Leonardo’s, located on the Shanghai Hilton’s ground floor, combines an award-winning wine list, with attentive service, and authentic Italian cuisine from Master Chef Luigi Fargnoli.
Although Leonardo’s menu features a number of regional Italian soups, pastas, game, and seafood, we were fortunate enough to enjoy our first meal there in conjunction with a special wine pairing dinner, including Ruffino wines from Italy, as well as visit from Ruffino’s Managing Director – Adolfo Folonari. Mr. Folonari was also kind enough to provide an overview of each of the five Ruffino wines we sampled during dinner, as well as answer questions regarding wine tasting, storage, and production.
The five-course meal included a delicious antipasto featuring a timbale of scallops, lobster, and golden mushrooms in raspberry vinegar. The pasta course featured our favorite dish of the evening – oxtail tortelloni, which were cooked to perfection, and were a pleasant surprise compared to some of the other pastas we’ve tried in Shanghai.
The main course of marinated, slow cooked leg of deer, sautéed artichoke, and potato confit with cacao sauce was paired with Ruffino’s outstanding 1999 Brunello di Montalcino – Il Greppone Mazzi. And for dessert, we enjoyed am excellent vanilla bean panna cotta tart, coupled with Ruffino’s Vin Santo dessert wine, before ending the memorable evening with an espresso and petit fours.