Lanciano Ristorante

Apparently there is an Italian joint in Tai Po..my curiosity immediately peaked. When we got there the place was full - I wondered the popularity was due to the lack of choices in Tai Po, or the food.

The big menu had all the items you would expect, with pasta, pizza, meat and seafood dishes.

To start my dad had the onion soup. It was more like a cream of potato soup with no hint of onion whatsoever. He didn't like it at all.

My bresola wrapped with ricotta with arugula. It was a bit odd that the whole thing was served dry without olive oil. Once I softened the beef with olive oil the dish was actually not bad.

Pappardelle with Italian sausages and mozzarella. The sauce was way too sweet and I could use more cheese than the 5 cubes of mozzarella.

Linguine with clams and mussels in white wine sauce. Our jaws dropped when we saw how big those clams were. The sauce was actually not bad and not too garlicky.

Spaghetti with foie gras. I didn't try the foie gras but the pasta was cooked to perfection! It was very fragrant with duck oil with a hint of chili...too bad the portion was small.

Tip: if you pay with a HSBC credit card you get a free dessert of the day. On that day it was pistachio and hazelnut "ice cream". It was actually semifreddo and it wasn't bad.

Dinner for 3 with 3 glasses of house red came to around HK$750, which is quite pricey given the quality. I guess when you don't have competitions in the area you can do what you want.

Lanciano Ristorante

31-35 Yan Hing Street, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong. Tel: 2651-6660