By Mark Goldberg

Il Tulipano. If that name sounds familiar, it is because a restaurant with a similar name was reviewed last month. In fact, similarities between the two Tulipanos extend beyond the name, to the cuisine, menu items, and even relatives in the kitchen.

For the past five years, Il Tulipano ­ not to be confused with Tulipano Centodieci ­ was a bastion of traditional upscale Italian fare in the changing North Miami Beach dining scene. After termination of the lease, restaurateur Ron Wayne recently relocated the restaurant to a two-story building in Coconut Grove, former home to Buccione, Bocca di Rosa, and lately Rex.

The dining room is brighter, roomier, with an attractive bar at the entrance, and a handsome Italian stained glass mural. Everything else remains the same, including the staff, and the chefs ­ chef Sandrino’s nephews and sous chefs ­ who made the move as well. Did the nephews learn their trade well? An order of magnificent osso bucco answers that question.

Fresh salads and ‘primi piatti’
Freshness and quality are major ingredients in the traditionally prepared appetizers. Insalata del pecoraio ($8) features fleshy, roasted tri-color peppers, marinated in olive oil and garlic, then grilled just enough to ooze even more flavor. Served on a bed of fresh arugula and topped with a sprinkle of goat cheese, the dish pleasantly marries the bitterness of the greens with the mellow peppers and the slightly pungent, creamy cheese.

A bowl of glistening cozze ($11), enormous, flawless mussels, as plump and tender as we have ever experienced, in a fish stock and white wine broth that could have used more zing, were delicious. So were the gamberoni ($14). Enormous, sweet Central American white shrimp, butterflied, and char-grilled in the shells are infused with the sunny flavors of olive oil, lemon, sage and parsley.

The abundant insalatina di mare ($12), a tower of tender calamari rings, scungili, and fresh fish, could be a meal in itself. Set in the center of a platter of wild greens, celery, and fresh peppers, it is garnished with shrimp and mussels, and drizzled in an unexciting lemon vinaigrette. Funghetti con polenta ($12): grilled polenta wedges topped with roasted portobello, shiitake and button mushrooms, and melted gorgonzola, was satisfying.

Excellent pastas and risotti
Il Tulipano offers fifteen pastas and risotti that may be ordered as entrees or appetizers. The succinctly translated Italian menu encourages the waiters, all well trained, to explain for example what agnolotti bandiera ($18) are. The ravioli typically stuffed with spinach and ricotta and splashed with red, green and white sauces, are highly flavorful thanks to the introduction of speck (Italian ham) and mozzarella to the stuffing.

An exceptional dish, the ravioletti ($17) are little pasta pillows stuffed with sweet chestnut puree and finely chopped rustic sausage, covered with a creamy mixed cheeses sauce. Unexpectedly delicious.

Ditali alla maitre d’($15), baby tube pasta tossed with artichoke hearts, peck, and fresh spinach leaves, is an immensely flavorful dish made even better by a coat of cream and pecorino cheese. The two chefs excel in pasta preparation, and their risotti don’t fall far behind. Our risotto primaverile ($19) was creamy, cooked al dente, fragrant with wine, broth, and cheese and full of crunchy-textured vegetables. Also on the menu: seafood. Mushroom and white truffles risotti.

Best osso buco in town

‘Secondi piatti’ range from seafood and fish to chicken and meats. Then there’s the Osso buco ($27).

After chewing our way through hundreds of Italian restaurants, and ordering osso buco as often as possible, we all concurred that no one, nowhere, makes as tender and fragrant a veal shank as Il Tulipano. It’s wonderful when the meat falls from the bone, but exceptional when it melts in your mouth. The meat is lovingly braised for over two hours with red wine, carrots, tomatoes and a variety of vegetables. Make sure you indulge in the silky, moist marrow and enjoy the bed of saffron risotto.

Baby lamb chops ($26) are also very good. Marinated in rosemary and olive oil, and pan-seared before being grilled to order, the tender chops rest in a delicate lamb demi glace subtly laced with a bit of tomato. A delicious stew of fresh vegetables, sausage, roasted peppers and pine nuts, slowly simmered in a delightful semi-sweet rosemary/sage/red wine vinegar sauce, is the setting for an overcooked, slightly dry, boneless baby chicken called pollastrello dello scarpaio ($19).

Simple, yet original, gamberoni con bottarga ($22), with jumbo white prawns and a few clams mixed with homemade trenette noodles, gets a jolt of sea flavor from its topping of Sardinian bottarga ­ “the caviar of the poor” which is pressed roe, dried, cured and grated.

Filetto di salmone ($19) ­ erroneously translated as poached salmon, is a delicious pink slab of salmon, done to a crisp, topped with braised leeks and wild mushrooms. Dredged in flour and chopped garlic before hitting the fry pan, the fillet’s flavors are sealed in, and develop as the moist fish is finished in a sauce of white wine, clam juice, butter and lemon. On the other hand, mixed seafood grill ($27): char-grilled jumbo prawns, fresh salmon, tilapia, tuna, calamari and scallops, moistened in a lemon sauce rich with sage, was correct, yet quite uneventful.

Desserts, good but deja vu

There is no dessert menu, since the sweets change nightly. But rest assured, there will always be the ricotta cheesecake ($7), a blend of ricotta, cream cheese and fluffy egg whites in what appears to be a tall, sturdy cake studded with glazed fruit, but is actually a light and fragile treasure. And the caramelized orange ($7), bright and colorful, covered in hard caramel with strips of caramelized peel dressing the presentation. The orange is served sectioned and resting on a pineapple ring in a light sauce of honey and Kahlúa.

This Il Tulipano is a welcome addition to the fine dining-starved Coconut Grove.

Mark Goldberg is a dining critic and a freelance copywriter.