8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana

• Rating:★★★★
• Cuisine: Italian, Fusion
• Price Range: Luxury
• Address: 6-7/F, Mission Building, 169 Yuanmingyuan Lu, Shanghai, China Tel: (021) 6087-2890
• Website: www.ottoemezzobombana.com

Haute cuisine is Fattoro’s specialty and when a potential 3-star Michelin restaurant comes to town he’s the first to blogger to give it a try. 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana of Hong Kong is the one and only 3-Star Michelin Italian restaurant outside of Italy. It was awarded 2 stars in his rookie debut and gained its final star in this year’s Hong Kong edition of the red book. Finally, Mr. Bombana decided to expand his Italian cuisine empire to Shanghai, more precisely “Rock Bund.” It’s a small underdeveloped high end pedestrian street right behind the Peninsula Hotel. Think Nanjing Pedestrian Street… turn Ajisan Ramen to 8 ½ Italian imported pasta, Chow Tai Fook jewelry to Graff, Giordano to Prada, that’s the Rock Bund in a snapshot.

The décor can be explain with just one word, it’s just “slick.” The investors behind 8 ½ did not held back with money spent on decoration. At the rock bund you’re sitting on second row bund seats, but the view is still spectacular. The 6th floor main dining area is surprisingly small. A rectangular shaped dining room that fits a dozen or so tables, and sadly mine was only a couple meters away from the entrance.  I wish the restaurant was a little bit bigger. However, the high ceilings and elegant interior design gave me the impression of intimate and not crowded. We had enough table space to have our own private conversation and enough to not hear the side chats from the table next door.

interior design

table setting with bund view

cheese room

Umberto Bombana has sent his A-Team to open its Shanghai Branch. He’s sent in two of his most trusted knights who worked side by side with him in Hong Kong. The executive chef Alan Yu who is a Shanghai native and Sous Chef Silvio Armanni the “pasta specialist.” Like most fine dining restaurants desserts are usually the achilles heel, but that is avoided by inviting Sohya Takahashi over who worked with culinary legends such as Joel Robuchon, Alain Ducasse and Pierre Hereme. Just by those names, I was hoping they would serve macarons for desserts.

The menu is fairly concise and straight forward. A page for appetizers and soups, another page for pasta and risotto, a page for meat, half a page dedicated to Tajima beef and a page for seafood. There’s also a 5 course Degustation on the menu. Guess what fattoro ordered? The degustation, “duh.”

The waiter poured the water to only 20 percent full each time, which is way below the 40% standard.  It’s okay I’m just concerned that my glass would remain mostly empty throughout dinner, but nope. The waiter kept a close eye and made sure my cup was filled to exactly 20% at all times. The waiters were professional in terms of body gestures, tone, knowledge towards the menu and looked extremely experienced. Heck, you don’t get this type of high level / well trained service in the first week of opening. Did you import your whole wait staff from Hong Kong as well Mr. Bombana?

The degustation 8 ½ is priced very cheap at 688 rmb… I was expecting the price tag to be 30% more expansive than this. The wine pairing is the same cost as the tasting menu, which surprises me. Normally the cost of wine pairing is half of the whole meal, not equivalent. That’s a little odd, so I went for a couple of cocktails instead.

The monkfish liver with lemon jelly amuse bouche was certainly more than just a “bite,” instead it was multiple tastes of heaven. The jelly provided some acidity and liquidness to the monk fish. So fresh, so good, but I was thinking in the back of my head “how is this Italian?” Monk fish liver is very Japanese to me, perhaps New Age Japanese cuisine because of the lemon jelly puree.

monk fish liver with lemon jelly

The Napoleon of Bluefin Tuna w/ French Bean Salad and Fresh Wasabi was a super hit in my books. The tuna is so fresh and had a load of flavor by itself. The bean salad gave it that crunchy texture, building a contrast to the silky smooth Bluefin tuna. The wasabi wasn’t strong, perhaps to the point you wouldn’t be able to tell if not looking at the menu description. The sauce was a nice addition to the tuna by complimenting the fresh flavors of the Bluefin tuna and not overwhelming it. Again, where is the “Italian” part of the course? Bluefin tuna in wasabi? Hm… I feel like I’m dining at a contemporary Japanese restaurant under European management. Nonetheless this particular course received a hard earned Fattoro “A”.

