Shop A, G/F Seaview Building, 6C Wharf Road, North Point
Tel: 2806 0869
Open: 11am-3pm, 6pm-10pm
Cuisine: Italian and Western
Price: HK$400, not including drinks or the service charge.
Ambience: this is the type of restaurant to visit if you live nearby and want to dine somewhere more upmarket than a fast-food venue. The banquette seats are comfortable but the table by the door is draughty. There is no sea view.
Pros: the staff are accommodating - the response to a question about parking was that there are usually spaces in front of the restaurant, and there's time to move your car before being booked. The kitchen served us one dish from the tasting menu although we ordered everything else ? la carte.
Cons: the tomatoes in the mozzarella tomato salad (HK$88) were flavourless. Accompanying other dishes were overcooked potatoes and broccoli. Because the restaurant is small, noisy groups can make conversation difficult at other tables. If you're waiting for a table there is little to do but walk up and down a characterless street full of property companies, or stand on the pavement and hope departing diners take pity and leave quickly.
Recommended dishes: a pleasing starter was the black truffle ravioli (HK$88), which was understated but delicious and an appetite enhancer. But the dish of the night was the creamy wild mushroom scallop risotto (HK$108), which had a flowing consistency and rich flavours, boosted by sweet, smoky, seared Hokkaido scallops that made the dish more princely cuisine than peasant fare. We also liked the Sicilian red prawn with porcini mushroom and garlic linguine, pinched from the tasting menu and served to us for HK$218. Tasty and satisfying, it was a treat, even if the pasta was on the soft side of al dente.