I saw supersupergirl's review of this place a little bit ago, and it said: "great pizzas... I love their pizzas." There was more, but that's about all the recommendation I need to try a pizza place in Hong Kong.Grappa's Cellar is an Italian-American restaurant, not an Italian restaurant. First tipoff is the menu. For example, on the entrees there's chicken parmesan, on the pasta menu there's spaghetti marinara and spaghetti and meatballs, and the pizzas include pepperoni. All of these are Italia
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I saw supersupergirl's review of this place a little bit ago, and it said: "great pizzas... I love their pizzas." There was more, but that's about all the recommendation I need to try a pizza place in Hong Kong.
Grappa's Cellar is an Italian-American restaurant, not an Italian restaurant. First tipoff is the menu. For example, on the entrees there's chicken parmesan, on the pasta menu there's spaghetti marinara and spaghetti and meatballs, and the pizzas include pepperoni. All of these are Italian-American dishes, which you won't find in Italy. Second tipoff is the red checker tablecloths and Sinatra playing-- at that point, it's a little over-the-top.
OK... maybe that's not it though. I mean, there's bruschetta rather than garlic bread on the menu. What we really have here is a multinational restaurant group that's created a "pan-Italian" restaurant engineered to appeal to an international audience, not one bound to particular local customs or cooking styles. Let's go with that.
First to come was the complimentary bread. Now, I'm always pleased to see free bread at an Italian place, cuz even fancy places like NOM won't give you any. But two things: 1. I prefer to mix my own oil and vinegar, thank you and 2. the bread here is bad. It's free so the place doesn't lose points, but they could try a little harder.
I got the same pizza supersupergirl got, the pizza alla salsicca, "Our own homemade sausage combined with salami, tomatoes and cheese". Interestingly, that's what the online menu says. In-store, 'salami' is replaced with 'pepperoni.' Since it was covered in sausage, I couldn't exactly tell. Of further interest, I believe 'salsicca' is not the Italian word for 'sausage,' or at least not the correct spelling of it, which is 'salsiccia,' pronounced sal-SEE-tcheh. Neither I nor my server pronounced this word correctly-- do you see what I mean? None of us are in an Italian restaurant, but we're all pretending that we are.
This is going to sound mean, but I don't mean it in a mean way: the pizza reminded me of Pizza Hut. Not HK Pizza Hut mind you, but the original. Y'see, Neapolitan pizza has a very thin crust (less than 3mm says Wikipedia), and even New York pizza is relatively thin and crisp. But as you move into the American midwest, the crust gets thicker and softer. A Buzzfeed article I was reading recently explains:
"Gradually, US pizzerias engineered the speed out of pizza — the fast-cooking thin crust had a slim margin for error, [pizza enthusiast Scott] Wiener says. Many chains adopted conveyor-belt ovens for consistency, but this extended the cooking time and degraded the texture of that all-important crust, [owner of Pieology, Carl] Chang says."
I'm not accusing Grappa's of using a conveyor-belt oven-- my pizza crust and the sausages on it had a nice char from the oven-- I'm just saying that in its softer, thicker crust, the pizza winds up being a lot like Pizza Hut or Domino's pizza. The similarity is also aided by the relatively sweet pizza sauce.
In retrospect, the choice of crust makes sense. Grappa's is run by El Grande, a restaurant group that also ran the now-closed restaurant Domani. Here's what I said about the pizza there, "Our crust was nowhere crispy. It was completely undercooked, soggy right up until the outer edges. It couldn't hold the toppings on and I had to eat it with a knife and fork." Grappa's thus avoids this problem by choosing the inferior crust-type with the larger margin for error.
As for the toppings, they were pretty good. The sausage was crumbly and as I say crisp on top from the oven-- a nice touch. The salami/ pepperoni was hidden beneath and didn't get as crisp. I'd have liked pepperoni by itself as a choice, but there was no build-your-own pizza, so I endured. On the whole I'd say the pizza was similar to, but better and classier than, (American) Pizza Hut pizza. It didn't wow me by any measure.
Finally, I got a glass of wine and some sparkling water. The wine was a syrah-cabernet and I liked it.
