When in Rome

Contemporary Northern Italian

Di Vino offers bite-sized degustare as well as full-sized mains and desserts to complement their menu of more than 40 quality wines. Their spring and summer Italo-tapas include grilled tuna with arugula, olives and tomato confit, and homemade chicken and duck liver pâté. Their seasonal mains include penne with gorgonzola and black truffle sauce and a risotto with saffron and goose salami.
73 Wyndham St., Central, 2522-1002

Marche-style

Sergio’s, wedged between Causeway Bay and Tai Hang, embodies simple, original home-style Italian cooking. Hyperactive and quintessentially Italian chef Oriana Tirabassi hails from the Marche region in the center of Italy, northeast of Rome and right by the Adriatic sea, where they tend to use less garlic and more sea salt as a flavoring. She stresses that during the hot summer month of June in Italy, it’s very important to have light dishes. Try her garoupa, Italian-style, or fig and lobster with handmade pasta, which is made with dark wheat flour.
Shop A, Catic Plaza, 8 Causeway Rd., Causeway Bay, 2777-5183

Southern Italian

Sardinia, being an island off the west coast of Italy, has a strong Greek influence and boatloads of Mediterranean seafood. Sabatini is holding a Sardegna Lobster and Pasta Delicacies menu from now till early June. Highlights of Chef Luca’s modest (six items) but immaculately conceived menu include baby squid and lobster served with homemade green tortelli filled with fresh tomatoes, black olive taggia and capers, and gragnano paccheri pasta with lobster, ceasar mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and arugula. The restaurant’s wine cellar is also at your disposal.
3/F, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2733-2000

Italian-Japanese fusion

You can’t leave the terribly trendy Japitalian fusion out of the equation. The innovative menus at D.Diamond and Qube+ read like a foodie’s grimoire. D.Diamond, the glittering giant in Elements, is serving up grilled kuruma prawns with cherry tomatoes, and ricotta agnolotti and cured milk-fed lamb leg and Cerignola olive purée. Fusion appetizers at the intimate LKF bar and ristorante Qube+ include scallop sashimi with asparagus in citrus Italian dressing, braised abalone with crab and cucumber salad, fennel chips and sweet roasted-pepper coulis, and smoked eel fillet on potato blinis and a dashi gelée. For mains, there’s seared monkfish on black and red risotto with a ponzu reduction, and pan-fried Japanese sea bream with artichoke purée and parmesan crisps in a sweet tomato water. But it’s not just seafood—the Italians are great lovers of offal, and for the courageous diner, you can try their grilled wagyu heart, or half-grilled wagyu liver, or a yummy wagyu intestine in red miso.
D.Diamond, Shop R001, Elements, 1 Austin Rd. West., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2196-8126
Qube+, 1/F, California Tower, 30-32 D’Aguilar St., Central, 2526-3880

Hong Kong-style

We couldn’t resist including our local-style Italian favorite Spaghetti House in here. Sure, it’s not authentically Italian but we can’t say it’s bad. There’s their bright red Neapolitan with chunks of sweet onion and capsicum, the guilty favorite bacon, sausage and mushroom (with either a white cream or a red tomato sauce) and our beloved crabmeat cannelloni. Don’t worry; at least it’s al dente nowadays.
1/F, Matheson Centre, 3-5 Matheson St., Causeway Bay, 2234-0605

American-Italian

Otherwise known as Little Italy-style. The family favorite Fat Angelo’s offers up all the old classics: fettucine alfredo, spaghetti carbonara, lasagna, rigatoni bolognese... all with extra cheese, extra carbs and extra fat, just like mamma used to make. Not only is the food idiot-proof, but so is the wine list, thanks to the uber-helpful all-Italian menu that recommends dishes with each wine.
49A-C Elgin St., Central, 2973-6808

Rustic Tuscan

Angelini traditionally serves up Italian in a rustic Tuscan style, but from June 5 to 15, the menu won’t be prepared by your average Italian nonna, but by a maestro who’s cooked for the late Luciano Pavarotti and Pope John Paul II. Chef Gino Angelini of LA’s famed restaurants Angelini Osteria and La Terza will be gracing the kitchens of our very own Angelini. Try his Tuscan whole grain farro with mache salad and Mediterranean
scampi, and the lamb loin with potato cake, spinach and balsamic sauce.
Kowloon Shangri-La, 64 Mody Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2733-8750

Coffee, Anyone?

No Italian meal is complete without a dark, strong coffee to round it off. Here’s our top picks for the finest Italian beans:

Cova
Uses its own house blend of seven different Arabic coffee beans. Each bean is hand-roasted individually.
L/3, Pacific Place, Admiralty, 2918-9643

Caffe Vergnano 1882
Also uses their own house blend, but their beans are Maragogype, the largest in the world. See if size really does make a difference.
Shop 2097-2098, IFC Two, Central, 2234-7676

Caffe Habitu
Imports premium Italian beans from Antica Tostatura Triestina, a company that specializes in the best beans from Central and South America, which are roasted according to type and country of origin.
Shop G22-27, Hutchinson House, 10 Harcourt Rd., Central, 2147-2323