Cartoccio Brings Italian Bar Food to Popular Fangjia Bottle Bar El Nido and Cocktail Bar Fang

Cartoccio, the Italian kitchen run by Guiseppe Epifanio (known as Peppe to his friends) inside long-time Fangjia favorites, El Nido and Fang, along with owner Xiao Shuai, is now in soft opening. If you've ever wished for a deep-fried risotto ball with seafood or meat ragu to soak up all that beer, then wish no more.

Said deep-fried risotto ball is an arancini (RMB 25 for five vegetarian pieces, RMB 30 for five ragu pieces, RMB 35 for five seafood pieces), which were all deliciously crunchy on the outside, yet smooth and flavorful on the inside. Perfect for sharing.

We also had a go at the cheese and meat platters, which come with a good range of cold-cut meats, cheeses, and bread. 

The full soft opening menu will have single portions of deep-fried snacks, like the aforementioned arancini, croquettes (RMB 30, RMB 35 for five salmon croquettes), and fried squid and shrimp (RMB 40). All come in a paper cone and are paired with a dipping sauce.

Cartoccio will also offer a range of sharing platters, including a meat and cheese platter (RMB 85), stacked with different cheeses, croquettes, cold cut meats, bread, and spring onion mayo-yogurt dip. For vegetarians, there's the vegetarian rhapsody (RMB 70) with marinated eggplant, zucchini, pepper, blue cheese, sundried tomato, marinated olives, vegetarian arancini, bread, and tzatziki dip.

Smaller dishes include the Sundried Blues, which is a combination of sundried tomatoes, blue cheese, and bread (RMB 25) or just green and black olives (RMB 15).

Their kitchen will be open from Tuesday to Sunday, 7pm-1am, and open throughout the holiday at Fang only. Cartoccio's opening times and location will become more permanent after the break.

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Photos: Margaux Schreurs