<a target="_blank" href="http://www.ottoemezzobombana.com/">8 ½ Otto E Mezzo - Bombana</a>

Shop
202, Landmark Alexandra,

Alexandra
Shopping Arcade

18
Chater Road,

Central,
Hong Kong.

Tel:&nbsp;<a target="_blank">+852 2537 8859</a>BY IAN D’AGATA | DECEMBER 23, 2016&nbsp;&nbsp;

The food:

Confit
abalone carpaccio, sweet pepper and semi-dried tomato, Royal Osetra caviar

Roasted octopus and roasted artichoke, greens and lemon
oregano dressing

Linguine
“Gentile”, red king prawn, confit
tomato, red peppers and broccoli

Brittany blue lobster, braised
vegetables, sea urchin and lobster emulsion&nbsp;

Short
rib &amp; beef tenderloin, whipped potato,
red wine and plum sauce

Chocolate variation 228 classic bunet,
chocolate mousse &amp; cremino with cherries semifreddo

The wines:<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vinous.com/wines?utf8=%E2%9C%93&amp;search-filter=reviews&amp;query=2006+Taittinger+comtes">2006 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne</a>
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 95+
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vinous.com/wines?utf8=%E2%9C%93&amp;search-filter=reviews&amp;query=2014+Ciro+fiano">2014 Ciro Picariello Fiano di Avellino</a>
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 91
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2011 Gottardi Blauburgunder Riserva Mazzon
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 90+
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2013 De Toma Moscato di Scanzo
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 94&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table>Hong Kong’s 8½ Otto e Mezzo - Bombana
restaurant is the only three Michelin star Italian restaurant found outside of
Italy. Although not all three star eateries always deliver what one might
expect from restaurants with similarly lofty credentials, this specific dinner
was easily one of my five best meals of the year. Actually, unless memory fails
me, it was one of the two or three best meals I have had in an Italian
restaurant outside of Italy in my lifetime.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1482576863773-abalone.JPG"> 

Confit abalone carpaccio, sweet pepper and
semi-dried tomato, Royal Osetra caviar

The restaurant’s name is derived
from the chef’s last name and his favorite movie. Umberto Bombana is a native
of Bergamo who studied under a true Italian master, Ezio Santin of the Antica Osteria
del Ponte, located not far from Milan at Cassinetta di Lugagnano and easily one
of Italy’s best five restaurants of the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1983 Bombana
was head of the cooking brigade at Rex&nbsp;restaurant in Los Angeles (a
restaurant that movie lovers will remember especially for the memorable scene
in which Julia Roberts has trouble handling snails and risks blinding patrons
while uttering the line “… slippery little suckers…” in Pretty Woman, the smash 1990 movie hit with Richard Gere. In that
movie the Rex was called ‘the Voltaire’). Bombana moved to Hong Kong in June 1993
to open the Toscana restaurant in the Ritz Carlton hotel. In the years that
followed, Bombana consulted for many Ritz Carlton restaurants, such as those at
the Laguna Niguel, Boston, Osaka, Seoul and Singapore properties. In 2006,&nbsp;Bombana
was elected world ambassador for the white truffle of Alba by the Enoteca
Regionale di Cavour. In 2010 Bombana finally opened 8½ Otto e Mezzo - Bombana and
immediately earned two Michelin stars. The third star arrived in 2011. Bombana
has since opened <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ottoemezzobombana.com/shanghai/">8
½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana Shanghai</a> in
2012, Opera Bombana in Peking in 2013,
and a third 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana at the Galaxy Macao. The other component of
the restaurant’s name, the 8½ Otto e Mezzo, is a nod to Bombana’s favorite
Italian movie director, Federico Fellini, whose delightful 1963 movie 8½ won a
Best Foreign Film Oscar. 

