Forma

The amuse-bouche were good, the anchovy on butter bread outstanding, as was the olive oil dip and the home made bread. The Sea Bass in the pasta dish was over cooked, nearly burnt, and while this may have been the chefs intention it did not work in the dish. The Turbot, a very small piece(€24), was over worked with a rich over-powering sauce. For €49, including water (no wine), the meal was disappointing and over priced for what it was. I think this restaurant may only cater to tourists.

I booked my trip to this lovely seaside town just to eat at Forma. It was amazing!!! I knew I was in for a treat the minute I sat. The unique use of a bolt to hold the silver off the table made a great first impression. Then the menu... First two amuse-bouse arrived. I chose the Sea Egg and Pork Belly (my favorite). The flavors were incredible. The presentation fantastic! Definitely a winner!

I was impressed by the carefully crafted dishes served here. The meats were especially outstanding in that the temperature and crust were absolutely perfect. I've had meat dishes less good than this in 2-star-restaurants! Sauces, presentation, flavors were fantastic. Not under- or overseasoned, just perfectly mastered by someone who really knows how to create outstanding dishes. No doubt a lot of dedication goes into this level of cuisine. The issues I found at Forma have nothing to do with the kitchen and the chef's talent, they have to do with the wine selection and service. The wine list lacks diversity, be it in grape varieties or geographical origin (although this latter point might be debatable), but the main concern is availability: roughly a third of the wines in the list are marked "ND", non disponibile, unavailable. This is indicated in pencil, quite difficult to see in the low-light dinner setting, resulting in several disappointments ("Let's try this one" followed by "Oh, they don't have that wine anymore, either"). Service was minimal: no smiles, no ice bucket for the wine (which got too warm by the time we got the main dish). Wait times for the 3 courses we ordered were surprisingly low. I suspect this kitchen is well organized as well. Get the service right, revamp the wine list and you can have a Michelin star. That's how good the food is!

Great atmosphere and great service (minus wine understanding). The issue we had here was expectations and so maybe the issue is ours alone. We've been to Michelin rated restaurants (ranging from a mention to 3 stars). The food at Forma was very good, but just not at the level similar to previous rated restaurants we've been to before. That being said, the bill was 1/5 what we have paid before (1/15 in the case of Alinea) although it did cost $5k to get to Italy). Everything we had was with truffles and our expectation was the normal bold and delicious black/white truffle flavor. In this case they were present, there was A LOT of them, but that distinctive flavor was not there. It's likely that there's a difference between what we're used to and what this was and we'll accept that as immaturity. Nonetheless, I would recommend Forma, just with minor reservations (don't ask for wine advice)