[Hong Kong] SPIGA - Italian by Enrico Bartolini

Rating: ❤❤❤

SPIGA - yet another Italian restaurant just opened in Hong Kong. It took over the space that used to be Lupa by Mario Batali and with designer Joyce Wang's special touch, the space has been transformed into a modern and yet vintage setting with its brass and copper decorations. There's no shortage of Italian restaurants in Hong Kong so does SPIGA offer something truly special? I'm not convinced as I came here for lunch with a friend back in December when they were still soft opening and the experience was mixed as some of the dishes needed work. Perhaps it's best to wait until they work out the kinks in a few months time. 

The restaurant offered a lunch set which included a Salad & Dessert buffet for $188 with options to add on pastas and mains but since I'm not a fan of buffets, I opted for a la carte instead. After we placed our orders, we were given a bread plate with butter, olive oil and balsamic vinegar to start.

The Linguini with Sicilian red prawn and green asparagus ($258) was actually pretty good as the sauce was rich and flavorful while the prawn was deliciously sweet. They had split the pasta for us already (so you're seeing half of the portion here) since we were sharing. The portions were decently big so I highly recommend coming here with a group so you can share more dishes. 

The White Pizza with soft cheese and Norcia truffle ($238) was every bit as indulgent as I thought it would be but the pizza wasn't hot enough so the heaviness of the cheese sauce made it hard to finish (we only finished half between the two of us). The pizza crust could have been more flavorful and browned as well.

  
We couldn't resist desserts so we ordered the signature Soft Creme Brulee with cherries, meringues and iced blueberries ($98) but it turned out to be a watery disaster. We weren't sure if it was supposed to be like this (it looked like melted ice cream water underneath) so we asked the manager who seemed surprised and offered to take it off our bill. 

Verdict - Service was great and the pasta had potential but I'll wait before I'd visit again. 

SPIGA

3/F, LHT Tower

31 Queen's Road Central, Central

Tel: +852 2871 0055

http://www.diningconcepts.com/restaurants/SPIGA




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