurants in London and Milan before being executive chef at restaurants in  Caracas, Venezuela, owned by The Domanti and the Da Prato families who are business partners at Il Grissino.

On the menu grilled or oven-roasted beef and veal dishes ( $19 to $31 for the giant 22 oz. grilled rib eye) vie for attention with fish like grilled medallions of tuna or monkfish slowly cooked with tomatoes, capers, olives and fresh basil. Our order of whole snapper with fresh rosemary, roasted fingerling potatoes drizzled with an exquisite olive oil was just right after all the “primi” we indulged in.  GM and Maitre d’ Massimo Lanfranchi opened the fish tableside and served the moist, flaky and aromatic flesh, piping hot with lemon and olive oil.  It was perfect.

Desserts

We had to be coaxed to order dessert after such a satisfying meal. The choices of panna cotta and Napoleon or molten chocolate soufflé didn’t seem worth the calories. But when the Napoleon arrived, with puff pastry light as a feather layered with an equally delightful crema pasticcera studded with fresh strawberries and sprinkled with powder sugar…  every bit of it was devoured.

We hope that Chef Mua will keep up with the soulful and careful cooking and with the quality ingredients he has charmed his clientele with until now.