Gaia Ristorante
Grand Millennium Plaza,
181 Queen’s Rd, Central,
Hong Kong
$$$$-

Located on a terrace, Gaia Ristorante is a charming Italian restaurant, surrounded by trees and bushes twinkling with fairy lights. It’s in the same building as my office, and so presented the easiest and most convenient “I-don’t-wanna-think-I’m-too-tired” option for a meal after a frantic day at work. Part-restaurant and part-bar in the corner, the inside area is packed with suits and investment banker types – 80% of which are male. Boisterous and probably fuelled by alcohol, it makes it pretty annoying having to walk past them into the seated restaurant area and also when you go to the bathroom – be prepared to endure leery looks and sad attempts at trying to chat you up whilst you try to shuffle past as quickly as possible.

The service was absolutely outstanding, and everything was so prompt. Restaurants have much to learn from these guys. Throughly enjoyed the fresh bread basket, which was filled with an assortment of baked goodies. My favourite was a foccacia type bread, all soft and warm, dipped in balsamic and olive oil. Then came the amuse bouche, which was a sort of risotto ball – I completely forgot what was in it but it was not bad. Not amazing because it was slightly dry in texture and no distinctive taste, but you can’t really say no to deep fried risotto, can you? 😉

My main was the carefully selected Homemade blue berry fettuccini with Italian sausage and Porcini mushrooms. Blueberry pasta?!?! Hell yeah. Of course I had to try that out 😉 The pasta itself, however, didn’t really taste like blueberry. Perhaps it was so so subtle that I couldn’t detect it amidst the other ingredients, and it wasn’t really blue-coloured at all. Hmmm. There was a generous helping of ingredients and I loved the really rich gravy/sauce that laced the pasta. The incredients and sauce were on the salty side, would have preferred it less salted so the flavours could really come through.

No dessert, as couldn’t stuff anything in since I’d had a big afternoon tea about 2 hours prior. Most annoying, since I was eyeing the Piedmont hazelnut parfait with white chocolate sauce. Really enjoyed my meal though, and will probably go back again next time I’m in the country and want to eat somewhere as close as possible to the office 😉

Gaia Ristorante

The moody interior, with the walls completely lined with Italian wines

Bread basket

Amuse bouche

Homemade blue berry fettuccini with Italian sausage and Porcini mushrooms