For now, I continue my quest to find truly awesome pizza in HK. I guess right now Slices and Motorino are my favorites, but the former is imperfect in many ways and the latter is Neapolitan-- alas, inveterate American that I am, I really need a good ol' New York slice I can call my own. Someday, perhaps, but I doubt domani.
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It is dead as a doornail here on weekends at lunch. When I came in, I asked whether they were open, that's how dead it was.
The Spinach salad is delicious. I also was so excited about the lasagna that I forgot to take a photo. Ensalada de espinaca deliciosa y una lasaña sabrosa y jugosa. the only bad thing is that there crumbs on our seat when we sat down
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The Spinach salad is delicious. I also was so excited about the lasagna that I forgot to take a photo. Ensalada de espinaca deliciosa y una lasaña sabrosa y jugosa. the only bad thing is that there crumbs on our seat when we sat down
Super rude service especially from the waiter at the entrance...I understand that he might only serve customer to the table but he totally ignore eye contact when I ask him for the bill...as a customer, I feel very offended..the food here is great but the service will ruins it all
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Super rude service especially from the waiter at the entrance...I understand that he might only serve customer to the table but he totally ignore eye contact when I ask him for the bill...as a customer, I feel very offended..the food here is great but the service will ruins it all
Went here for lunch because I love their pizzas.Had the pizza al salsicca which is topped with delicious bits of crumbled meat and pepperoni.The pizza base was soft and airy while the toppings were strong and flavourful but a bit salty.The only thing I didn't like was the attitude because they make it an issue if you don't order much.
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Went here for lunch because I love their pizzas. Had the pizza al salsicca which is topped with delicious bits of crumbled meat and pepperoni.
同事約lunch 大家都喺中環做野 就book 左呢度 前一日book 都有位被安排坐sofa 位 正Lunch set 有三個courses 同兩個courses price 由一佰多元起 在中環算ok 啦坐下便送上麵包兩片(每位）serve with vinegar and olive oil but 麵包有點乾橙色嗰片辣辣地 好得意與同事商量後 還是決定單點Order 咗Pizza avocado e Gamberi -large Chicken Caesar salad and Seafood pasta - tomato sauce 先上salad ,portion ok 但雞有點過鞋 菜算新鮮 不過好似有點腥味 應該落咗d dry fish pasta 好夠熱 seafood 有shrimp , mussels, fish , squid 好爽囗鮮甜 加上tomato sauce 好味al dentapizza 超大 上面部滿蝦同牛油果 蝦夠爽 牛油果夠熟 加埋cheese and tomato 醬 同薄麵粉底 好脆last but not least 加杯提神啡完滿
We were filmed trying three different restaurants on the good food tour organized by online dining platform and foodie.Grappas cella was the first stop and I really liked their pizzas because the pizza base was light and fluffy and the topping were delicious.
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We were filmed trying three different restaurants on the good food tour organized by online dining platform and foodie. Grappas cella was the first stop and I really liked their pizzas because the pizza base was light and fluffy and the topping were delicious.
Highly recommend to book or walk-in to this restaurant for a very decent business lunch (HK$200 for two course / HK$250 for three course ) or for a friend gathering - a good venue at the heart of the Central district, easy to book, not overly packed, not too loud, friendly staff that speaks fluent English and semi-casual atmosphere gives it a good setting.Was happy with the choice of food on the set lunch menu that comes with an appetiser and a main course. The Appetiser had a variety of soup
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Highly recommend to book or walk-in to this restaurant for a very decent business lunch (HK$200 for two course [appetiser, main, drink] / HK$250 for three course [appetiser, main, dessert, drink]) or for a friend gathering - a good venue at the heart of the Central district, easy to book, not overly packed, not too loud, friendly staff that speaks fluent English and semi-casual atmosphere gives it a good setting.
Was happy with the choice of food on the set lunch menu that comes with an appetiser and a main course. The Appetiser had a variety of soup or salad. The main course has mixture of a variety of pasta, seafood, poultry and steak (upon extra HK$30). The choice of desserts were classic Italian desserts such as tiramisu.
I picked the Burrata as appetiser and the Seafood Pasta as the main and an iced lemon tea (good size). Photo time!
