New cafe in Wan Chai! What kind of food is available in the new restaurant CRUST Italian?

review by Meilian Lee via Elle

Friends who often visit Wanchai must know Wanchai’s iconic historic buildings and Chang Da Pledge. Recently, an Italian restaurant, CRUST Italian, has opened on the site. It has an all-day dessert and coffee shop (Pasticceria), a restaurant and an Italian street food take-out counter, which embodies the essence of the cuisine of Campania, where Napoli is located.

From morning coffee with crispy pastries, to lunch, afternoon tea, pre-dinner time, and even dinner, CRUST Italian truly interprets the tradition of all-day dining in southern Italy, serving the neighborhood. The baking team begins to prepare all kinds of exquisite desserts and authentic breads every morning. Part of the inspiration comes from Gran Caffe Gambrinus, a century-old café in Naples, one of the ten oldest bars and dessert shops in Italy. It is also a window into Italian pastry culture, which is rarely or never seen in Hong Kong. The authentic Italian coffee made by the barista includes caffe sospeso, which means "ready-to-use coffee". It must be drunk while standing by the bar. It is completely Naples style!

The pastry and coffee shop of CRUST Italian offers a variety of southern Italian cuisines, including Sfogliatelle, exquisite mullet pastry wrapped in lemony cream or custard sauce, which will undoubtedly be soon Become the new favorite of coffee lovers in the city. Wheat cheese sweet tart (Pastiera) ingredients include ricotta cheese, orange blossom water, spices and sugar. It is a traditional beauty that is rarely seen outside of Italy. This pastry is to commemorate the legendary mermaid Partenope, who is said to have brought up the birth of Naples. Of course, CRUST Italian also has a variety of soft pastries, mini salted omelets and five types of bread to choose from. All pastries are available all day, for take-out or dine-in.

If you may not have time to enjoy an afternoon tea slowly, you can also try its street food when you come to CRUST Italian. For example, the fried squid rings (calamari fritti) wrapped in a paper tube are the same as the delicious and affordable snacks that have been seen everywhere on the streets of Hong Kong. They are designed to be enjoyed by people with busy schedules in the city at any time. There are also the most popular street foods in Naples, such as Pizza fritta, which originated in the difficult period after the Second World War. At that time, the ingredients and wood-based ovens were luxury items, and some people used it. Fry the pancake dough and turn it in hot oil to make this delicious pancake. Fried noodles (frittatine di pasta) are made by first topping the noodles with white sauce, ham and peas, and then deep-fried them with batter and breadcrumbs. This golden-looking snack is really irresistible.

CRUST Italian also offers sublimated Napoli delicacies in its dining room called Sala Capri, named after the charming island 30 miles off the coast of Naples. For lunch and dinner, the à la carte and set menus are all made of abundant ingredients that are particularly famous in southern Italy and Campania.