“Come here! Come! Come! Jay Chou ate here!” This Italian guy yelled towards us and waved his arms wide, signaling us to come over. Allen and I looked at each other and shrugged. “Sure. Let’s check this out,” we thought to each other and walked over. What were the chances.. this was the same restaurant that we were looking for according to TripAdvisor anyway.. We walked over. This tall guy with dirty blonde hair pointed to a picture of him and Jay Chou on the restaurant billboard. “Jay Chou ate here.” We’re like.. “Oh.. must be because we are Asian and look Asian.. that we MUST know who Jay Chou was..” We thought the stereotype was so funny, but actually so true. And what a way to get us to come over there.. I didn’t really think Jay Chou was there at that moment anyway. Ha!

This restaurant is called Ristorante Papa Francesco, located in Milano, Italy. After a day of shopping, we were starving. It was our last day in Italy before France and we wanted good pasta before we had to go. It was only a tiny exhilarating to know that we are eating at the same restaurant that Jay Chou ate at.. God who knows when..

This lady captured underneath the restaurant sign above.. she is kind of funny. There was a moment during our dinner when she came over and kept saying in broken English-Italian that this restaurant was better than the restaurant next door to theirs. She said their Italian dishes were more authentic and cooked fresh while the neighbor’s were microwaved Italian food. We looked at the tables at our restaurant: it was packed. We glanced over next door’s: it was empty. Hmm.. Is this because of their verbal advertising or is it because it is true? 🙂 Regardless, this place had delicious pasta.

And oh look, I must have had WiFi from this place because I managed to check in on Yelp to receive a free glass of champagne! Plus 1 for me! 😀

gnocchi di patate al gorgonzola “homemade potatoes dumplings with blue cheese.” I can’t help but notice that a lot of Italians love gnocchi here. Potatoes in pasta dumplings. So filling and of course, like every other dish in their culture, a lot of carbs. A LOT. The gorgonzola chause was creamy and cheesy though! I couldn’t even smell the blue cheese. They were soft and chewy 🙂

spaghetti alla carbonara “spaghetti with bacon and eggs.” This was their most popular pasta dish.. recommended to us by our waiter.. It is their macaroni and cheese version but served with an extra entertaining show.. Check out the short Youtube link below for how they prepare the pasta for us! They have this big crate of cheese that’s already been melted and carved into a bowl in which they scrape some cheese shavings, melt it with fire and stir the pasta in the melted cheese! 🙂