Isola

December 16, 2015

With so many new restaurants opening in Hong Kong every year, one sometimes overlooks the old favourites that outlive their competitors. Isola is one of these, and definitely should not be forgotten based on the sumptuous lunch I enjoyed there yesterday. It's simple but elegant, Italian food done well plus right now has a white truffle menu on offer, which would have been rude not to try...

Along with the more traditional truffle tagliatelle dishes, there is this one pictured above: white truffle shavings on soft eggs with potato mash, crispy potato sticks and a veal jus. My only criticism was that the mash could have been a little warmer, but that may have been partly the fault of the over zealous photographers at the table delaying our consumption!

We decided to share a few pasta and main dishes, including the spaghetti with Sicilian prawns and lobster linguini. The latter was our preferred of the two given the spicy kick to it. We also ordered the US ribeye with Parmesan, which was one the best steaks I have enjoyed in a while, and enhanced by an extremely tasty Parmigiano. As I said, it's simple food done well.

In the absence of anything chocolatey on the menu, I chose the hazelnut dome, probably one of the most show stopping photogenically, while my dining companion picked the tiramisu. When in Rome... However, it was actually the citrus sorbets which I enjoyed most: extremely tart but thoroughly palate cleansing. Along with Giando's, Isola remains firmly up there with my favourite Italian restaurants in Hong Kong...