Restaurant in Asti, Italy
Piedmont tradition meets creative fish dishes.
Il Cavallo Scosso is Asti's most interesting value call: a chef-owner kitchen priced at €€ that splits its menu between faithful Piedmontese classics and genuinely creative fish dishes. With a 4.5 rating across 467 reviews and easy booking, it is the right choice when you want a dinner that goes beyond the regional trattoria standard without the spend or planning demands of a destination room.
If you are weighing dinner options in Asti, the obvious choice is to head to one of the centro storico trattorias that trade on regional nostalgia. Il Cavallo Scosso is the more interesting call. Sitting in a residential area about 2km from the city centre, it requires a short taxi or drive, but the trade-off is a kitchen that takes Piedmontese tradition seriously without being trapped by it. For explorers who want to see what a chef-owner does when given room to move, this is where to book.
The restaurant sits in a modern residential building, and the interior matches that setting: clean lines, contemporary finishes, nothing that tries to look older than it is. If you arrive expecting the exposed brick and terracotta of a classic Astigiano osteria, adjust expectations. What you get instead is a dining room that signals intent: this is a kitchen-forward place, not a room that coasts on atmosphere. The visual cue here is the plating. Dishes such as the Mediterranean fish ceviche with avocado, passion fruit gel, and sea-urchin mayonnaise arrive looking deliberate and considered, which tells you something about the register of the whole meal before you taste anything.
Owner-chef Enrico Pivieri has built a menu structured around two equal halves. The first is Piedmontese and largely traditional: plin pasta prepared in a classically faithful style sits alongside other regional meat-based dishes. The second half is where Pivieri takes creative latitude, particularly with fish and ingredients that pull Mediterranean and international flavour profiles into a landlocked Piedmontese context. The ceviche dish in particular, with its combination of sea-urchin mayonnaise and passion fruit gel, is the kind of plate that would not feel out of place in a coastal creative kitchen — which is precisely the point. The menu is not trying to be two things at once in a confused way; it is structured as a deliberate dialogue between the local and the wider. For a food-focused traveller, that duality is worth engaging with directly rather than treating as a curiosity.
The price tier of €€ puts Il Cavallo Scosso well below the headline Piedmontese fine dining destinations. Given that the kitchen is producing technically ambitious fish dishes alongside proper regional pasta work, the value proposition is clear. You are not paying Michelin-starred prices, and the cooking reflects a chef who is investing ambition rather than institutional reputation. A 4.5 Google rating across 467 reviews indicates that the kitchen delivers consistency, which at this price point and format matters more than a single-visit outlier experience.
At a €€ price point, service expectations need to be calibrated accordingly. Il Cavallo Scosso is not a formal destination restaurant in the mould of northern Italy's multi-starred rooms. What it offers is owner-operated service: the kind of attentiveness that comes from a chef-patron who has a direct stake in whether tables leave satisfied. That format, common in Asti's better independent restaurants, typically produces warmer and more flexible service than a larger brigade operation. The risk is inconsistency on busier evenings. The reward, when it lands well, is a meal that feels personal rather than processed. For the price paid, owner-operated service that engages with the menu intelligently is exactly what the format should deliver, and the 4.5 rating across a substantial review base suggests it mostly does. If you are comparing this to the polish of a destination like Piazza Duomo in Alba or Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, the service register is different by design. Il Cavallo Scosso is not competing on white-glove formality; it is competing on creative cooking at an accessible price, and the service model fits that.
With a 4.5 rating and nearly 500 Google reviews, Il Cavallo Scosso has genuine local and visitor traction. Booking is rated easy, but that does not mean walk-ins are reliable at peak times, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings when Asti's better independents fill quickly. The practical advice is to book 5 to 7 days out for a mid-week dinner, and 10 to 14 days out for a weekend table. There is no booking method confirmed in the available data, so contact via standard Italian restaurant channels (phone, or through an online reservation platform if available) is the approach. The location — 2km from centre , means you will need a taxi or your own transport. Factor that in when planning, particularly if you intend to drink well with dinner, which in Asti is a reasonable assumption. For broader context on where this restaurant fits in the city, see our full Asti restaurants guide, and if you are building a longer Asti stay, the Asti hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide are all worth consulting.
Il Cavallo Scosso sits at €€, which immediately separates it from the field of northern Italian destination restaurants. Osteria Francescana in Modena, Dal Pescatore in Runate, and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico all operate at €€€€ and require booking months in advance, often with tasting-menu commitments. Il Cavallo Scosso is not in competition with those rooms, and it should not be evaluated on that basis. The more relevant comparison is closer to home: Cannavacciuolo Le Cattedrali in Asti operates at a higher price tier and brings a celebrated name, but if your priority is creative cooking at lower spend with flexibility on booking, Il Cavallo Scosso is the more accessible choice without meaningful sacrifice on ambition.
For contemporary Italian cooking at a comparable creative register but different regional focus, Quattro Passi in Marina del Cantone and Reale in Castel di Sangro are benchmark references, though both are €€€€ destinations requiring serious advance planning. The point is not that Il Cavallo Scosso matches them course-for-course, but that a chef-owner kitchen operating at €€ with clear creative ambition and 467 positive reviews occupies a distinct and genuinely useful position in its local market. If you are spending several days in Asti or the wider Monferrato area and want one dinner that goes beyond the standard regional trattoria format, this is where to go.
| Detail | Il Cavallo Scosso | Cannavacciuolo Le Cattedrali (Asti) | Piazza Duomo (Alba) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price tier | €€ | Higher tier | €€€€ |
| Cuisine style | Contemporary Piedmontese + creative fish | Creative Italian | Progressive Piedmontese |
| Booking difficulty | Easy | Moderate | Hard (book months ahead) |
| Location | ~2km from Asti centre | Asti, city area | Alba city centre |
| Format | Owner-chef, à la carte | Formal dining | Tasting menu |
| Google rating | 4.5 (467 reviews) | Not confirmed | Michelin-starred benchmark |
Yes, clearly so at €€. The kitchen is producing genuinely creative food, including technically ambitious fish dishes alongside proper Piedmontese pasta work, at a price point that sits well below comparable ambition elsewhere in northern Italy. The 4.5 Google rating across 467 reviews backs up the consistency. If you are eating in Asti and want cooking that goes beyond the regional trattoria standard, Il Cavallo Scosso delivers meaningful value for the spend.
