Italian Park 17 is a restaurant that strives to belong to a grown-up scene – as you might expect from someone who is one away from 18. Unlike many new openings in Beijing, it’s not trying to make any grand statements and it doesn't have a gimmick – like, say, offering the biggest selection of Amalfi coast limoncello in China. It feels organic – it hasn’t just looked at Beijing and thought: what do we need to do to fit in here?
Located in the Sanlitun South courtyard complex (aka the trendiest parking lot in Beijing), a multi-level dining space creates depth and a lack of photos on the menu creates something resembling a real Italian restaurant.
The food, of course, resembles real Italian too, but right off the bat, it does feel a bit like it was made by non-Italian natives. That’s partly due to the fact the menu is not particularly adventurous, although that’s not an indicator of quality, which on the whole is good. It’s also to do with size – most dishes we try here are huge, starting with a flowery tomato and mozzarella salad (RMB78). Size, naturally, can suggest inadequacies in other departments, but the tomatoes are fresh and the mozzarella suitably spongy, not rubbery. Aside from that, the warm seafood salad with avocado, lemon and parsley (RMB138) has plenty of squid and the wood-oven roasted asparagus, wrapped in prosciutto and topped with fontina cheese (RMB88), is an extremely good take on the theme of veg wrapped in bacon.
Between courses we discover that the name, Park 17, is reference to the fact that in the future, the menu will offer up to 17 different set menu options. Too much choice? We stick with a la carte and up next is pizza, topped with spicy salami, broccolini and house-made ricotta (RMB128). The base has that nice garlic pizza bread crunch to it. For pasta, we opt for a rigatoni with meatballs and smoked chili tomato ragu (RMB128), which is the sort of warming comfort pasta you want to be able to make at home as your go-to.
We finish with crispy beef short rib with grilled broccolini and smoked chili-chianti glaze (RMB348). This might win the most points for ambition – it’s a huge slab of beef imported from Australia and the chianti glaze is a nice touch, but if you have just a simple chunk of beef it needs to be perfect to really sing. Park 17’s comes close but no cigar. It’s representative of a place that does better when it sticks to something less ostentatious. That’s something of a rarity in Sanlitun – so we hope Beijing takes to it.
Price
RMB200-300 per person
Who’s Going
Beijingers who’ve vacationed in Italy recently
Good For
Flexibilty – we’d bring a date, our colleagues or our parents here
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Photos by Holly Li
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