7 Wun Sha Street, Tai Hang
Tel: 2881 8287
Open: noon-10.30pm
Cuisine: Italian
Price: about HK$200 without drinks or the service charge.
Ambience: it's a long, very narrow space, but the high ceilings and folding doors that open to the street make it less cramped. The noise level was fine.
Pros: service was efficient and helpful, and the food came at a good pace. There are different styles of pizza based on the crust, and the one here - tender and thin (although not cracker-like) - was a good version of this particular type, although it could have used more char on the bottom.
Cons: some of the pizzas have too many toppings and removing one or two would improve them. The salsiccia (HK$145), for instance, could have easily lost the pineapple (which has no place on a pizza, anyway) and either the olives or mushrooms, so more of the focus would be on the Italian sausage. The house-made tagliatelle with kurobuta pork ragout and porcini (HK$152) had a sauce that was dominated by too much of the distinctively flavoured mushrooms.
Recommended dishes: the quattro formaggi (HK$118) had the four cheeses (mozzarella, gorgonzola, pecorino and fontina) separate on each quarter of the pizza. Although it's more usual to have all the cheeses spread over the whole pizza, this way everyone could pick their favourite cheese. We also liked the rucola pizza (HK$168), although the balance was off: there was too much rucola, just the right amount of Parma ham, and too little parmesan shavings. Our favourite pasta was linguine with prawns and lobster sauce (HK$165). The pasta and prawns were perfectly cooked, the sauce was rich, and the long strands of citrus zest gave the dish a feeling of lightness. The ravioli (HK$145) were well-stuffed with a flavourful mixture of chicken and mushrooms, although the pistachio coulis and onion sauce failed to add needed moisture.