Settebello’s much-loved La Ciccia dining experience is back for its third instalment, and this time, the team seems to have learned a thing or two about pacing.
Titled “The Butcher’s Table,” the latest edition still spans nine courses, but the structure feels more considered. Less like an endurance test and more like a meal you can actually enjoy without needing to loosen your belt by course five.
If you’re unfamiliar, La Ciccia is Settebello’s ode to Italian meat culture, the side of Italian cuisine that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime next to pizza and pasta. The name itself loosely translates to “meat” or “the good stuff” in Italian slang. This year’s menu leans into that fully, walking diners through cured meats, slow braises, handmade pasta and a fire-grilled centrepiece, all served family-style at a communal table built for roughly 50 guests.
From light starters to bold meat masterpieces – The improved pacing
What stands out this time around is how the courses are sequenced. The evening opens lightly, with whipped lard drizzled with honey and chilli on mini bruschette, alongside a trio of cured meats, before easing into beef carpaccio with rocket and Parmesan.
From there, it builds steadily: crispy suppli stuffed with red-wine-braised beef, then handmade agnolotti finished in burnt butter and sage. During a first-hand experience of this year’s menu, the lemon sorbet palate cleanser arrived at exactly the right moment, right before the menu shifted into its heavier back half.
That back half is where the meal earns its name.
Slow-cooked ossobuco with risotto, a grilled lamb chop with layered potato and red wine rosemary jus, and pork belly with fennel and orange salad each get their own moment rather than blurring into one long meat-and-starch haze.
Family-style Italian feasting done right
By the time the fire-grilled Florentina arrives, designed for sharing, the pacing means there’s actually room left to appreciate it, rather than facing it down out of obligation which I had done at past visits to Settebello. While co-owners Pino Di Benedetto and Ramiro “Miro” Marques insist that there is no obligation to finish the meals if you cannot manage, some of us feel guilty for wasting a good meal.
A classic semifreddo closes things out on a clean, unfussy note.
Pino and Miro, as they are affectionately known, have described La Ciccia as an attempt to recreate the feeling of sitting around an Italian family table, generous, social, unhurried.
The previous iteration’s ambition occasionally worked against that goal; nine substantial courses back-to-back can turn a leisurely feast into a logistical challenge. This year’s version keeps the same course count but distributes richness more thoughtfully across the evening, which makes the communal, lingering-over-wine experience the owners are going for actually land.
At R950 per person for a once-a-month sitting, La Ciccia remains a special-occasion outing rather than a casual one, and bookings are limited by design. For diners who’ve previously found themselves defeated somewhere around course six, this year’s edition is worth a second look.
La Ciccia’s “The Butcher’s Table” runs on the last Thursday of the month: 23 July, 23 August, 23 September, 23 October, and 26 November 2026. Bookings via eat@settebello.co.za or 010 035 5207.