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1482576880197-octopus.JPG"> Roasted octopus and roasted
artichoke, greens and lemon oregano dressing

All of the above would be absolutely
meaningless if the restaurant wasn’t so good. The dining room is spacious, the
acoustics fine, the service accomplished and professional yet friendly, and the
patrons well heeled and well behaved. General manager Marino Braccu, restaurant
manager Sandro Bruno and the rest of the 8½ Otto e Mezzo team ensure a highly
professional and attentive ambience, without any distractions from the food and
wines. Most importantly, the food is exceptional, and the wine list offers
plenty of great bottles to choose from. Although there are clearly two and
three star Michelin restaurants around the world that boast larger selections
than you’ll find here, the estates and wines at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana are
extremely well chosen.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1482576897973-linguine.JPG"> Linguine “Gentile”, red king prawn, confit tomato, red peppers and
broccoli

Overall, the dining experience is memorable,
with very accurately cooked fresh ingredients and many preparations that really
could have been made in Italy. The two antipasti I tried were just about perfect:
the confit abalone
carpaccio with&nbsp;sweet pepper, semi-dried tomato and Royal Osetra caviar- although
not especially Italian- was delicate yet intensely flavorful (the abalone came
from Australian waters) while the roasted octopus and roasted artichoke with&nbsp;greens and lemon oregano dressing was a wonderfully
perfumed and tasty rendition that took me immediately back to some of my
preferred Italian coastal trattoria hangouts (admittedly, these are not trattoria
prices). The linguine “Gentile” with&nbsp;red king prawn, confit tomato, red peppers and broccoli was easily one of the
two best pasta dishes I had in 2016. A mesmerizingly good preparation of very
concentrated yet refined aromas and flavors, this was a dish that I won’t soon
forget. The high quality pasta by gentile in Gragnano (founded in 1876, so they
know a thing or two about pasta) was a real plus too. Honestly, anything that
would have followed that tour de force would have been a letdown, and so it was
with the otherwise magnificently cooked Brittany
blue lobster with&nbsp;braised vegetables, sea urchin and lobster emulsion, which
was almost too French in its fattiness. As good as this dish was (and it was
terrific), I have had very similar dishes in France and the USA, so the lobster
was ultimately less satisfying than the other dishes I tried on the evening.
The hearty short rib &amp; beef
tenderloin with&nbsp;whipped potato, red wine and plum sauce dish was also very
fine with the whisper of plum sauce constituting a fun wink to the Orient.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1482576917800-wines+2.JPG"> 

On this night, given the
quality of the food, the wines had a tough act to follow but handled themselves
well. I can’t think of too many better ways to start off dinner than with a
Blanc de Blancs, and the 2006 Taittinger
Champagne Comtes de Champagne also enjoys the benefit of being a relatively
good buy among prestige cuvées. It is currently a delicate, less showy version
of this classic, but that clearly aspires to greatness. It offers magical
balance and a suave delivery of lacy apple, pear and floral aromas and flavors
of remarkable freshness and precision, and will undoubtedly develop into
something special. Ciro’s Picariello 2014
Fiano di Avellino is always a sure bet and rarely disappoints. Crisp green
apples and zingy lemony acidity greet the palate and wipe it clean of any food
particles still clinging to the taste buds, readying them for the morsels to
follow. Its aromas and flavors have sneaky concentration and linger
impressively; even better, it is a very varietally accurate Fiano that, thanks
to a little bottle age, has improved further from when I tasted it months ago.
I know few people that would argue my assertion that Italy’s best Pinot Neros
are those made by Gottardi; however, the 2011
Gottardi Blauburgunder Riserva Mazzon is still rather tight and unyielding
at present, with the oak showing a bit more than usual presently. I’d forget
about this baby in the cellar for at least another three to four years, but the
pure red berry and dark plum flavors are very promising, hopefully they will
outlast the tannins, which aren’t exactly shy in this vintage. Last but not
least, I finished things up with the truly memorable 2013 De Toma Moscato di Scanzo, an aromatic sweet red wine made
around the hills of Bergamo from the rare Moscato di Scanzo grape. One of my
favorite Italian wines (it couldn’t be any different, given that I grew up in
Bergamo and still consider it my second home after Rome), this beauty showcases
uncanny balance and was redolent of very pure and precise super-ripe raspberry,
red cherry liqueur, violet, cinnamon and nutmeg aromas and flavors that lingered on my taste buds and in my memory cells long after this magnificent dinner has
come to a close.

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