It was Restaurant Week in Hong Kong and many of the best restaurants participating were booked out fast. Luckily though, new Italian restaurant Al Molo was on the list and available and I quickly made the reservation. A good thing too since soon after, it too was booked out.

Al Molo is a collaboration by chef Michael White who is famous for his pastas. The Restaurant Week deal was $158 for a three course lunch which included an antipasti buffet board, a main dish of either pasta or pizza and a desert buffet with coffee or tea. Clearly, when you are famous for pastas, why would you pick a pizza, so it was a no-brainer that we picked two pastas instead.

Al Molo is a cozy restaurant and on a nice cool day, it would be wonderful to be able to just sit outside and enjoy a pasta with beer. Regarding service though, considering some of the comments I’ve heard, the service was surprisingly impeccable. The staff was very attentive and even made jokes with us. They also made sure that we were taken care of at all times. But perhaps it could have been because it was mainly the restaurant manager serving us? Who knows… it was excellent service though.

Antipasti Buffet Board – crisp salads . cured meats . vegetables . bread
While nothing special, the antipasti buffet board had a lot to pick from. Some of the things include olives, salami, parma ham, beetroot, fennel, artichoke and of course my favourite rocket/arugula. The olives and the parma ham were particularly good.

Casarecci – semolina pasta, clams, squid, spicy tomato
Aside from the squid because I HATE squid, this was a great pasta dish. The homemade pasta was freshly made and you could feel it in the texture. The clams had lots of meat to them and were extremely juicy and the tomato based sauce had just the right amount of spice to it. Minus the squid, this would have been a good dish, but really the squid is not the fault of the restaurant.

Maccheroni – cured pancetta, carbonara sauce, black pepper
Oh my gawd! This was just one of the best pastas I have ever eaten. Its so simple yet perfect. Once again, the homemade fresh pasta shone through in its texture. Al dente and fresh… just perfect! The pancetta added to the taste of the dish and there was just the right amount of carbonara sauce so as not to soak the pasta. We were asked if we would like any additional freshly grated cheese and ground black pepper and I gladly accepted the offer. I can only highly recommend this dish.

Dessert Buffet – lemon cream puff . brownie . almond cake . cinnamon roll
There was mini dessert buffet available with the lemon cream puff and almond cake being the highlights. The brownie was also pretty good but probably a bit too rich in taste for me.

Coffee
The coffee had a nice fragrance to it, tasted great and came with some nicely whipped warm milk

Overall, I got a great first impression with this restaurant. We only tried two pastas this time round, but they were at least on par if not better than Babbo in New York. If you are looking for good pasta in Hong Kong, then I would seriously consider Al Molo.

Recommended:

• Maccheroni – cured pancetta, carbonara sauce, black pepper

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Al Molo Ristorante Italiano
Shop G63, G/F, Ocean Terminal, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong
2730 7900