L’epasar: A Kaleidoscope of Italian Family Food, Hainanese Chicken Rice, and Fancy Cellar
Located on the first basement level of the Topwin Center, L’epasar soft opened in late July. It is hard to clarify this place as a restaurant or even as the "fusion cuisine" that their Chinese name peddles. To us, L'epasar is more like a combination of several concepts squeezed into the 235-square-meter space, including Italian restaurant Pasta & Piadina, Hainanese chicken rice chain Cheung Kee, a café serving Segafredo coffee, a dessert bar with French and Hong Kong-style pastries and Vai gelato, and a wine cellar.
They provide seven different kinds of piadina romagnola (RMB 48-88), a thin flatbread from the Romagna region of Italy, where the owners come from.
We ordered the traditional Crudo Piadina (RMB 88). Four cuts of flatbread came stuffed with parma ham, arugula, tomato, and mozzarella, served on a wooden platter. A touch of balsamic vinegar balanced well with the flavor of arugula and savory parma ham, and the fresh and salty ham made us want to grab a glass of wine immediately. “The flour we use to make the flatbread is Le 5 Stagioni from Italy. The parma ham and cheese are imported too; we try to use the best ingredients we can find,” owner Diao Xuanyi explained.
They also add fat from black pigs into the flour to make Piadina, to give it a richer flavor. This is the family way: “We put a lot of love into our cooking, hopefully the customers can feel that,” said Diao. They also have six pastas, including tagliatelle al ragu (fresh tagliatelle with beef sauce), the ragu for which takes six hours to cook.
We ordered Spaghetti Allo Scoglio (RMB 88), spaghetti with fresh seafood, including mussels, shrimps, and squid. Instead of using tomato sauce, they toss in diced cherry tomatoes, which gives it a simple but rustic look. We recommend adding a touch of chili oil to the spaghetti to balance the umami flavor of the seafood. As for the salads, they also provide caprese and grilled vegetables.
L'epasar is also home to the fifth branch of Hainanese chicken rice restaurant Cheung Kee in Beijing. We had the classic Hainanese chicken rice (RMB 38), served with soy sauce, ginger sauce, and chili sauce. Chicken-lovers can go for a quarter chicken (RMB 79/99), half chicken (RMB 128) or even whole chicken (RMB 198). This dish is considered one of the national dishes of Singapore, and is popular in Malaysia and Thailand. The deboned chicken was soft and succulent, and the accompanying rice, enriched with chicken fat, was flavorful. Cheung Kee also have three types of laksa and bak kut teh (pork broth with herbs).
The fanciest part of L'epasar is the walk-in wine cellar, which can store 1,000 bottles. The cellar is fitted out with lock boxes for customers to store their own wine. They may also have the best selection of the Scottish Harviestoun Brewery beers in Beijing, with 15 craft beers, including the lovely Old Engine Oil, Ola Dubh 12 (in sherry cask), Ola Dubh 18, 21 and 30. The menu also boasts six Danish craft beers from Midtfyns Bryghus, including world award-winning Double IPA, Imperial Stout, and Chili Tripel; and Fruli strawberry beer from Belgium.
"Too many concepts," you say? Well, if you break it down, their philosophy is not that complicated: people love to have Singaporean food for lunch, and Italian family-style dishes for dinner, finish that off with a Segafredo espresso, and then move over to the corner bar and grab a glass of wine from Burgundy. An affordable one-stop shop.
L’epasar
Daily 10am-10pm, Topwin Center B1-10, 1 Sanlitun Nanlu, Chaoyang District (5780 9043)
乐巴莎美食汇: 三里屯南路1号通盈中心B1-10
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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos: Tracy Wang, Kyle Mullin
