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Bottega comes with a hefty reputation and entering on a Saturday night, we were expecting to be impressed. Walking in, it’s at once cosy and welcoming. There is a lovely, homey trattoria type vibe, with an open kitchen, white walls and friendly service.
The bread to start is a country loaf style, grilled and served with olive oil. The bread is good, no complaints, but when we asked for more bread we were told that it was an extra 5 RMB – per head, which we couldn’t help but feel was slightly extortionate.
To start, we order an Insalata di Capri (68 RMB) and two orders of the Insalata Caprese (88 RMB). The Capri salad is a mouth watering mish-mash of cannellini beans, kalamata olives, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, corn, capers, croutons and chunky wedges of flaky tuna. The softness of the beans is the perfect neighbour to the snappy crunch of the cucumbers and bell peppers, and the capers studded throughout the salad provide nice bursts of saltiness.
The Insalata Caprese draws gasps from our party as it arrives. A deconstructed take on the classic caprese, Bottega assembles a finely chopped tremulous tower of tomatoes, tartar style, and pairs it with a gigantic, quivering ball of mozzarella. The mozzarella, has rivulets of olive oil dribbling down each side and is showered with obsidian flakes of cracked pepper. Already impressive as it is, it steals the show when we cut into it. A hard casing houses mountains of tremulous, milky, gorgeous mozzarella. We are told never to judge a book by its cover, but in this case, the saying is proved wrong as the dish tastes just as beautiful as it looks.
Now for the mains. I think we may have been one of the few patrons to visit Bottega and not order their signature pizza. Instead, we ordered a selection of their pastas. The Spaghetti alla Pomodoro (60 RMB) was cooked perfectly and the tomato sauce was bright and fruity, and speckled with tastes of garlic and olive oil. The Rigatoni alla Genovese (88 RMB), which sounded so promising, was sadly quite disappointing. It was oddly, overpoweringly, almost cloyingly sweet and too dry, and the meat sauce, although good, wasn’t enough to save the dish. The Spaghetti alla Vongole (80 RMB) was light and fresh, generous with the clams and a lovely al dente texture. The only gripe was that the clams weren’t cooked with the pasta, so they went cold very quickly.
After such an indulgent, carb heavy (carbicide) meal, it only made sense to indulge even more and we did that in the form of Tortini al Ciccolato, or chocolate lava cake (55 RMB) and tiramisu (38 RMB). The tiramisu was refreshing and not too rich, but was neither very heavy on the chocolate or coffee. The lava cake, on the other hand, was perfect. A slightly firm, cracked crust gave way to an avalanche of deep, complex liquid chocolate.
Bottega is a solid, reliable pick for authentic, affordable Italian food that comes with a great ambiance and fast, polite service.
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