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2013-01-29
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Messina iL Ristorante is an Italian restaurant located on the Whampoa waterfront. This is a rather unusual location for a fine dining restaurant considering that Whampoa is more of a low-profile residential area. There are major construction work going on in this area in preparation for the 2015 launch of a new metro line. So to avoid any hassles, taking a taxi there would be the safest bet.The restaurant is situated on the fifth floor of a tall residential and office tower. There are all togeth
The restaurant is situated on the fifth floor of a tall residential and office tower. There are all together 3 fine dining restaurants under the same group on that floor - Yu Lei (a Shanghainese restaurant), Kazuo Okada (a Japanese restaurant specializing in kaiseki) and Messina.
The restaurant is decorated predominantly in white and beige color with small patches of red and yellow. From its cozy design, we knew up front that this is not a family restaurant serving meatball spaghetti and pizza but a serious no-nonsense fine dining place billed to serve high-quality modern Italian cuisine.
The set lunch represented fairly good value for money. Between any choice of 2 antipasti, starter, main course and dessert, a 2-course lunch only costs $260. For any additional course, simply add another $120 on top.Foie gras terrine (Grade: 3/5)
The amuse bouche was a slice of foie gras terrine. The texture was smooth and it was appropriately complemented with a small salad and a toast.
Pumpkin velouté, cauliflower caponata and Sicilian red prawns carpaccio (Grade: 4/5)Lunch started brightly with a nicely executed pumpkin velouté. The hot soup was poured onto a bed of fresh red prawns carpaccio from Sicily on the spot. I really enjoyed the wonderful contrasting texture between the pumpkin soup and red prawns.
Linguini with clams, white wine and zucchini sauce (Grade: 2/5)After enjoying a nice pumpkin velouté, next up was a fried linguini with small clams, sliced zucchini and white wine. The pasta itself had enough bite to it but the overall taste of the dish was disappointing, especially coming from an Italian restaurant. The sauce, in particular, was very weak and lacking substance.
Braised lamb neck (Grade: 2/5)The braised lamb neck was our first main course and the presentation was quite appealing. Four lamb neck cubes was placed in a small 'wok' and mixed with different kinds of colorful vegetables.
However, despite the wonderful appearance, the meat was not tender nor juicy enough to warrant any high marks.
Crispy suckling pig (Grade: 4.5/5)The other main course was a suckling pig and finally we had something to cheer about. The suckling pig itself was very tender inside and crispy on the outside. But the key was the bed of braised lentils and Tropea onions. Its sweetness provided a much needed balance to the rich taste of the suckling pig.
There is always room for desserts and our server was quick to showcase their dessert trolley in front of us. Apart from different selections of cheese, they also had all kinds of delicious desserts ranging cakes to homemade ice creams and sorbets.
Tiramisu (Grade: 2.5/5)We started things off with a simple tiramisu. At least we thought we were but turned out this was a "deconstructed" version of tiramirsu instead of the traditional kind.
The "dessert deconstruction" theory seems to be gaining momentum in recent years and we had quite a few similar ones during our recent visits to Europe. Most notable one was also a tiramisu we had in Stuttgart.
Back to this tiramisu which was a mix of ingredients including mascarpone, cream, liquor, coffee powder and some nuts. Perhaps I am a bit old school - I still prefer the traditional type in the form of a cake.
Traditional Cannolis (Grade: 3/5)Not to be missed was the cannoli, which was a famous Sicilian pastry dessert. Literally meaning "little tubes" in Italian, this delightful pastry filled with pistachio and cream was a nice exclamation mark to a fairly good-quality lunch.
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