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Piccolo Pizzeria & Bar (
灣仔)
Piccolo Pizzeria has many branches in Hong Kong, with its first in Tai Hang, then later they opened one in Kennedy Town.
When I saw reviews on this place, the pasta, chicken wings and fries looked really good.
I have always wanted to go to the branch in Tai Hang, but it was always fully booked and the seating there is cramped and when you are at Tai Hang, there are so many other irresistible restaurants.
I was so glad when I saw their new shop getting ready to open in Wan Chai, near the MTR, the restaurant here is more spacious too!
X marks the spot!
After Jamel told me it was opened I decided to go there!
The inside of the restaurant was spacious and it had a cowboy western appearance.
There is a glass window so you can see the chefs busy preparing the food.
Water is complimentary, but the menu for it is cute
Ordered the chicken wings, calamari fritti and aglio oili.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken Wings:
Before I ordered them, I thought they were buffalo wings but they said they were just deep fried, but the pictures in the reviews looked good so I got them anyway.
When they came, they looked like buffalo wings served with sauce.
The chicken wings were big compared to the local shriveled up chicken wings, but normal size if you've had chicken wings outside of Hong Kong.
The coating was light but had spices just like the buffalo wings and the lemon mayonnaise that came with it was really delicious. The chicken wings were also soft and juicy and the soft bones near the joints came off easily too.
The piping hot wings tasted delicious with the cooling mayonnaise which was refreshing because it had lemon in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Calamari Fritti - squid rings served with lemon mayo and arrabbiata sauce:
The squid rings had a lovely coating too which was light and crispy and the texture of the squid was still tender and soft.
The coating thickness was just right and was really nice because it had lots of herbs.
I am not sure what herb it was but it was either sage or rosemary.
There were two sauces for dipping, the tomato with garlic and the lemon mayonnaise, both were great compliments.
The tomato sauce was nice because it made the herbs on the coating come out more, while the lemon mayonnaise gave it a creamier taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Aglio olio with buccatini:
This was roasted garlic and chili in olive oil.
For the pasta I chose buccatini because it is rarely served and unavailable in other branches of Piccolo.
Buccatini is a pasta that looks like spaghetti but hollow inside like a straw.
The texture of the buccatini was lovely and al-dente cooked with generous slices of garlic tossed in olive oil with a slight hint of spiciness from the chili.
The buccatini was evenly tossed, each strand was covered in dark olive oil and herbs which was delicious.
The garlic they used were garlic slices which were dried ones because they had a slight crispy texture to it.
The amount of garlic slices were generous too, I still had a pile left after eating most of it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
On my next visit I really want to try the pasta with clams in white sauce too.
As a first visit to Piccolo I was impressed and I loved the atmosphere at this restaurant and the male waiter spoke good English.
