Involtini Italian Cuisine

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Item: Involtini Italian Cuisine
Rating: 4
Author: Kumabeardiary

355 Reviews

Taste

Decor

Service

Hygiene

Value

67430

Causeway Bay

$101-200

Italian

270

Kumabeardiary

Level3

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How good is good? That's the question I asked myself after the meal and I struggled for a long time as there were few high points, but at the same time, some low points.

The background of 3 star Michelin but with a bargain price seemed to be well publicised and certainly has an positive pandemic effect in terms of alacrity to visit, and more importantly, make a review or feedback slavishly along the "3 star Michelin" line. Not trying to be a contrarian, as I would easily give a "smile" for this quality of food but not the carbonara definitely, but since the restaurant held up a "passion" as motto and seemed like the executive chef is aiming high, my expectation also soared proportionally. After all the consideration, especially the suboptimal carbonara, I gave an overall "OK" at the end.

Involtini is the first of Jack Law and Gary Ngai and I am sure most customers who visited Involtini had a good grasp of their biography especially their background of working in a 3 star Michelin restaurant etc. The Involtini sign wasn't that easy to spot as the surroundings advertisement were quite busy as well.

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We did not book the place in advance and on entering the restaurant, it was full-house. The staff greeted us with a friendly smile and hinted us that one of the table will be ready soon. After seated, staff also gave us the stylish leathered cover menu.

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The menu is offering a good concise choice of dishes, so does the wine list, and each dish was paired with a suggested wine (separate order obviously) which not many restaurant will do. As the restaurant was famous for their pasta, I opted to try their first two pasta dish on the menu together with their suggested wine. Now, here is one of the disappointment. The wine suggestion for the Pork Ragu Tagliatelle (Il Palazzino Chianti Classico) was only available if you order a bottle; that means that it was not available by glass. If you not sharing, who could have finished a bottle during a meal? I had no other option, but ordering another glass of wine with the same region and same grape, but obviously different wine producer. Wine manner in Involtini were perfect including the choice of glassware, confirming the wine, pouring a taste and serving the wine.

Their bread compliment was one of its kind! How often will you see ham and cheese served together with the bread compliment? Olive oil and thick balsamic vinegar was a good choice that overcome the oily experience compared to those watery black vinegar. Not the best bread that I have tried, but at least I enjoyed it. Table space and spacing between tables were another concern. Don't even mention that your personal space will be encroached upon, the table itself seemed to just fit the dishes, and may be that's why you won't see the bread plate and the table setting was minimal.

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For our starter, we had the beef tartare. It was outstanding! The beef tartare was boldly seasoned with mixed, small, diced nuts and herbs which delivered the flavour. It was also topped with generous carvier which added a twist to a traditional tartare. The dish was also decor with quail eggs and sundried tomatos and the taste was sensational! Of course, the traditional toast as well.

For the 1st main, we had the pork ragu tagliatelle and it was good! I really wanted to highlight the use of fennel seed as it was astonishing! It is such an amazing ingredient with pork just like cumin with lamb. Pork was tender with good fat lean ratio and texture also matched up with the al dante pasta. It would be more appealing if the pasta had slightly more touch of salt. This dish paired with sangiovese from Chianti was perfect! One of the "great marriage" between wine and dish I would say. However, still marks off for not having the designated wine by glass.

Pork Ragu Tagliatelle

Everything was so good so far until this carbonara. I would say it maintained a lot of good techniques such as no cream and using pancetta but the overall impression wasn't that striking. Using fresh pasta for cream based sauce seemed to be justified, but with no offence, this fresh tagliolini has a lot of Chinese character in it, especially the imaginary link with Chinese "Lo meen egg noodles". The sauce also seemed to have hint of nutmeg which I had a moment thinking I was having a Mac&Cheese and the carbonara was also under seasoned, and where is the black pepper and parmigiano reggiano? I guess it was not so traditional after all. But the huge homemade Pancetta was crispy and was very good for visuals. The paired white was fairly good and balanced with the sauce nicely. But with all due respect, this carbonara did not make the cut.

There is a lot of controversies about open kitchen; for transparency, for interactions, for bonding between customers etc. I experienced none of those except one - noise. Dropping utensils, binning the left over by hitting the dish against the bin's edge repetitively and utensils hitting each other seemed to be the concerto of the night. Even though the pure background music was soothing, it still couldn't overcome those nagging noises. We also should have tried their tasting menu and with just $518 per person, it does seem a bargain, as the meal tonight already cost a $400+ per person.

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Overall, I do enjoy the meal, although not the best I tried, and it was the carbonara -the classic italian dish that I liked most, and I cannot stress that enough, was the major culprit of the night. If it was not the carbonara tagliolini, I would have recommend it. But also, I would't comment about an Italian restaurant without trying their carbonara dish.