As a vegetarian for 20+ years and a foodie who has...

As a vegetarian for 20+ years and a foodie who has been to some of the best restaurants in the world, here's my (meticulous) and honest review: My partner and I were excited to splurge on a Michelin rated vegetarian restaurant after having spent two weeks in what is pretty much an all-meat eating culture like northern Italy. To my surprise, I was quite disappointed. Not for any one thing in particular, rather a collection of things. (1) No bar. If there's no bar then there's no cocktails. Only wine could be offered to drink. Having allergy to red wine meant I had a very limited selection. (2) the smell inside the restaurant smelled of mold. Like someone left wet towels on the floor too long (3) the atmosphere was awkwardly quiet. No background music or anything to cut the noise so I felt like I had to whisper the whole time. (4) Design of interiors was dated and meh. Terrible lighting; too bright. Yes, I realize this is petty, but these things do matter. Especially when you're paying $400+ for a meal.

Now on to the food...we both ordered the large fixed menu "The Zenith" which was a 10 course meal. (5) timing of the courses were way off. We were served for over 3+ hours! With huge gaps in between courses but of the same section. (6) too much food. I felt sickly full by the end of it. This is my own fault for ordering it, but still worth noting. (7) ALL of the dishes they served were cold. All of them. Not a single hot meal! (8) there was no variety in the flavor of the dishes. They were all quite bitter and all repeated either celery, tomatoes, basil, or raspberry [lots of raspberry!] (9) no regional takes on dishes. We're in Italy! A culinary Mecca. Yet none of what was served was a nod to that culture at all. (10) servers had a hard time explaining what exactly our dishes were. When asked they would simply say "vegetables". When serving the cheese she told us all of the chesses were 'pecorino' even though that clearly wasn't the case. (11) the texture in at least 3 of the dishes was off. Soggy. Like they'd been sitting in the refrigerator for too long.

In summary, I think this is a classic example of a name getting perpetuated just because it has caught-on with upper tiers of people. The plating and dishes looked beautiful, but fell flat with actual flavors of things. I've certainly had much better vegetarian dishes, and from $15-20 restaurants nonetheless. Save your money, or splurge elsewhere.