Today when I swiped through my phone album, I suddenly found out I should really write a review for the dining experience in the Grappa's Cellar, it is because this restaurant is being underrated in certain extent.Actually, I forgot when was the exact time that I went to the restaurant, but it has to be the time when the Haywood Sisters from London preformed at the restaurant, so it should be around December in 2015. Since I was just returned from a little trip in Macau, so we passed Jardine Hou
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Today when I swiped through my phone album, I suddenly found out I should really write a review for the dining experience in the Grappa's Cellar, it is because this restaurant is being underrated in certain extent.
Actually, I forgot when was the exact time that I went to the restaurant, but it has to be the time when the Haywood Sisters from London preformed at the restaurant, so it should be around December in 2015. Since I was just returned from a little trip in Macau, so we passed Jardine House and we decided to have dinner there. That’s when we saw the sign saying that there will be a performance at the restaurant and we were so lucky that there were still tickets (costing 180HKD each) available!!
The waiter gave us a table on the right side of the stage, so we could have a good view to the stage, but the light was dimmed down, so we didn’t take much quality photos…
This was the Truffle Risotto that I personally recommended, the waiter said the menu served on that day was the usual dinner menu, so you can still order it in usual weekdays. Firstly, the chip on top is so delicious, it’s a pity that there was only one of it. Anyway, the portion of the risotto was quite large, especially for risotto, so two people share it should be better. The truffle smelled so good, for a truffle lover, it couldn’t taste anymore better!!! Mixing it with the risotto was so yummy, and the risotto was not sticky or too creamy, the sauce they used made the whole dish less heavy (you know sometimes risotto can be so heavy and made you full easily)!
The second dish we ordered was the Chicken Ravioli, I was actually the Italian style of Wanton, but they put chicken instead of shrimp in it. It tasted very good! I love the thickness of the skin, it was not too thick so the texture of the ravioli was great. The chicken was very tender also. In addition, we love the white sauce they used, they tasted so creamy and it go along with the ravioli well!
Another main part if the dinner has to be the show! The Haywood Sister was a trio-vocal group and the whole band was also from England, they told us they arrived HK just the day before the show. They have performed many famous female vocal group songs like the Alexander's Ragtime Band and Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, they have performed contemporary songs like Burn and Roar. The saxophone player amazed us as it was a girl!! Having nice meals and enjoying the show at the same time was really delighting, the whole atmosphere was relaxing!
All in all, this was the first time that I watched a live performance in a diner, and I was definitely falling in love with it! So I was looking forward to the next show and I would try the Grappa's Cellar again very soon!
Had a decent dinner with my best buddy before he's going back to the UK. We were both satisfied with every dish here These were what we've got:Thanks to my bestie who had suggested this.This was soo lovely! Very strong in the lobster taste as if you were having the lobster instead of the soup. The portion was kind of large too, two of us shared thisCute trofle pasta! The black truffle had an addictive aroma that I could not stop pigging out on this. This was done absolutely well especially with
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Had a decent dinner with my best buddy before he's going back to the UK. We were both satisfied with every dish here These were what we've got:
Thanks to my bestie who had suggested this. This was soo lovely! Very strong in the lobster taste as if you were having the lobster instead of the soup. The portion was kind of large too, two of us shared this
Cute trofle pasta! The black truffle had an addictive aroma that I could not stop pigging out on this. This was done absolutely well especially with the black truffle blended in with the thick cheese sauce. The broad beans gave a fresh taste which somewhat balanced out the filling cheesy pasta
Besttt squid salad I've ever had... squids were quite fresh and soft, great chewiness to enjoy. The chili sauce wasn't spicy but it matched soo well with the squids! The potato and sausages came second comparing to the squids
Had a shot of B52 before the Tiramisu came. Fair portions of different layers of liquers, and the obvious layers even made it look better. Good job bartender
Once again this is the best I've ever had... Authentic tiramisu! The cheesecake was very smooth yet the coffee flavor was not overwhelming - just right to have a taste between the cheese and coffee. It was such a big portion as well... priced at $60 was simply attractive for such topnotch quality.
Looking forward to my next visit
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Great ambience with good music! There's this dancefloor where people can have a little dance after their meals as well ;)
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