Treat Yourself With Italian Mio's Revamped Spring Menu (and Definitely Get the Lobster!)
There’s no shame in admitting that, as a food editor, there are ups and downs to the job. Returning to Mio to taste their new spring menu however makes all of our most depressing food experiences melt away, replaced instead with sweet culinary joy (no offense, subway station jianbing guy, I'll still be back to eat your wares on occasion).
Located on the third floor of the luxurious Four Seasons Beijing, Mio will first wow you with the numerous dazzling crystal chandeliers hanging overhead, a huge mirror covering the entire ceiling, and countless glittering lights. Take a breath, keep your eyes on the prize (the spring menu), and hastily make it to your table so that chef Aniello Turco and his sous chef Joel Manchia can beging to win you over with their delicious creations.
The revamped chef’s menus come in three options: Chef Aniello's 'Twist' five-course meal; langoustine and caviar; pan seared foie gras and P3 (potato, pick, and pear), green crumpled pasta, Alaskan black cod, and a dessert made using chuao (a special type of Venezuelan cocao bean) for RMB 998 per person or RMB 1,788 for two; a 'From the Countryside' four-course menu with mushroom soup, black ink pici, short rib, and a brown sugar tart for RMB 588 per person or RMB 968 for two; and a vegetarian three-course menu with minestrone soup, pizza risotto, roasted cauliflower, and a dessert named snow for RMB 488 per person and RMB 888 for two.
We went with á la carte, starting with a nice little filler of scotch quail egg with pickled vegetables, followed by sea-star salad, including deep-fried oyster, lobster, and strawberry buried among sliced lettuce leaves and a layer of parmesan. With the simple addition of nori, the dish was given a special Japanese twist, emphasizing the latent seafood notes and balancing out the acidity of the strawberries.
However, my favorite dish was by far the lobster, which looked too good to eat, thanks to a pop art-style lobster painting made using the accompanying sauce. The actual lobster was served in homemade bread roll, with an aside of cod fish sauce, mashed potato, and dried purple sweet potato slices. A pinch of spices and sea salt made the whole dish pop, so much so that I may have licked the plate a little when nobody was watching.
If you don't opt for the lobster (you really, really should), the homemade pasta was a close second favorite. Served with spinach pesto and a healthy helping of deep-fried onion on top, the special hand-crumbled pasta was juicy and well-seasoned.
We rounded our fancy meal off with an Instagram-ready fruit tart (below) thanks to several crisp fruity sheets embedded in the soft tart like a ship's sails. The berries were fresh, and the dessert satisfying without being overly weighty (well, if you didn't scoff down a lobster and pasta beforehand, that is).
Mio is the real deal, bringing the Italian fine dining scene in Beijing to another level, and breaking free from the negative stereotypes that often come with hotel dining. Here, you can either go either extra fancy – luxury caviar, anyone? (RMB 2,888-6,888) – or keep it humble with a pizza from the on-site wood-fired pizza oven (RMB 95-348). There's also a lunch menu available for RMB 158.
As expected, the service is impeccable, and the wine-pairings are superb. Mio will also hold a Special “Sundate” every Sunday starting from March 19, during which you can choose from traditional, creative, or grilled dishes for RMB 600.
Don’t forget there’s a 15 percent service charge to the bill, as with most Beijing hotels. Now I just wish I was wealthy enough to eat here every day like the tuhao next to me who spent their meal literally fanning their money.
More stories by this author here.
Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
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Photos: Tracy Wang
