At Mill Valley’s Piatti, romance is plated, poured and passed across the table in generous helpings.
A reliable dining destination for a first date, it’s equally grounded for rekindling something familiar or celebrating a romantic milestone that took years to earn.
Set beneath the gaze of Mount Tamalpais, the restaurant exudes rustic refinement, all warm light, and the low murmur of people discovering, or even remembering anew, why they like each other.
There’s a certain choreography to it—servers glide past with hand-made pastas and well-timed smiles, wine glasses tilt toward candlelight and every so often someone laughs just loudly enough to let the room know that life, at least for tonight, is good.
We started our date, as the romantically inclined often do, with oysters—plump, briny and chilled to perfection. They arrived with a Calabrian chili mignonette that carried a slow-building warmth, more flirtation than fire, and a lemon wedge for punctuation. Enjoying oysters together is a simple ritual, but Piatti knows it’s one of the oldest love languages in the book.
Next came the Bucatini Cacio e Pepe, a dish that could pass for edible philosophy: nothing but pasta, cheese and pepper, yet somehow transcendent. Piatti’s version uses house-made bucatini tossed in pecorino and freshly cracked black pepper until it achieves that elusive alchemy between piquant and silky.
The Chicken Marsala is always a good choice, tender and deeply aromatic, its sauce a balance of earth and sweetness. Mushrooms and cipollini onions mingled like longtime lovers, each enriching the other, while the olive-oil whipped potatoes offered a luxurious canvas for every bite. It’s the kind of dish that satisfies both appetite and nostalgia—and is elegant enough for a date night, but familiar enough to feel like home in Italia.
We also enjoyed the salmon with lemon risotto, broccolini and radicchio. The fish had a buttery interior that melted into the creamy brightness of the risotto. The broccolini added a whisper of bitterness; the radicchio, a painterly flash of purple and crunch. It was a symphony of contrasts—acid and fat, light and rich.
The alluring wine list includes domestic offerings and a wide variety of Italian imports. Locally, the Scribe Pinot Noir or the County Line Syrah shine. Or one may try one of the dozens of offerings from Italian locales including Sicily, Sardinia and Tuscany.
When choosing drinks, don’t pass over the cocktail menu. Recommended by our server, the Super Tuscan is a bourbon cocktail that was smoky and floral, familiar but mysterious, like a jazz standard one can’t quite place. The secret was the addition of a splash of sangiovese and an adept combination of ginger, maraschino, lime and bitters. It paired seamlessly with the meal, proof that Piatti’s bar program shares pillow talk with its menu.
By dessert, the room had settled into that collective hum particular to restaurants that understand rhythm—a pacing that invites conversation, reflection, even a little nostalgia. And, in our case, espresso. A huckleberry and thyme panna cotta is a delicate end to the evening, or one could go traditional with a rich tiramisu or gelato with an espresso.
At its heart, Piatti Mill Valley is less a restaurant than a love letter—to Italian tradition, to California produce and wine, and to the ritual of dining as connection. Romance, after all, isn’t about perfection. It’s about being present with each other, which Patti makes easy.
Piatti, 625 Redwood Hwy., Mill Valley. millvalley.piatti.com.
