Giancarlo Milano

30 years of craft

Giancarlo trained in Mediterranean cooking — fresh pasta, risotti, classic Roman technique, respect for local produce. Three decades refining the craft, 25 of them at the helm of one same project.

His track record is not decoration: it's the difference between serious cooking and imitation cooking. Scialatielli at Restaurante Già reach the table hand-rolled the morning of service. Carbonara — guanciale, egg, pecorino, pepper — comes out the way it does in Rome, not the way it does on most tourist menus.

25 years running his own restaurant · 1999–2024

For 25 years Giancarlo ran his own restaurant on the Costa Blanca. He built a loyal clientele that now visits him in Alfaz del Pí — verbatim Tripadvisor reviews confirm it: "made it a top restaurant again".

The handover to the new project in 2024 was not a change of course: it was an upgrade. Giancarlo moved the ownership, the D.O.P. suppliers, the D.O.C./D.O.C.G. wine list and the recipe book to the new venue — 70 seats, a 10-seat private table, summer terrace, and a dining room with dusty pink chairs and original stucco.

GIÀ Restaurant · August 2024

GIÀ opened in Alfaz del Pí, Carrer l'Hort 13, in August 2024. The concept: contemporary Mediterranean, not nostalgic. The menu combines classical technique with current presentation — Acquerello risotto aged one year, hand-rolled scialatielli, the house signature tortello, Galician beef tartare with crisp yolk.

Anne Milano runs the dining room. Service in Italian, Spanish, English, German and Dutch (Russian and French in preparation). 4.9★ on Google with 204 reviews. #20 of 249 restaurants in l'Alfàs del Pi on Tripadvisor.

His six signature dishes

Every dish at Restaurante Già starts from a verifiable fact — rice variety, regional technique, direct import, D.O.P. certification. The full menu lives at /carta with prices always visible. These are the six that define Giancarlo's signature:

• Tortello Già. Filled fresh pasta, made the same day. Pecorino Romano + Soria pork crackling. The house signature.
• Risotto Acquerello porcini. Acquerello (Lombardia) aged 1 year. Most kitchens on the Costa Blanca don't use it.
• La carbonara, quella vera. Classic Roman recipe: guanciale, egg, pecorino, pepper. No cream. The one defended over a long lunch.
• Scialatielli allo Scoglio. Fresh pasta with Mediterranean seafood. From Giancarlo's repertoire.
• Galician beef tartare. Crisp yolk, mustard ice cream, sourdough bread. The dish that answers 'this is contemporary, not traditional'.
• Burrata Affumicata. D.O.P. burrata imported direct, smoked. The difference with supermarket burrata shows up in the first bite.

In the press

Giancarlo's work is documented in international publications. These are the verifiable mentions anyone can access:

• Eccellenze Italiane — “GIÀ Restaurante · Eccellenze Italiane” (IT)
• Lexquisite (blog gastronómico Costa Blanca) — “GIÀ Restaurante Alfaz del Pí” (ES)