If Shanghai restaurants were small children, many would be diagnosed with severe attention deficit disorder. Bellissimo is one such venue in desperate need of Ritalin. The three-storey renovated row house could be a quaint little trattoria, but instead bounces around in focus like the Mad Hatter, never quite finding equilibrium.
For proof, one need look no farther than the menu. At first glance, the kitchen seems to focus on pizzas and pastas. But wait — under mains there is a dish of duck confit. Scrolling through the pizza section, you’ll pick up on a “Mexican quesadilla” and a fruit pizza with mascarpone and pineapple. Such a smattering of offerings speaks of an inability to specialize rather than broad abilities.
To be safe, we ordered simply. Crisp Caesar salad (RMB58) came appropriately pungent with anchovy and garlic, but those poor romaine hearts were drowning in sauce. A cream of mushroom soup (RMB42) came full of mushroom musk, but lacked a good stock base. The pizza is best avoided. Capricciosa (RMB78) came on a crust that could have doubled as the cardboard lining of a pizza box. On top were canned artichoke hearts, plastic-wrap cheese and salty store-bought salami. The entire pie smacked of someone not having done their cookery homework. Farfelle, studded with tender chicken, rich sun-dried tomatoes, salty bites of feta cheese and napped by a subtle pesto sauce was the belle of the ball by far. But with a price tag of RMB68, we expected more fireworks. In fact, the entire meal was over-priced for what equated to heaped plates of Western mediocrity.
To be fair, Bellissimo is not the first and certainly won’t be the last restaurant in Shanghai which thinks that having a pretty, old time venue and ‘Western food’ on the menu justifies a price hike. They come from the philosophy that the best way to please everyone is to titillate no one. As Shanghai’s dining scene becomes more diverse and its diners’ expectations higher, places like these will become less tolerated. In the face of change, restaurants like Bellissimo need to knuckle down, swallow their pill and concentrate.
// 10.30am-11pm. No 7, 434 Changle Lu, by Shaanxi Nan Lu 长乐路434弄7号,近陕西南路 (6217 0933)