napoleon of bluefin tuna

The Hokkaido Scallop, pan seared with mushroom sauce arrived piping hot. Literally, piping hot, you can hear the bubble burst when it arrived. Normally food has an impact on the three senses: taste, smell and sight. But with this one, hearing the bubble bursting from the mushroom sauce had an enticing sound that got me excited. Bravo 8 ½! The scallop was seared perfectly on the outside and was cooked medium to medium rare. The quality was nothing but the best, as I cut a slice of the scallop and trench it heavily on the porcini mushroom sauce; oh the flavors were so elegant and divine. Nothing much I could complain, although the presentation and techniques were a bit too simple, but an argument could be made against me that Italian cuisine is based on “simple food with quality ingredients.” But Hokkaido scallops? That doesn’t sound too Italian.

hokkaido scallops

The Risotto w/ Porcini Mushrooms (thank god, our first Italian dish) looked like a pile of green slob but once you taste it you can feel the soul and passion behind it.  The porcini risotto reminded me of Shrek. A green grotesque creature, but once you met him you realize a warm side with loving personality. Much like the risotto, the presentation isn’t very appetizing but with just a bite you’ll find classic Italian flavors on the inside with a strong porcini aftertaste.

risotto porcini

The Slow-Roasted Black Sea Bass w/ wilted spinach and tomato saffron sauce was rather disappointing. This dish would have been great perhaps served twenty years ago. I could taste this unappealing fishy taste. The fillet is hard to cut through because the meat was so attached to the silky skin. Even with accompanied with the tomato sauce and lightly seasoned spinach underneath the fishiness was a bit too strong for me.

slow-roasted black sea bass

My dinner companion had the lesser of two evils. The Tajima Beef Tenderloin “Rossini” with black truffle sauce cooked medium rare that is sandwiched between truffle mashed potato on the bottom and pan seared foie gras on top. Everything tasted good, but felt it was missing something. This is a good dish, but it’s a dish I expect to get from places here and here. I was expecting something a little more different coming from a 3-star Michelin restaurant, I wanted 8 ½ to be a level above the competition, I want it to be mind-blowing and not just “good”, I want to be wowed. And that’s where it fell short.

tajima beef tenderloin

The mysterious Chef Dessert, Coffee or Tea served with homemade petit fours came to be a pleasant surprise. The apple strudel was a refined apple pie.  Made with paper-thin sliced apples on top and a crunchy pastry at the bottom, the whole pie was not overly sweet. It was also accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The apples were so fresh and naturally sweet (were they imported?) All of the petite fours were done well; each small bite had a distinct sweet explosive flavor. We started with the cassis marshmallow to the hazelnut lemon macaron, raspberry jelly and finished off with a molecular pear explosion. I wasn’t sure why they offered coffee in the end and not during the dessert tasting. I would have liked to zip on a bitter black coffee between each of the petit fours. Also on the menu it said they served coffee, which gave me the impression that it was complimentary but it wasn’t. That was very misleading.

apple strudel

petit fours

pear explosion

The cocktails were on the lighter side, but all so very delicious. Try there Cherry Brandy, a zip of that makes you feel you’re in Fiji relaxing in a tropical breeze.

cherry brandy

Last Note: I expect to find loop holes in their service but I couldn’t find anything on the smallest details. I expected 81/2 to be heavily criticized by critics and food bloggers for their poor service and then eventually improve in the next year or so, but who would of thought they got it right the first time? What they did in a week took other fine dining restaurants a year to get it right, or for some who still struggle to get it right. Best of all… no service charge. As far as the food goes it ranges from good to excellent, but nothing really blew my mind like its other Hong Kong Michelin competitors here and there. I sense a stronger Japanese presence than Italian in their tasting menu. 8 ½ has made a nice entry to the Shanghai culinary scene, I would give them a solid 1-michelin star from the get go. I’m definitely going to be back shortly to try out some of their pasta dishes.