Italo Trattoria: Italian Comfort Food & Spiffy Cocktails (Closed)

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Introducing Italo Trattoria, a spiffy and fun restaurant and bar serving Italian comfort food, cocktails and wine. It’s the new, updated version of FUNKA Group’s most recent venture, and this time, they’ve hit the nail on the head.

Get 20% off your bill AND a complimentary Aperitivo cocktail on the house! Keep reading for more details.

Italo Trattoria: Italian Comfort Food & Fun Cocktails

In rebranding, Italo Trattoria stripped down the previous menus completely, changed up the vibe to an upbeat tempo, added a drinks trolley, and brought some heavy hitters onto the team.

They have larger-than-life chef Lucky Lasagna (who is also a tattoo artist) leading the kitchen, group GM Sebastien Dallee (who comes from Heritage by Madison), group bar manager Ilya Gorshkov, and restaurant manager Marco Chinellato.

The space remains the same, albeit with the addition of a centerpiece in the main dining area, a table to hold all the jars of their extremely addictive jumbo grissini.

These crazy good grissini.

There’s also the lounge seating area, the semi-private room, and the wrap-around bar.

The Food: Italian Comfort Food

The food menu is the handiwork of Lucky Lasagna, a chef (and tattoo artist) from Rome who’s been working the Shanghai circuit of restaurants for more than 10 years. The food is an ode to classic Italian food—trattoria favorites with a modern touch. (Read: beautifully plated for posting on Moments.)

How does it fare? It’s many a step up from the previous iterations of Italo. It’s a straightforward menu with a section dedicated to carpacci, cold/raw seasoned seafood and meats, cheese and cold cuts, fresh pastas, and mains. There is an excellent vitello tonnato, a beautiful lamb ragu ravioli, and a heady clam linguine that's to die for.

Here are the highlights:

From the Carpacci section, the classic Beef Carpaccio (¥88). Thin slices of beef tenderloin with parmigiano reggiano cheese chips and sun-dried tomatoes. Adequately chilled beef, not overly seasoned. Great.

Rare, if not never seen before in Shanghai, is the Swordfish Carpaccio (¥78). Thinly sliced raw cured swordfish, basil oil, fresh mint, and smoked salt. It’s very delicate and velvety. If you get both carpacci, I suggest you eat the fish before the beef.

Vitello Tonnato (¥68) - Perfectly cooked veal atop tuna, studded with teeny tiny capers that pack a punch. Excellent. Eat with lots of bread. A classic done proud.

Schiacciata (¥12) - Light, fluffy white pizza bread with EVOO and herbs. I’m not a fan of paying for bread, but this is worth every kuai.

Prawn Cocktail (¥98) - Jumbo prawns served with classic cocktail sauce and lettuce. High quality prawns and a sauce that you want save to dip bread in. But otherwise, just prawns and cocktail sauce. Go for the pastas.

Lamb Ravioli (¥78) - Mint and artichoke filled ravioli topped with a white lamb ragu, garnished with perilla. The filling could use a touch more salt, but get a nice spoonful of that delicious ragu and you’ll be sorted.

Linguine alle Vongole (¥88) - I’m a little in love with this pasta. Al dente linguine toasted in a slightly spicy cream sauce fortified with clam juice. Loaded up with clams and a dusting of bottarga.

It’s very rich, and the portion sizeable. Good for two to share if you’re also ordering mains.

Oh, and there's a "secret lasagna" that rotates daily, limited portions available, priced from ¥68-118. This one was ¥98. It's a petit pot, but damn, it’s a bomb of calories. It’s a free-form lasagna with diced prawns. I would forgo a main course if you have this.

Seeing as I was on a carb quest…I could only humanly fit in one main course. Italo Trattoria has a "fillet of the day" (¥118). The catch of the night was swordfish, pan-seared to golden brown, given lashings of basil oil and pesto. The meaty texture of swordfish is great, but it could have used more seasoning.

For dessert, they have a platter, selection rotates daily. Get three for ¥68, five for ¥98. Pictured here: Strawberries and cream, apple cake, almond cherry lemon tarte, chocolate choux, zabaione with amarena fabbri cherries.

The almond cherry lemon tarte was great.

Custardy Zabaione with syrup-soaked cherries.

The Drinks: Cocktails & Wine

As for the drinks, there are 12 Aperitivo cocktails to choose from, ¥68-84 each, which come served to you on the Aperitivo trolley.

Digestif from the Aperitivo trolley.

And there’s a curated wine menu, a mix of natural/organic and traditional, that gets updated every two weeks. Wines by the glass start from ¥52.

G. Descombes Cuvee Gigi Beaujolais Villages 2018 (¥78/glass, ¥428/bottle)

Welcome drink: non-alcoholic fruit tea.

Triciclo (¥68) - Campari, white AND red wine, lemon and soda, on the rocks. It’s a kind of negroni, bittersweet, smooth and refreshing. I could have multiples of these.

Bar Italia (¥76) - Bourbon, Aperol, Montenegro, and lemon, served on an edible $100 bill. It’s sour, punchy and boozy.

L: Amaro Montenegro (¥40)
R: No-cello (¥58) - Non-alcoholic limoncello with lime essence, cinnamon, citrus peel, mint, and lime.

Italo Trattoria also has a tasting menu, seven courses plus dessert for ¥348 per person, minimum two guests.

And they're launching brunch very soon! For more updates, sign up as a VIP member on their mini program via the QR Code below. Members also get to collect points and get deals/discounts.

Favorite dishes: Linguine alle Vongole, beef carpaccio, swordfish carpaccio, vitelllo tonnato, lamb ragu ravioli.

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Nomfluence Readers Deals

Get 20% off your bill (food and drink) at Italo Trattoria! Plus, each person gets a complimentary Aperitivo cocktail.

Valid only until June 30, 2021. The deal above is not applicable with other promotions or discounts (happy hour, etc.)

Click here to BOOK NOW!

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Italo Trattoria
Address: 2/F, A Mansion, 291 Fumin Lu, near Changle Lu 富民路291号2楼, 近长乐路
Tel: 60279127
Hours: Mon-Sun, 5:30pm-11:30pm, last order 10:30pm