The database does not confirm whether a formal tasting menu is offered, so it would be worth asking at the time of booking. What is confirmed is that the kitchen divides its menu between traditional Piedmontese meat dishes and creative fish-based options. If a tasting format is available, it would be the logical way to see both sides of what Enrico Pivieri is doing, particularly the fish-focused creative work that is harder to assess from a single à la carte plate.
Booking is rated easy, and this is not a restaurant requiring weeks of advance planning. For mid-week dinner, 5 to 7 days ahead is sufficient. For Friday or Saturday evenings, aim for 10 to 14 days out. If you are building an Asti itinerary around wine harvest season in autumn, when visitor numbers in the region increase sharply, book at the earlier end of that window. The restaurant's 467 Google reviews indicate steady demand, so last-minute availability on peak evenings should not be assumed.
Three things: it is about 2km from Asti's centre, so plan your transport. The menu is structured in two clear halves, traditional Piedmontese meat dishes and creative fish preparations, so arriving with that in mind helps you order with intention rather than treating it as a standard regional trattoria. And the price tier of €€ means you can order confidently across the menu without the spend anxiety of a higher-tier destination. A first visit is leading treated as a full meal, not a quick stop, to see the kitchen across both registers.
Specific seating capacity is not confirmed in the available data. As an owner-chef restaurant in a residential setting, it is likely a smaller room rather than a large group venue. For parties of six or more, it is worth calling ahead to confirm availability and whether the space can be arranged to suit. Given the personalised service model of an owner-operated kitchen, smaller groups of two to four will likely get the leading experience here. Larger groups may want to check the wider Asti restaurant guide for venues with confirmed group capacity.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Il Cavallo Scosso | Contemporary | €€ | A young and modern restaurant situated in a residential area about 2km from the centre, where owner-chef Enrico Pivieri offers a menu that is equally divided between traditional meat-based dishes from Piedmont (some, such as the plin pasta, are very traditional in style while others have a more reinterpreted feel) and more creative fish-based options. The chef gives full rein to his creativity in dishes such as the Mediterranean fish ceviche with avocado, passion fruit gel and sea-urchin mayonnaise.; A young and modern restaurant situated in a residential area about 2km from the centre, where owner-chef Enrico Pivieri offers a menu that is equally divided between traditional meat-based dishes from Piedmont (some, such as the plin pasta, are very traditional in style while others have a more reinterpreted feel) and more creative fish-based options. The chef gives full rein to his creativity in dishes such as the Mediterranean fish ceviche with avocado, passion fruit gel and sea-urchin mayonnaise.; A young and modern restaurant situated in a residential area about 2km from the centre, where owner-chef Enrico Pivieri offers a menu that is equally divided between traditional meat-based dishes from Piedmont (some, such as the plin pasta, are very traditional in style while others have a more reinterpreted feel) and more creative fish-based options. The chef gives full rein to his creativity in dishes such as the Mediterranean fish ceviche with avocado, passion fruit gel and sea-urchin mayonnaise. | Easy | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Italian, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Italian, Italian Contemporary | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Osteria Francescana | Progressive Italian, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Quattro Passi | Italian, Mediterranean Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Reale | Progressive Italian, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Il Cavallo Scosso is a contemporary neighbourhood restaurant, not a large-format dining room, so groups of six or more should contact them in advance. The venue sits about 2km from Asti's centre in a residential building, which suggests a compact footprint. For groups focused on traditional Piedmontese cooking, a centro storico trattoria may offer more flexible seating without the need to plan ahead.
The menu is split equally between Piedmontese classics — including plin pasta prepared in a traditional style — and more inventive fish dishes like Mediterranean ceviche with avocado, passion fruit gel, and sea-urchin mayonnaise. Chef-owner Enrico Pivieri runs both sides of the menu, so you can lean traditional or creative depending on preference. At €€, this is a neighbourhood restaurant, not a formal occasion venue, so expectations around room and service should be set accordingly.
Booking is rated easy, but with nearly 500 Google reviews and a 4.5 rating, the restaurant clearly has a following among locals and visitors. Booking a few days to a week in advance is a sensible baseline for weekends; weeknight tables are likely more available. Given it sits 2km outside the centro storico, it draws guests with intent rather than passing foot traffic, which can concentrate demand around peak dinner slots.
The venue data does not confirm whether a formal tasting menu is offered, so ordering à la carte from the two-track menu — Piedmontese meat dishes and creative fish options — appears to be the primary format. If you are after a structured multi-course experience in Piedmont, the restaurant's €€ positioning makes it a lower-stakes option than regional destination restaurants. The fish-focused dishes, including the ceviche with sea-urchin mayonnaise, are where Pivieri's creativity is most visible.
At €€, Il Cavallo Scosso is genuinely accessible for what it delivers: a chef-owner kitchen running two distinct culinary directions with enough ambition to justify the trip 2km outside town. It is not competing with Piedmont's destination restaurants on price or prestige, which is exactly the point. If you want traditional plin pasta and the option to pivot to creative fish dishes in the same sitting, this is a practical, well-regarded choice in a city not oversupplied with contemporary cooking at this price.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
