I know this one isn’t in the World’s Top 50 however it’s absolutely worth a mention. We arrived in Alba late in the evening and after checking into our accommodation decided to have a look around. We weren’t super hungry after having a terrible pizza in Ventimiglia earlier that day.

We stumbled upon Ape Wine Bar, more so thinking we’d have a drink and a squizz at the menu not planning to order much if anything as we were somewhat skeptical it would be any good. In Italy, I usually go for a prosecco, however, our lovely waitress informed me that they had a Contratto which she thought was better anyway. Fiancee (nee Dining Companion) ordered a Dark and Stormy. Both were excellent choices and we started to feel a bit better about our decision to stop there.

We ordered the plin ravioli to start and just see what their food was like, it’s a local Piedmontese dish based on fresh egg pasta stuffed with meat and vegetables. This one was a goodie, perfectly cooked al dente and had us wanting more.

So, we ordered the rolled rabbit leg with potato cream, artichokes and olive. We were sharing and both gave each other a look of delight as we took our first bites. It was perfectly cooked, the flavours worked together in harmony and the olive essence went throughout the dish. Please note the photo doesn’t do it justice!

After two incredible dishes, we just had to order the salmon special they’d mentioned earlier. I’m a huge salmon fan and this was combined with avocado cream and greens. The skin was slightly blackened however the dish was absolutely delicious.

Since all of this was so good I was very tempted to try their dessert menu however as it was getting late, we’d be travelling all day and already eaten quite a bit throughout the day we decided to call it a night. As it was Sunday in Italy and most of the shops were shut the waitress kindly arranged for a bottle of the Contratto to take home with us.

Overall a wonderful hidden gem in Alba, would I go back? Absolutely, if I didn’t have several other places in Alba I wanted to try. We’re already debating just going back there instead of trying different places!