Ineo

Ineo is on the ground floor of the luxury Antanara hotel in Rome, and opened in 2023. It has just 22 covers, with 6 chefs in the kitchen, led by Heros de Agostinis. Heros was head chef of Apsleys in London and was formerly senior sous chef of three star Michelin restaurant Pergola. The dining room had large, widely spaced tables and quite low lighting. There were tasting menus on offer at €150 and €170, as well as a full a la carte selection. I wrote previously about the wine list here.

The meal began with Parmesan crisps, which were very thin and delicate, with deep Parmesan flavour; this was a superbly executed canape (18/20). Grissini (bread sticks) and crackers were very thin and delicate, the grissini in particular being remarkably delicate. There was also excellent sfogliato (which means “layered bread”). All the bread here is made from scratch in the kitchen.

Further canapés then arrived. Tartlet of potatoes and Caesar salad with salsa jelly was good and had very nice potato flavour. There was also chicken covered with jelly of gazpacho on a delicate red pepper crisp. A kind of pani puri with beurre noisette and hunter’s chicken with white vinegar and olive featured a thin puri. Tostada with chicken breast and pico de gallo (tomato, onion, coriander, jalapeño and pineapple) was unusual and quite refreshing. Finally, there was a thin chip of chicken skin with spiced mayonnaise (17/20 canapés). 

Further bread reinforcements arrived on a large trolley, served with a choice of either Normandy butter or Hebemos olive oil from north of Rome. There was country bread, sourdough loaf, a Roman white bread resembling a baguette, a rye bread with cumin and wild fennel, and another loaf made from a blend of wholemeal, chickpea and buckwheat flour. Finally, there was a Roman white pizza bread. These were all made in the kitchen and were excellent.

The first formal dish of the meal was a prettily presented one, with a selection of vegetables prepared in various ways, some raw, some pickled, some cooked. The vegetables included carrots, radishes, mushrooms and fine beans. This dish reminded me a little of the famous gargouillou of Michel Bras, though with fewer elements. It worked very well, the pickling juices adding some sharpness to liven up the high-quality vegetables (17/20).

Bluefin tuna panzanella had tomato sauce, basil, cucumber, crisp potato and granita of jalapeno peppers. This was a very well-balanced dish, the gentle spice of the jalapeños being an excellent foil for the richness of the tuna (17/20). Veal sweetbread from Italy was cooked inside an Amalfi lemon and served with artichokes prepared in several ways. The artichokes were roasted, creamed and fried, and there was also green shiso. The sweetbread was light and airy, with good flavour, and the earthiness of the artichokes contrasted nicely with its richness. The hint of acidity from the lemon was a nice touch (17/20). 

Macaroni cooked with Madeira and 24-month aged Parmesan was the base for an Eritrean stew of veal and game laced with green chilli. This was a fabulous dish, the macaroni having perfect texture and the game having deep, intense flavour, the bite of chilli just lifting the dish (19/20). Red mullet was roasted, coated in a thin crust and served with Datterini tomatoes from Sicily. The dish was completed with harissa, a chilli pepper, garlic and spice paste from the Maghreb region of northwest Africa. Red mullet can be a superb dish when cooked carefully, as it was here, and its distinctive flavour was nicely lifted by the subtle spiciness of the harissa (18/20).

Lamb came with a Keralan curry sauce, along with chard and red wine-infused fig compote. The lamb was cooked pink, and the mild curry sauce had a touch of spice that worked well with the meat (17/20). Finally, roasted veal tenderloin with peppercorns came with porcini mushrooms and two sauces. One was a spicy barbecue sauce and the other a vinaigrette of veal, the dish completed with leaves of bak choi. The veal was carefully cooked and had good flavour, and I particularly liked the porcini, which were bursting with woodland flavour (17/20).

A palate cleanser was brunoise of peach with granita of peppermint, with a glass of champagne poured over it at the table. This was the only false note of the meal, as the peppermint flavour was overwhelming. The peach and champagne would have worked well without the mint (12/20).

Soufflé of Ricotta cheese was flavoured with vanilla and red fruit, served with white chocolate and a sherbet of red fruit, with a red berry sauce. This was a lovely dessert, the soufflé cooked evenly, the berry sauce intensely flavoured, its acidity cutting through the richness of the cheese soufflé (18/20). 

Petit fours comprised pate de fruit of mango, macaron with pistachio cream, a biscuit base topped with white ricotta, cherry jam and a little stick of dark chocolate, and finally a presentation box of chocolates. These included milk chocolate, white chocolate with cream, milk chocolate with almond and hazelnut, white chocolate with pecan and cinnamon, dark chocolate, milk chocolate with Maldon salt and peanut, milk chocolate with hazelnuts from Piedmont, dark chocolate with coffee, apricot and hazelnut, a dark chocolate with honey and finally a milk chocolate with beetroot and lime. 

Coffee was Lavazza dark roasted, a blend of 70% arabica with 30% robusta and was not particularly good, Lavazza being an industrial coffee. It would be nice to see a speciality coffee in a restaurant of this calibre. Service was excellent throughout the evening, the staff being patient, friendly and attentive. I was being treated to this meal, so did not see a bill, but if you opted for a la carte and drank modestly from the wine list, then a typical cost per person might come to around €170 (£148). This seems quite fair given the high standard of cooking here.

Further reviews: 31st May 2024