In Nola, a secret restaurant accessed through a library hidden in a speakeasy-style cocktail bar. It is the new fine dining project designed by an exceptional trio: chef Nicola Restaino, bar manager Dante La Gala, and maître and sommelier Giuseppe Bonomo.

In the beginning there was Imprinting Experience, a secret bar and fine dining in speakeasy style opened by bartender Dante La Gala and chef Nicola Restaino in 2023, followed in 2024 by the SET Restaurant project, the fine dining restaurant that completes their dream of combining mixology and high cuisine.

As special as everything that Dante and Nicola, friends since school and now business partners in life, experience first-hand, so is “access” to their sophisticated gastronomic world.

To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.

(Oscar Wilde)

In fact, you enter the restaurant through a curious bookcase wall that, like in the best detective novels, rotates on itself to reveal a secret passage that leads to the room with elegant green marble walls and a huge open kitchen.

To manage SET Restaurant, Dante and Nicola have called Giuseppe Bonomo, restaurant manager and sommelier, who returned to Campania after various international experiences, including in London where he had created a gourmand wine bar.

SET means “story”, and the restaurant is precisely the story of a place that tries to speak to all the senses, through a journey that celebrates traditions, albeit at times twisting them completely.

This is the philosophy of chef Nicola Restaino, a past in various illustrious kitchens, including the latest experience as resident chef of Don Alfonso Portugal.

His is a culinary proposal of great technique, made more interesting and lively by his brilliant and cultured Neapolitan spirit that brings to the dishes local ingredients but also stories, poetry and romanticism drawn from episodes of life lived intensely.

A curious approach that can already be perceived from the three tasting itineraries to choose from, in addition to the à la carte menu: Fork, Spoon and Spork (fork, spoon and hybrid cutlery) are, in fact, the names of the menus inspired by three different cutlery, because each dish can offer a completely different taste experience depending on the cutlery with which it is consumed.

On the menu, we find dishes that are interpretations of great Italian classics such as the Parmigiana di Melanzane with eggplant caviar, parmesan fondue, tomato cream, blown egg and basil coulis, or the Spaghetti with tomato from the Cozzolino pasta factory, datterino tomato coulis, semi-dry tomatoes, parmesan, basil and lemon. A visual and palate subversion of flavours that always brings us back to the deliciousness of the original recipe.

But also new divertissements such as the dessert Oasi nel Deserto, a reminder of the flavours of tiramisu, which is presented as a “desert” made of couscous cooked in coffee flavoured with cinnamon and star anise, cream cheese, salted coffee mou, cardamom gel, caramelized pecans, gorgonzola creams, yogurt, mascarpone and sheep ricotta, licorice powder, lime zest and mint.

The wine list is also impressive: over 100 labels selected by the impeccable host Giuseppe Bonomo from local vineyards and great international wines.

Open only in the evening, for the perfect experience at SET Restaurant you can book an aperitif at Imprinting Experience and then continue to dinner, letting yourself be guided through careful and passionate experimentation in which each dish is designed to be accompanied by a cocktail created specifically to enhance its flavors.

A truly unique place in Campania that is worth a trip.

The Secret

A peacock feather appears on the SET Restaurant logo, as well as on that of the Imprinting Experience cocktail bar. The icon refers to the word “imprinting”, a form of learning for life in certain living beings, especially birds, and a metaphor for the relationship that the three partners have with their professions and with their customers.

Useful Info

SET Restaurant
Via San Massimo 32
80035 Nola, Napoli
Tel. + 39 392 0149843

Tasting menus: from 60 euro, 100 euro with wine pairings
Starters: from 10 euro
First courses: from 15 euro
Second courses: from 14 euro