One of Lan Kwai Fong’s favourite Italian restaurants, Aria, has created a series of new menus for your seasonal grazing pleasure.
If you’ve been to Lan Kwai Fong, Central Hong Kong’s former entertainment hotspot, you might have noticed that things are, slowly, returning to better days. Sure, the vibe of old, the streets teeming with carefree revellers, will, more than likely, never return, but that doesn’t mean that LKF doesn’t have a part to play in the city’s seductive night scene, and culinary hotspots like Aria, located on the 24th floor of California Tower, have played a pivotal role in returning punters to ‘The Fong’.
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Now, with the introduction of new menus and à la carte dishes by executive chef Andrea Zamboni, you have even more reason to slip north of Wyndham.
At Aria, chef Andrea Zamboni respects tradition but embraces evolution with the understanding that culinary innovation and creativity go hand in hand. As a result, his new menus feature artistic, modern Italian dishes that reflect his fine-dining training and global influences, alongside more familiar, family-style Italian classics that are elevated with high-quality ingredients.
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Inspired by tradition but informed by contemporary sensibilities, Aria’s new à la carte menu features exquisite starters such as the seasonal fruit and vegetable Tatin with Apulian prawn, stracciatella and lovage; an innovative spring onion Risotto with which Chef Andrea showcases his technique by using the different parts of a spring onion in unexpected ways; and Rosso Barbabietola, for which red beetroot is cooked under a salt crust, while yellow beetroot is broiled on the grill, with its essence then extracted into a broth and combined with Japanese pumpkin and an organic Italian navel orange chutney.
New mains include the line caught meagre with royal baeri dressing; and Agnello da Latte, Agretti e Liquirizia, a dish of milk-fed Pyrenees lamb which is presented sous vide, smoked, and made in the style of a porchetta (rolled up and stuffed with herbs and garlic).
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In addition to the new à la carte dishes Aria has launched a new four-course Lunch Hour designed for time-poor diners. The new menu includes antipasti, soup of the day, secondi piatti and dessert — all of which can be enjoyed within an hour. Driven by seasonality and ingredients, the menu offers a short selection of fresh, fast comfort foods that will change every ten days, starting with the likes of black carpaccio with clack truffle dressing; a refreshing Caprese Salad; seared prawns with Agretti and tomato emulsion; penne with bolognese sauce; and lemony Spaghetti alla Chitarra with clams.
Another new menu features dishes from the chef’s own childhood in Bergamo in northern Italy. The ‘Mama’s Home Cooking’ menu is available at lunch and dinner, with dishes ranging from baked eggplant Parmigiana; satisfying Tagliatelle with beef bolognese; and bold-flavoured spicy arrabiata or classic spaghetti with tomato and basil; through to linguine tossed with clams; Pizza Margherita, a traditional Neapolitan-style classic, and Pizza Farcita, with a stuffed pizza that customers can customise to their liking by choosing from a daily selection of ingredients.
Certainly worthy of an LKF renaissance.
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