Here is what the The Nation newspaper had to say about Rossano’s in a recent article.

After 30 years he sold his well-loved L’Opera and planned to retire to his home in Bang Saray, but now, three years later, he’s found he’s just not ready to stay at home.

Gennari Rossano has returned to Bangkok to open a new restaurant, a lovely little house close to the junction where Sukhumvit Soi 19 has veered to the right to meet Soi Asoke.

He’s designed it, he says, to have a look and ambience that’s as different from L’Opera as possible. Here is a Tuscan-style country house, light and airy, pastoral and home-like, with bricks and plaster on the walls and intricate tiling on the risers of the stairs leading to the upper floor.

The restaurant, which seats close to 80, also has two private dining rooms seating from 12 to 14.

To ensure success, Rossano has brought in his “top guns”.

Managing director Alessandro Gregoris, a former manager of L’Opera, is already well known to the dining public as manager of the Italian restaurant Mabeba.

Chef Pinna Achille has been seconded from his family hotel on a small island southwest of Sardinia. His father built the establishment more than half a century ago, and although it’s small - only 16 rooms -Achille had developed a reputation for his regional cuisine.

Among Rossano, Gregoris and Achille, Rossano’s has a menu that not only covers the basics but offers something more.

Yes, there’s a Caesar salad (Bt320), a non-Italian dish that Bangkok diners expect every Italian restaurant to offer, but Achille also puts in lobster, sea crab and avocado, just to make it distinctive.

The pasta is homemade, with the exception of the spaghetti, which is imported. The grill is special, with volcanic stones providing the heat source.

Achille’s special talent lies in his sauces. Each one, with its own flavour and consistency, complements the dish and brings all the elements together. The pan-fried snowfish (Bt550), for instance, comes with a delicate but still zingy prosecco sauce.

The snowfish, by the way, is not on the a la carte menu but the Chef’s Special Menu, which is changed from time to time. Here you’ll also find other elegant dishes, such as the grilled Australian veal chop (Bt680) in a sauce of chanterelle mushrooms and marsala, and ravioli stuffed with beef and Italian sausage (Bt320), served in a butter sauce and topped with a truffle sauce.

At Rossano’s, only Italian wine is available, by the glass Bt180 to Bt415. That’s the “normal list”, Rossano points out. There’s also a “connoisseur’s list” for those wishing to make an evening of it.

“Parking is no problem,” says Rossano. A lot for close to 50 cars is in front of the restaurant, and right across the street is Ocean Tower 2 with additional space.

Laurie Rosenthal

The Nation