Osteria dei Sognatori (Alba Italy)

I have nostalgic memories of Osteria dei Sognatori. During our first ever trip to Alba back in 2015, we didn't have a place booked for our first night. We wanted something local, something authentic. A place where the locals go.

At the time, the hotel suggested Osteria dei Sognatori.

"They do not take reservations, and you have to line up, but the food is very good. There are hardly any restaurants in this area that serve food this way anymore. There is no menu. You just show up, and they feed you what they are cooking that day."

It was a wild experience, and we loved it.

As soon as I stepped foot into the doors of this restaurant, 10 years later, all those memories came flooding back. The restaurant still looks pretty much the same, and serves food in the exact same format.

I love it!

This time, however, there was one huge difference.

We came bearing truffles. Freshly dug truffles.

Like, dug a few hours ago truffles. Mostly black truffles, with a few pink truffles. We'd found them on our truffle hunt with a truffle dog.

Our tour guide Evan had brought us here. He knew that the restaurant would be happy to help us make a dish to incorporate our truffles.

They took the truffles away. We decided just a simple tajarine (the local thin pasta) with a simple butter sauce would be sufficient. We really wanted to showcase the flavor of the truffles.

Antipasti

Soon, the Antipasti course arrived: "carne cruda", which rougly means raw meat, plus bread and grissini (breadsticks).

This also included sausage from the region of Bra and potatoes. (Yes, so much meat right at the beginning! I was already getting full . . . .)

Bra sausage can only be made in this area of Piedmont (Bra) by certain butchers. Historically, due to the Jewish community in the area, Bra sausages were Kosher (made without pork). These days, Bra sausages are still mostly beef, but do incorporate some pork.

Here's a simple hand-written menu (!). Look at those prices, so reasonable!

Black and Pink Alba Truffles

All of a sudden, our truffles re-appeared, beautifully cleaned!

Wow! Now you can really see the difference between the black truffles and the pink truffles!

Can't wait!!!

But First, Salad and Eggs!

This is really a generous "antipasti" first course! We enjoyed a lovely fresh salad together with the Piemontese version of an omelet. Everything was fresh and delicious, but I was really starting to get full!

Truffle Time!

And FINALLY, it was time for the truffles!

The server helped us save some, but let us add some extra if we wanted to add our own.

Sooooo amazing to eat the truffles that we'd hunted just that morning!

The pasta was done perfectly, and we enjoyed the pasta very much. Perhaps there's something about the fact that these were our truffles that made the meal even more special.

It's very early in the season for black and pink truffles, so they are small. Objectively, they weren't as flavorful as the white truffles we'd been eating this trip.

But still, these were special truffles. And this was certainly a very special and memorable meal.

We were so full, we couldn't even order a Secondi (second course). We had filled up on Bra sausage, salumi, bread, salad, and pasta!

I highly recommend this place. If you want the full meal, come for dinner (you can see our full dinner here 10 years ago). Or come after a truffle hunt! Enjoy truffles + Barolo, the perfect combo.