Stepping through the door of Dry Aged, it feels like New York City: the industrial pop style, the bright sign displaying the restaurant’s name, the intimate and informal ambiance–everything harkens back to the atmosphere of the Big Apple’s cool clubs.
Actually, we are located in the heart of Milan, in the Porta Genova area, precisely at Via Cesare Da Sesto, 1.
The restaurant is divided into three rooms with different moods: there is the Show Cooking Room, more intimate and romantic, with 40 seats from which you can see the kitchen through a large porthole. There is the New York Bar Room is ideal for evenings with friends, with a large convivial table seating 14.
And then there is the Wine Room, designed for a more refined experience or private events, where guests can dine surrounded by a wine cellar with more than 150 labels. All the rooms feature artwork by fairly well-known artists, such as NoCurves, Lodola, Obey, and Teti.
We chose the Show Cooking Room and the 100% Dry Aged tasting menu to try the highlights of the kitchen.
Speaking of cuisine: Dry Aged’s philosophy is centered on selecting the best raw materials, with recipes from tradition–even from Milan–revisited with a contemporary twist.
The highlight is, as the name of the restaurant suggests, the dry-aging technique that is used to soften the meat and make it more aromatic and flavorful. This is not simply “aging” the meat, but a controlled process that takes advantage of the natural biochemical reactions of the material.
Underlying everything must be a selection of the best meats to bring out their taste, flavor and texture. The selection of Dry Aged ribs is among the most interesting in town and includes breeds such as Rubia Gallega, Barrosa and Chianina, all cooked over coals. There is also Japanese Wagyu, for those who want to try a very special tasting.
On the menu, when choosing meat, the guest is “guided” by the characteristics highlighted for each with stars: marbling, or the distribution of fat, the level of intensity of flavor, and tenderness, or the texture to the bite of the meat.
Our menu included:
- Amuse bouche welcome
- “Macelleria Oberto” 15-day aged fassona tartare, sweet and sour red onion, stracciatella and hazelnuts
- Mondeghili dry aged, sautéed spinach, saffron and mustard sauce
- Tortelli stuffed with dry aged meat, cacio & pepper
- Chef-selected barbecued rib-eye steak with sautéed potatoes (about 1kg x2 people)
- Warm apple and cinnamon cake with vanilla ice cream
- Selection of small pastries
To which, at the maître’s suggestion, we paired a Nebbiolo delle Langhe Rocche di Costa Magna perfect for the meat.
The cost for the tasting menu is 85 euros, with – in our opinion – excellent value for money.
“We want to be competitive while maintaining high quality and research on raw materials,” the partners tell us. There are two of them: Matteo Ferrario is the executive chef and has gained his experience in numerous starred restaurants, working with figures such as Ettore Bocchia and Stefano Baiocco.
His latest experience was at Terrazza Triennale Osteria con Vista in Milan, where he met his partner, Stefano Carenzi. Stefano is a restaurant manager and sommelier, and he grew up professionally at Pietro Leemann’s starred vegetarian restaurant Joia and worked at Hotel Cipriani in Venice, where the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star.
He also had an experience at The Goring in London before returning to Milan. Under his leadership, the iT Milan restaurant earned its first Michelin star just six months after opening.
Dry Aged has been included in the Michelin Guide.
In our opinion, rightly so!
