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Published on January 16, 2008

 For a renowned place like Angelini, a "renaissance" is met with high anticipation. The place, after all, is one of the most trusted Italian eateries in Bangkok, boasting not only delicious Italian fare but also a sophisticated atmosphere and a full bar overlooking the Chao Phya River.

Since last week, fans of Angelini have been exploring the Bt80-million facelift that the place has just gone through. We noticed that the restaurant logo has been changed with a bold dab of a red "g", while the interior, which used to be dark and glittering, is brightened with silky white seating, sofas and colourful vases that pile up on a big window pane overlooking the river.

Angelini's signature open kitchen is still there, with a new cooking team led by Rome-native Paolo Vitaletti. This is Vitaletti's first time in Asia after years of working in leading kitchens around the world including London, North America and Hawaii where he was exposed to Asian palates and preferences. Here, Vitaletti designed Angelini's new menu, which focuses on lighter and healthier dishes from the long Italian Mediterranean coastline, with added emphasis on the use of fresh herbs, seafood and short cooking methods.

"Considering the changing lifestyle of people who now stay still and sit a lot more, especially when they are working in front of the computer, I think the light Mediterranean Italian cuisine should fit into the new nutritional regime of modern people," says Vitaletti. "Also, I designed the menu to be much more straightforward, giving guests a clear sense of our hearty and delicious dishes."

The menu is divided largely by the method employed in cooking the dish. Appetisers are called raw and cold, while some Southern staples are called baked, roasted or grilled, while the pizzas are in the wood-burning oven category. Glancing down the lengthy, but precise and detailed menu, I found many fusion dishes, such as Chiang Mai crayfish mingled with burrata cheese and Pak Chong ox-tongue served cold with tagiasche olive salad and sarmoriglio pesto. Also, Vitaletti offers a lot of specialities, such as Southern Italy's famous ragusano cheese and Venetian viaolone nano risotto and Kalamata olives as well as Sicilian eggplants and roasted figs.

Vataletti explains that Thai dishes are similar to Mediterranean cuisine in that they use fresh herbs (such as cilantro, garlic and basil), brief cooking methods and a lot of fish and seafood, which makes it easier for him to adapt local ingredients into his signature dishes, thus keeping prices lower.

A meal at Angelini starts with a hearty loaf of Angelini home-baked crispy country bread served with freshly made spicy guacamole and a small bowl of black olive paste. Our appetisers included chilled, melt-in-the-mouth beef carpaccio with marinated porcini, slices of reggiano cheese drizzled with galantine lemon olive oil (Bt370) and a plate of spicy escabeche mackerel served on a bed of earthy-flavoured roasted beets salad (Bt290).

We tried Vitaletti's pride and joy - hand-rolled cavatelli pasta braised with deeply flavoured veal cheeks, with added zest from lemon and rosemary pesto (Bt310-470). This dish, served in a small French cast-iron pot to keep it warm throughout the nibbling, is unstoppable with the al dente pasta in the superb blend of light ragu-style sauce.

Then, we chose something very Mediterranean - a plate of paccheri (big tube-like) pasta in a flavourful sauce of fennel and tiger prawns wrapped with Tuscany's renowned Colonnata cured lard (Bt350-520). The dish, satisfying in taste and texture, is delicious. We shared the prawns, dug more into the paccheri tubes, which are just delightful with the aromatic and light fennel sauce.

Aqua pazza is another Mediterranean staple and it means a dish of a whole fish, in this case a whole Thai sea bass, braised in a simmering broth of cherry tomatoes, capers and parsley (Bt490). The sea bass is Vitaletti's choice for the traditional barramundi fish and the fresh tastes of cherry tomatoes plus the herbs make the local seafood up to our expectation.

Angelini serves lunch and dinner with choices of two- or three-course lunches for Bt550 and Bt750 per person. For those looking for a quick fix, light and tempting choices of panini sandwiches of yellow-fin tuna with olive tapenade, marinated artichoke or buffalo mozzarella, grilled eggplant, roasted tomatoes and basil pesto are available. Or you can opt for arrays of wood-burning oven-baked pizzas, roasted baby chicken and finish it off with selections of cheese and desserts.

Dinner at Angelini is an indulgence with live music and DJs, and should begin with a lazy lounge at the place's new outdoor terrace and a choice of its creative cocktails (such as Maharashtra Martini with fresh Indian curry leaves or Caribbean Martini) to set you into the mood. The place is open from 11.30am until late every day and is now equipped with a 'Guru' (Mirko Cattini from Bellagio, Lake Como) who will greet and meet you and make sure your time at Angelini is a memorable one.

Call (02) 206 8677-8 for details.

Sirin P Wongpanit

The Nation