23/09/2025: An intense experience sampling the chef's dishes, all refined and delicious. Worthy of note are the saffron and Taleggio tavioli, and the veal creamed with Montepulciano. Recommended.
04/09/2025: Set amongst the postcard perfect backdrop of Monte Velino, this is without doubt a textbook hidden gem quaint town restaurant.
If the drive to Rosciolo dei Marsi isn’t spectacular enough, it is matched with an equally spectacular dining experience at Locanda dell’Arco.
The cuisine is a far cry from the usual suspects found in most abruzzese restaurants… this is next level.
The restaurant is run by a young husband and wife team, with the husband heading the kitchen.
The Chef has brought his Piemontese culinary roots into the heart of Abruzzo, with a menu that respects both tradition but also with a flair of innovation.
The menu is small and hand written, ensuring it’s align with what’s seasonal and available at its best. The wine is in a league of its own, expect small batch barolo, barbera d’asti and barbaresco, amongst many others, all hand picked by the passionate couple.
The chef’s wife, who leads the service, highly recommended the carpaccio di manzo with mandarin and basil sorbet. Let’s just say, I drove 2 hours to arrive at this restaurant and would travel 2 hours again just for this dish. Refreshing, clean and refined, without being pretentious, it set the pace for what was to be a memorable meal.
As a Piemontese should be, the chef is famed for his risotto, today it was zafferanno with liquorice, his signature dish I apparently. No this is not something i would ever order without a recommendation, so I’m lucky I asked. This was without doubt the best risotto I’ver ever had, it wasn’t to be expected in a small remote town in the middle of Abruzzo, but this was just spectacular.
To finish, another Piemontese classic, bonet. A chocolate and amaretto dessert that was probably the best spoon of food I’ve had in a very long time in an Italian restaurant. Luckily we ordered two of the same as it would be criminal to share. The desserts are truly outstanding and if I was a guts, I’d probably would have ordered two!
The experience at Locanda was unexpectedly exceptional.
The staff, the meal, the location, this is a restaurant that begs to be revisited and well worth a day dream even from Rome!
Thank you Locanda dell’Arco for a memorable experience.
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