Great food, good service, generous owner

A friend and I went yesterday evening to try it out, and were impressed. Had the green salad with chicken, walnuts, parmesan cheese--can't remember even noticing any iceberg lettuce, which automatically puts a salad at the top of my list. The lamb chops were incredible--very tender, done just right. We then finished off with a Hawaiian pizza--much better pizza for the money than Annie's, I think. The owner, Guiseppe, came over personally to see how we were enjoying our meal; the friendly, attentive, chatty owner is the best part of this restaurant, in my opinion. After we finished the meal, he sent over two complimentary shots of shockingly pink strawberry creme liqueur. I liked it, though my friend said it set her teeth on edge. (She's got sensitive teeth!)

I love the restaurant design, with the smoking section upstairs and the non-smoking section downstairs. (Why, oh why do so many restaurants here put their non-smoking sections upstairs? It's like there's some secret pact to make sure all the non-smokers will still be breathing the secondhand smoke coming straight up the stairs or through the floorboards.) The bathrooms were impeccably clean, and had the greatest automatic disposal in the bathroom--freaked me out at first when I walked in front of it and the lid whirred open. At the encouragement of the owner, we did go up the circular staircase to check out the smoking section, mainly because it doubles as a private room for parties. It (apparently) has a great view, looking out over Chaoyang Park (though we couldn't see much since it was after dark).

And I should mention that when you get to the front door and see only what looks like an empty reception desk and amazingly clean stairs that look like the varnish is still wet, don't be fooled into thinking the place is still under renovation. That reception desk is actually a mini-bar that is going to be stocked with drinks and coffees for mid-afternoon passersby--and the stairs are JUST THAT CLEAN. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to have stairs that clean in this city. Granted, the restaurant just opened; I'll go back in another month and see if the stairs still have that clean, wet-varnish look.

Kudos, Guiseppe! I'll be back. And I'll bring friends.