Remulass – Milan's vegetable-rooted offshoot of Ratanà

Remulass is the small, vegetable-rooted bistro that chef-owner Cesare Battisti and sommelier Federica Fabi carved out of their larger, more established Ratanà in Porta Venezia. It opened on 1 December 2021, taking its name from the Milanese dialect term for a pungent, almost-forgotten winter radish — a fitting emblem for a kitchen that puts roots, leaves and whatever the market offers ahead of meat and fish. Since October 2022 the stoves have been run by chef Francesco Vitale, who arrived from Seta at the Mandarin Oriental Milan, and who builds a short, frequently changing menu around vegetables without ever declaring the place strictly vegetarian. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, noted for seasonal, farm-to-table cooking at a moderate spend, and in 2023 it won the Gambero Rosso Lombardia guide's special award for newcomer of the year.

01The room and the setting

Remulass sits on Via Nino Bixio, in the cluster of small, serious kitchens around Porta Venezia; its address is about a five-second walk from the corner of Via Melzo, one of the city's busiest restaurant streets. The project was conceived and built by an all-female team, down to the architect who led the design, and the result is a small, minimal room where little distracts from the plates and the open pass at the back.

02The chef

Francesco Vitale, born in 1988 in Brindisi, took charge of the kitchen when in October 2022 he replaced the restaurant's opening chef, Laura Santosuosso. His path to Porta Venezia ran through kitchens in Amsterdam, Brussels and London, where he trained alongside chefs such as Joel Robuchon and Heston Blumenthal before working with Simon Rogan, first at Fera at Claridge's and then at L'Enclume and its farm. Back in Italy, he joined the brigade at Seta, the Mandarin Oriental Milan's restaurant, as junior sous chef under Antonio Guida in 2018, and within two years was running the hotel's own bistro. At Remulass he swapped that scale and formality for a kitchen a few metres from the dining room.

Insider tip

Closed Sun–Mon; weekday lunch menu €25; tasting menus for the whole table, with or without wine.

03The cooking

The menu turns over with the seasons and treats vegetables as the main event rather than a side note: an autumn plate might pair pea cream with melon kimchi and linseed crackers, or set a roast beetroot gazpacho against soured cream and fried bread, with meat used sparingly as seasoning rather than centrepiece. The produce comes largely from a network of small and medium growers that Battisti has built over the years, and bread and grissini are supplied by the Pastificio Ratanà, the group's own pasta workshop — a thread that ties the small bistro back to its larger parent restaurant.

04What to order

Starters worth ordering include the grissini from the Pastificio Ratanà with beetroot hummus, toasted sesame and herb oil, and the marinated Hokkaido pumpkin with a pumpkin-seed and parsley vinaigrette, buckwheat and mustard shoots. The marinated albacore with melon, buttermilk, yuzu and fig leaves is a good opener for two. From the pasta course, the roast-pepper risotto with saffron, aioli, socarrat and fried capers stands out, alongside the maccheroni alla genovese made with albacore and Montoro onion powder. For dessert, the torta di crema cotta with a strawberry-grape coulis, or the chocolate and banana tortino with popcorn ganache and caramel, close the meal well.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list leans curious rather than classical, chosen with the same restless attention the kitchen gives its vegetables, and the full list is available as a download from the restaurant's own site. Aperitivo options are playful rather than predictable — a coffee negroni served with lupini beans in seawater, or an Apium Tonic alongside pickled peschiole — and both tasting menus can be taken with or without wine pairings, ordered for the whole table rather than diner by diner.

06The neighbourhood

Remulass is part of a small constellation of addresses built around chef Cesare Battisti: besides Ratanà itself, the chef is also behind Marcel Boum, and more recently Silvano, each carrying a version of the same informal, ingredient-first approach into different Milan neighbourhoods. The restaurant is close to the M1 metro stop at Porta Venezia, with tram 19 running past the street, making it an easy stop before or after a walk along Via Melzo's run of small kitchens.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.