Carignano

Verdict: Book Carignano if you want Piedmont's most structured tasting menu experience — and go in the months when the region's produce peaks

Davide Scabin, who earned two Michelin stars at Combal.Zero in Rivoli, has brought his creative ambition to Carignano, the restaurant inside Turin's historic Grand Hotel Sitea. The hotel marks its centenary in 2025, and Scabin's arrival represents the most significant change to this dining room in years. If you are considering a long tasting menu in Turin at the €€€€ tier, this is the most intellectually driven option currently available in the city. The question is whether Scabin's format matches what you are looking for — because this is not a flexible, à la carte experience. It is one menu, served on his terms, and it is designed to challenge your assumptions about how a meal should unfold.

The Space

Carignano sits within one of Turin's most formally appointed hotel dining rooms. The Grand Hotel Sitea occupies a 19th-century building on Via Carlo Alberto, and the restaurant reflects that heritage: high ceilings, measured proportions, and a quiet formality that separates it from the more contemporary rooms you find at Piano35 or La Pista. The setting works in favour of the long tasting menu format , there is space, calm, and an unhurried pace that shorter, more casual venues cannot match. For a meal that will last several hours, the room earns its keep. If you find hotel dining rooms stiff, note that the formality here is architectural rather than cold , the service context Scabin is operating in encourages attention to the guest rather than performance for its own sake.

The Menu: Seasonal Logic and the "Up & Down" Concept

Scabin's menu runs on an inverted course structure he calls "up & down." You begin with the most intense flavours , dishes built around sweetbreads, foie gras, and rich Piedmontese preparations , and the meal progressively lightens, moving toward vegetables, acidity, and cleaner finishes. This is not a gimmick. It is a deliberate reordering that affects how your palate processes the meal and, critically, how the seasonal ingredient logic plays out across the table.

The seasonal angle matters here more than at most Turin restaurants. Because the menu is fixed and curated entirely by Scabin, what you eat is entirely dependent on when you visit. Autumn and early winter are the strongest window: Piedmont's white truffle season runs from October through December, and the rich, fatty register of the menu's opening courses aligns naturally with the produce available in those months. Late spring, when the kitchen shifts toward more vegetable-forward and acidic ingredients, produces a noticeably different meal , lighter, less anchored in the region's fatty-animal traditions. Both are valid visits, but they are not equivalent experiences. If the Piedmontese larder at full intensity is what draws you, plan for autumn. If you prefer a more herbaceous, produce-led tasting, April through June gives you that.

The menu spans traditional Piedmontese recipes and more adventurous, occasionally exotic constructions , a combination that is characteristic of Scabin's approach at Combal.Zero and consistent with what the Michelin recognition there was built on. For reference, other Italian chefs working at a comparable creative register include Osteria Francescana in Modena and Reale in Castel di Sangro, though neither shares Scabin's specific inverted-course structure. European peers in the creative-tasting format include Quique Dacosta in Dénia and Arpège in Paris.

Wine Pairing

Verified recommendation from Michelin's own notes is to take the wine pairing rather than selecting a single bottle. Given the course-by-course intensity shift built into the menu structure, this is sound practical advice: a pairing that tracks the progression from rich to light will serve the meal better than a single wine anchored to one register. Piedmont's cellar , Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, and the white wines of Roero , gives the kitchen strong regional pairing material at every stage of the meal.

Practical Details

Carignano opens Tuesday through Saturday, dinner service only, from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM. It is closed Sunday and Monday. There is no lunch service, which makes this a dinner-only decision and rules it out if your schedule is lunch-driven. Booking difficulty is rated easy, which is notable for a venue operating at this tier with a chef of Scabin's standing , it suggests you do not need to plan months ahead, but given the single-menu format and the smaller scale typical of hotel fine dining rooms, confirming a reservation before you arrive in Turin is direct common sense. The price range sits at €€€€, consistent with Turin's other top-tier tasting menus. For context on the broader Turin dining scene, see our full Turin restaurants guide. The Grand Hotel Sitea's location on Via Carlo Alberto puts it close to Piazza Carignano and the historic centre , useful if you are pairing the dinner with a night at the hotel or exploring the city on foot. For accommodation options nearby, our Turin hotels guide covers the full range.

Who Should Book

Carignano is the right call for food-focused travellers who want a structured, chef-driven evening with clear creative ambition and a regional Piedmontese foundation. It suits couples and solo diners comfortable with long tasting menus more than groups looking for a shared, flexible dinner. If you want the chef's full argument , Scabin's inverted course logic applied to the season's leading produce , this is the only place in Turin delivering it. For context on other high-end options in the city, Cannavacciuolo Bistrot and Del Cambio offer alternative approaches at the same price tier. Google reviewers rate the restaurant 4.4 across 486 reviews, a solid signal for a venue operating in a format that divides opinion by design. For broader Turin planning, see also our Turin bars guide, Turin wineries, and Turin experiences.

How It Compares