It is now headed by Francesco Gava who specializes in Northern Italian cuisine.
From the colourful pastas at the kitchen you can tell he is very creative and artistic with these flower shaped pastas, candy shaped pastas which are coloured by beetroot and squid ink.
The menu has improved with each section listed clearly.
Here was what we had:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Gnocco Fritto, Pecorino Cheese Biscuit:
To start off had these great Italian starters, the precorino cheese biscuit was crispy with tasty cheese in the middle which are simply addictive.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cold Cuts Platter:
Next we had the cold cuts which comprised of a good selection of proscuitto crudo, coppa, mortadella, soppressata venata, porchetta, salame di napoli, speck, bresaola and salame felino.
The mortadella and crudo were my favourite.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
VITELLO TONNATO:
Roasted Beef, Tuna Sauce
This is a well-known Italian cold appetizer, sliced veal covered with a creamy, mayonnaise-like sauce that has been flavored with tuna.
The tuna sauce was so velvety and creamy but you could still taste the fine tuna fibres in it.
The veal was really tender and melted in your mouth along with the tuna sauce, I would have thought I was just eating Tuna if I was blindfolded. An interesting pairing of fish and red meat, but saying that tuna is darker than most fishes.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
INSALATA DI MARE:
Seafood Salad
The seafood salad was refreshingly simple because it was seafood and salad drizzled with olive oil. There was more seafood than salad and the octopus was the best.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
CREMA DI ZUCCA E FORMAGGIO DI CAPRA:
Pumpkin Soup & Goat Cheese
The highlight of this soup was that they did not use thickeners, but they put Italian rice in it which is similar to congee to thicken it up, however these were filtered away because the locals are not quite ready for risotto style soup yet.
It was beautifully presented with pumpkins seeds, goats cheese and beetroot soaked Italian rice to give it a colourful contrast.
The soup had a rich sweet pumpkin taste infused with a thick milky rice flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
RAVIOLI AL MERLUZZO:
Homemade Cod Fish Ravioli
I love ravioli and these were filled with mashed cod fish which was delicious.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
TAGLIATELLE AI FUNGHI:
Homemade Tagliatelle, Fresh Mushrooms & Parmesan Cream
The tagliatelle is made with more egg yolks than the standard pasta which makes them extremely chewier with firmness.
It was tossed in creamy sauce which hung to it well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
RISOTTO PORRI E SALSICCIA:
Italian Sausage & Braised Leek Risotto
The risotto was flavourful because there were so much crisp leeks in it that made it sweet and the Italian sausage was a double treat because it was mixed in the risotto and garnished with crispy pieces of Italian sausage to give it that extra crunch.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
MAIALINO AL FORNO:
Roasted Suckling Pig
The roasted suckling pig was crispy as I expected, but the suckling pig meat was surprisingly soft as cotton which was like eating chicken. The meat came off the bone really easily too.
For improvements, it would be good if there was some apple or cherry jam to jazz it up.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
TREVIGANA:
Gorgonzola cheese, cotto ham, radicchio leaves, mozzarella and tomato sauce.
Gorgonzola is a gorgeous strong tasting cheese which gave every bite of pizza a nice flavour which went well with the soft cotto ham and crisp sweet radicchio leaves.
As well as the taste, it was really colourful with the purple salad leaves.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
MILLEFOGLIE ALLE MORE:
Blackberry Thousand Layer Cake
These were light layers of puff pastry with custard and blackberry sauce.
A nice contrast of crispy pastry with sweet custard and tart berry sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
BISCOTTI:
Cantucci, tegole and Paste di meliga
A nice collection of Italian biscuits that are great with coffee.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
BOUNET:
The Rum-Chocolate Pudding was strong and rich with a nutty texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
SEMIFREDDO AL LAMPONE:
Raspberry Parfait, Chocolate Cream & Meringue
This was simply the best, in the middle it was oozing with vibrant raspberry sauce encased in a frozen whipped raspberry parfait with sweet meringue pieces to complement it.
A wonderful raspberry experience.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Assaggio Trattoria Italiana:
6/F, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai
