Read full review
2014-10-04
1085 views
We recently acquainted ourselves with the owner, an Italian guy who used to work in IT, but now has several restaurants in Thailand and has started this venture in HK, aiming to deliver good honest and mama-style traditional dishes (no vegetarian spaghetti bolognaise, as he once received as a request from a tourist in Koh Samui). The chef came from Domani, so we had high expectations of the food, but we were pleasantly surprised that despite the modern decor and open-front patio-like layout, the
Since it's a new restaurant, they don't have a liquor license yet, so the owner brought us down to a wine shop a short hop away which is owned by his Italian mate, and we bought a bottle of red that turned out to be good bang for the buck. We later spotted the owner at the head of the long table at the restaurant with his whole family gathered around him, all three genereations in tow, and it just feels so... Italian. It also goes to show that owners here help each other out and bring business to each other, which is what keeps the wheels of economy in motion.
We wanted EVERYTHING on the menu, but that was clearly not possible for the two of us, so we had to make some harsh decisions on what to cut out. We were left with deep fried zucchini flowers (delightfully light batter, with a creamy sauce to dip into), the frittura of fresh prawns, calamari, zucchini and onion rings (same sauce, couldn't get enough of it).
We moved onto the Hokkaido salad with juicy tender hunks of scallop resting on a bed of spinach and accompanied by some fresh bread.
The meatballs were lightly rolled in breadcrumbs and fried which gave it a crunchy outer and a juicy inner, perfectly tied together by the deliciously light and tangy tomato sauce.
For mains we were directed towards the Milanese - a big hunk of battered and fluffed up veal that maintained the right amount of fat which was balanced by the fresh tomatoes and arugula on top.
We couldn't resist the owner's recommendation of the pistachio gelato with canelloni, which was everything he promised.
Post
