Pizza from New York via Italy - Motorino Pizza

Motorino positions itself as a neighborhood pizzeria, it is indeed very conveniently located right by the SoHo escalators. The decor, the food and the staff are friendly too. My hospitality industry background makes me pay attention to trivial details in restaurants, Motorino's staff takes pride in their Neapolitan food and serving style and would ask you to go to the back of the restaurant to see their special wood fire oven - That impresses me and it's what I am talking about living the company culture and proper training. Anyway, let's go back to the food.

Their pizza dough are fermented longer than the others (24hrs long I heard), and there are 2 types of sauce base available - tomato or cheese. We ordered the famous Brussel Sprout this day and it came with a whole lot of Brussel sprouts on the pizza, beautifully distributed. Apparently they were added not long before the pizza finished baking. The top part was charred but the slices of sprouts were still crunchy and not dry out yet. The combination with the shredded Pancetta (a type of Italian bacon that is salt-cured but not smoked, so it tastes more like dried ham), and light Fior di Latte mozzarella cheese was phenomenal. It's like a nice salad with a warm crust you actually feel healthy eat it.

Brussel Sprout pizza - Fior di Latte / Garlic / Pecorino / Smoked Pancetta / Extra virgin olive oil

Motorino uses a special wood fire oven to bake pizzas, which gives their thick and chewy (the kind of spongy chewy you don't find it unpleasant at all) pizza crusts charred patches. Don't freak out on the black marks because they don't taste burnt, in fact, this oven baking style is traditional Neapolitan. 

One special note is they way wines are served at Motorino - in tumbler glass! The wine list is encouraging as well with comprehensive descriptions. The white I had this time was Cortese Gavi Di Gavi, it has a distinctive apple note to the nose that I felt like sipping apple juice at one moment, but the apple note didn't last once I started eating pizza - this wine is good as an aperitif maybe~ Next time I will try the 'Perfect Pizza Wine' - Gregnano, Cantine Federiciane, Campania, 2011 DOC. It's a semi-sparkling red wine, really curious how it is! It actually reminds me of the other Italian sparkling red wine I used to have at restaurant La Tour, Le Bouveret Switzerland...:p

Dessert- Tiramisu! It has a nice creamy mascarpone layer, well soaked lady fingers but the coffee could taste stronger (good for my friend sharing this with me who doesn't drink coffee..haha). There are only 2 desserts on the menu, Tiramisu and chocolate cake (Torta al cioccolato). Sometimes it's better to specialize than be a Jack of all trades :p

Motorino Pizzeria (food menu ; drink menu)
SoHo, Central- G/F, 14 Shelley Street
Tel: 2801 6881

Wanchai- G/F, 15 Ship Street
Tel: 2520 0690

Fiat Caffe - By an Italian car brand truly deserves to be liked

The Fiat brand philosophy is to produce cars with attractive styling and exciting engines, cars that are accessible and improve the quality of everyday life...blah blah blah...but Fiat seems to be one of the few car brands that walks the talk, and bothers to extend its brand experience to even non-drivers, ingeniously, by running a restaurant, Fiat Caffe, in its showroom.

What's more intriguing is that, Fiat might have foreseen "showrooming" as a new fashion in consumer behavior since years back, and decided to make the brand name and their cars "sticky" to people who visit them in the showroom. Putting a chic-looking Fiat 500 by GUCCI in the middle of the restaurant is a cool enough idea for diners to take a good look while enjoying a meal or drinking coffee next to it. (reminds me of attending the Geneva Auto Show some years ago...good old times)

There is a sales office in the back of the restaurant. If you appreciate up-selling with a touch of Italian humor, here I recommend you take the "Most Expensive Coffee in the World" - coming with an Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari (HK$799,888).

I wasn't exactly craving for a car so it's a regular cappuccino I had with illy espresso in it :P

The food was classic Italian and tasty, here are some I recommend:

Ricotta and Fig Salad - The subtle sweetness of figs compote and honey complement well the light fresh arugula and ricotta cheese. Interesting texture mix of creamy fluffy ricotta with crispy salad leaves.

Baked Potato Skins - Baked half potatoes with the core part removed and stuffed with minced beef, topped with cheese. Crispy and substantial~ it makes perfect food for HH :D

Wild Mushroon Truffle with Trofie - Thick mushroom cream sauce with overflowing mushroom aroma... I can't tell if the sauce was too thick with heavy cream or the truffle fragrance was too strong, the sauce was a bit heavy for the palate, but it's very tasty overall. Trofies were lovely and chewy too ;)

Very decent quality food and ingredients (esp. the salad, really fresh for all components). Two of us paid about $200 each for those above including coffee, nice price for this quality!


Fiat Caffe
Address: Shop G5-G6, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2808 4777