Sabatini Ristorante Italiano impresses with traditional Roman cuisine

Italian

Rustic but refined, the country-style décor of the restaurant includes arched doorways, yellow mural walls and hand-painted ceilings that create a cosy, romantic atmosphere, with live music nightly.

A date to impress.

Around HK$2,500 for two without wine.

Originally opened in Rome in 1954 before expanding to Hong Kong, Sabatini is a longtime Italian favourite with fine traditional cuisine and friendly, attentive service. A starter we liked is the cured culatello ham with grilled smoked scamorza cheese and 25-year aged balsamic vinegar. A real treat was the seasonal speciality of white asparagus from the Black Forest of Germany, which we tried poached with hollandaise sauce and as a veloutée soup with lobster and its reduction. The hollandaise was perfect, and the soup was deliciously creamy. Seafood lovers cannot miss the famed linguine, chock full of flavour with red prawns, tomato pearls and shellfish sauce, and equally tasty is the succulent mezze maniche with braised ox tail and pecorino cheese "vaccinara" style. The mixed-berry sauce lifted and contrasted nicely with the Australian wagyu beef tenderloin, duck liver and black truffle. For dessert, the mini-sized trio of tiramisu, crème brulee and panna cotta is great for those who can't decide.

The wait time between dishes was too long.