Second Bite Review, May, 2011

Tranquil Terrace

If there is any time of year to eat at Assaggi, it’s now. While the restaurant does have a lovely interior, the second-floor balcony is one of our all-time favorite spots for open air dining in Beijing. It’s hard to believe that the serene terrace—lined with flower boxes and perched above a tree-lined, traffic-free street—is just a 10-minute walk from the chaos of Sanlitun Bar Street.

The menu offers a more interesting selection of dishes than at your average Italian restaurant, with regular changes to highlight seasonal flavors and produce. A new chef, who arrived from Naples in February, has also brought adjustments to the menu, although the general upscale Italian style remains the same. The beef carpaccio with rosemary (a herb that features prominently in everything we ate here), rucola and plentiful parmesan shavings (¥68) is simple and fresh. The ravioli with ricotta, smoked cheese and sun-dried tomatoes costs ¥70 for just six, but you’d have a hard time putting away many more of these rich dumplings, which are drenched in a rosemary butter sauce and accompanied by an ample serving of grated parmesan. Our favorite dish was the tagliata (¥150), a wonderfully tender, generously portioned, sliced steak, served with rucola, parmesan and tomatoes. Complement your meal with a bottle or glass from the sizeable collection of Italian wines. Glasses start at ¥40 for house white or red, and there’s also a monthly promotion in addition to the regular by-the-glass selection.

Service is not as professional as at some of the city’s top independent and hotel restaurants, but the 15 percent surcharge does get you servers who are generally more alert, proactive and friendlier than the average.

Sienna Parulis-Cook