Sagrantino

Address : 5/F The Loop, 33 Wellington Street, Central
Tel：2521 5188

This little restaurant will not lure you in from the outside as it is on the fifth floor of a building so you could easily miss it as you walk by. However this place is always busy due to its many regular customers and you would need to make a reservation at weekends.

The restaurant itself is long and narrow with a charming little bar at one end and an informal yet intimate air about the place.

Chef Takashi Yasuda is Japanese so there is plenty of Japanese influence in the cooking. He worked at a restaurant in Italy for some years to learn his trade and came to Hong Kong with some great variations on the typical Italian menu. The food is primarily Italian with a twist and the most unusual dish is the cold pasta. That might not sound very appetizing but the cold pasta dishes in Sagrantino’s are probably the highlight of the menu. It’s worth going there just to try these. Polpo e avocado, comprising octopus and avocado in a wasabi sauce is slightly addictive. This is a great combination as the chewy octopus works well with the creamy avocado. The salmon and salmon roe cold pasta is also very good and the salmon chunks are of perfect consistency. The menu has five cold pasta dishes in all. Other pastas on the menu are classified by meat, tomato, cream and oil bases, making it easier to choose what you want. There are also the old favourites of lasagna, bolognese and risotto. If you don’t fancy pasta, there is a decent range of grilled meats, chicken and fish. The diced cut lamb steak is tender and comes in a delicious red wine sauce with diced potatoes.

For dessert you can indulge in a pineapple ice that is served in a carved out mini pineapple. It is a very unique dessert and is the perfect way to finish off a hearty Italian meal when you really crave something sweet but are too full to manage anything heavy.

The wine list has a range of wines from Australia and New Zealand and a great selection of Italian wines, and the staff can recommend a wine to suit your dish.

The lunch menu is especially good value at $98 for a two course lunch with a pasta main course or $138 for two courses including a dish from the grill for main. This also includes tea or coffee. Sagrantino is open daily, Monday to Saturday, noon-3pm and for dinner from 6pm-11pm.

Armani Bar Address : Level 2, Armani/Chater House, 11 Chater Road, Central Tel：2805 0028 Armani Bar has been open for just over two years in Hong Kong and has managed to retain the chic crowd and chilled out atmosphere of its first days. You can find it on the second floor of Armani’s mega store on Chater Road in Central. This bar is all encompassing in that it combines a restaurant, bar and a café. The café is open in the afternoons between lunch and dinner for well-heeled shoppers to refuel before further retail therapy.

Nicholini's

Address : Level 8, Conrad Hong Kong, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty
Tel：2521 3838 (ext. 8210)

For the past 17 years, Nicholini’s at the Conrad has been serving fine Italian food. Last year it underwent a renovation and around the same time, it welcomed a new head chef, Sandro Falbo. Being Italian, Falbo understands the essence of Italian food yet isn’t afraid to stray from the traditional and add influences from other cuisines, which is what makes this menu so special.

This 80 plus seater restaurant has been luxuriously designed and is a true fine dining experience. The excellently trained staff seem to anticipate every need and you barely notice their presence as they glide in and out.

Nicholini’s buffet and á la carte menu are both available at lunchtime with the buffet proving especially popular. In the evening, a full dinner menu and an á la carte menu are on offer.

The appetizers are typical of Italian food but the chef has managed to tweak each one so that it becomes a brilliant version of its former self. The buffalo and burrata mozzarella with Italian vine tomatoes is no ordinary tomato and mozzarella combination. The tomato alone would suffice as a standalone dish as it was so succulent and sweet. Three-way scallops are especially good, with each one tasting completely unique when fused with different ingredients. One is served with saffron sauce and caviar, the next is wrapped in pancetta parsley foam and the third is combined with truffle and topped with foie gras wine reduction. It’s an ambitious dish but it works very well.

Truffle appears often in the dishes here and the wagyu beef with truffle mustard sauce is excellent if you feel like splashing out. The beef is tender and succulent on its own but the trufle sauce makes it a truly wonderful indulgent treat. The homemade squid ink and saffron tagliolini with salmon, asparagus and vodka sauce is an interesting and tasty combination. The light purple shade of the berries in the blueberry risotto make the dish look more like a dessert and the risotto is indeed sweet and fruity, but in a very subtle way.

The strawberry and chocolate gelato is one of the chef’s specialties. Once you taste this you will never again question whether there is a difference between ice cream and gelato as the texture and flavour of gelato is so much more intense that the two just don’t compare.

In a city where space is at a premium, you will welcome the nice spacious layout of this restaurant and the relaxed vibe that sees the hours fall away. Try Nicholini’s for a treat and you’ll be advertising it to everyone you know. The restaurant is open Monday to Friday from noon to 3pm and 6.30pm to 11pm, Saturday from 6.30pm-11pm and Sunday 11am to 3pm and 6.30 to 11pm.