Photos by Noemi Cassanelli
You’re opening a new restaurant in Beijing. Competition is tough, breaking even ain’t easy. You need to stand out – hire the most talented chefs, prepare dishes you can’t find anywhere else, resemble a palace… whatever is required to achieve that elusive x-factor.
Only, that doesn't always seem to be case (look no further than the premature death of extravagant Parnas). Diners in Beijing, we feel, want something… simpler. Something like Bottega. That’s not to detract from this Italian restaurant’s pedigree: manager Daniele Salvo is a Beijing transplant of the famous Neapolitan family, the Salvos, word of whose pizzas has traveled globally since 1928. Their oven has traveled too – they’ve imported one of those wood-fired Mediterranean igloos now demanded of any pizza claiming to be a true slice of Italy.
Montanara, a mini deep-fried margherita (left), and the aranici (right).
The ingredients have also journeyed far. Take the piennolo tomatoes sat atop the bufalina pizza (RMB118). They were grown at the foot of Mount Vesuvius where a mixture of blazing sunlight and volcanic ash soil makes them among the world’s sweetest. Given that they have traveled all the way from Italy to sit on our pizza in Beijing, these cherry tomatoes have quite the carbon footprint (in more ways than one).
But we’re happy they’ve made the journey; alongside the buffalo mozzarella they create a delicious turbocharged margherita, with so much molten cheese you could almost bathe in it. There’s a regular margherita too (RMB60), and a few other classic pizzas, among which the double-layered calzone di salame (RMB88) is one of the best pairings of dough and cheese we’ve tasted in Beijing.
Spaghetti carbonara
Aside from pizza, the menu offers antipasti (we like the arancini, bread-crumbed risotto balls filled with cream spinach, RMB38) and a range of salads and pastas. If you don’t like variations on the theme of tomato and cheese, options are limited at Bottega, but the raviolis (vegetarian pesto, RMB78 and spinach and ricotta, RMB88) are your best bet. The wine list is solid, the cocktail bar is well stocked and there are even some Italian craft beers. Nice touch.
The stylish interior of black, white and red is more modern Milan than provincial Naples, and not without its identikit moments. Oh, look: there’s an oversized and over-styled black-and-white photo of a man with a handful of cheese and a face full of beard, illuminated by the obligatory filament bulbs.
Roasted veggies with burrata cheese
It’s warm and not too formal, looking almost like it should be a chain restaurant. It isn’t (yet) and this is not necessarily to be taken as a slight – chain restaurants become chains because they are accessible and popular. Bottega, which is buzzing on our Wednesday night visit, is giving off that vibe already.
We’re impressed. The only drawback is its location, hidden down an alley in Sanlitun rather than in a glass box suspended over Taikoo Li, visible to the millions of window shoppers passing through daily. If Bottega can survive, in spite of this, then the fratelli Salvo will have added a very worthwhile smart-casual dining option to their family portfolio, and to Beijing.
Price:
RMB150-200 per person
Who’s Going:
Big groups of pizza/pasta lovers
Good For:
World-renowned pizza, world-renowned tomatoes
See a listing for Bottega
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