Another great meal at Kissa Tanto proved that Italian and Japanese food is a great fusion.

We started with house made sourdough bread with olive oil and miso butter.  If it wasn’t so delicious I’d say we were sorry later when we could barely finish our dessert but we managed somehow.

Research tells me that Namban-zuke is usually a home made dish rarely available in restaurants. Deep fried cod marinated in vinegar, surprisingly refreshing.

Tonno Mantecato was fun to eat and like nothing we’d ever had before.  More sourdough bread topped with tobiko, served with smoked potato blended with confit albacore tuna and topped with furikake.

Two dishes I could never do without are the Tajarin, a crave worthy pasta with butter, roasted mushrooms and miso cured egg yolk and the deep fried whole fish with daikon dipping sauce.  We’ve had the fish several times and never had the same species twice.  This time it was a thorny headed rockfish, small fish so there were 2 in an order.  Crazy good and the dipping sauce is even better than last time.

We ordered two side dishes; eggplant with miso besciamella, almonds and parmesan, and squash with miso apples, bagna cauda and walnuts.  Not a crumb left.

We were committed to dessert and had both the tiramisu and the yuzu cream.  The tiramisu was traditional and good but the yuzu cream was a wonder.

Our latest meal at Osteria Savio Volpe was fantastic.  I had my heart set on the Bagna Cauda and was happy to see it still on the menu.  Bagna Cauda is a hot dip of anchovy, garlic and olive oil served with  bread and veggies like fingerling potatoes, radishes, and endive.  We mopped up every drop with some extra bread.

For wine we chose a Nebbiolo from Langhe and it was a perfect match.  The aromas of wild berries and fruity flavour complimented the deep umami of the bagna cauda.

We couldn’t resist the Faro Salad again.  Always different depending on what’s fresh, this time there was squash, chickpeas, pine nuts, dates and ricotta.  Absolutely delicious.

The daily pasta was a mezzaluna with salt cod and a light white wine and saffron sauce.  I simply can’t resist salt cod and the smooth sauce worked with the distinct taste of the cod.

From the fire we had Albacore Tuna with romanesco, capers, olives, lemon and a side of charred cabbage with tomato and olive vinaigrette.  Wow!  The tuna was perfect but I’d love a big bowl of the cabbage all to myself.

Finally we couldn’t resist the polenta cake with blood oranges and mascarpone.

A great meal made even greater with the super people working there, many who have been there since they opened 3 years ago.  That says a lot.