Restaurant serves authentic Italian fare

By ESTHER CHANDRAN
Photos by AZLINA ABDULLAH

estherc@thestar.com.my

DELUCCA, Ground Floor,
Office Tower, One Residency,
Jalan Mesui, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2144 6545
Business hours: Monday, 5.30pm to midnight,
Tuesday to Sunday, 11.30am to 3pm,
5pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday,
11.30am to 3pm, 5pm to 2am.

THE glass panelled exterior is all the invitation one needs to walk through its doors for a taste of Delucca.

Styled to exude a contemporary feel, the restaurant is an interesting find in this precinct abundant with Italian restaurants.

Rich offering: The Delucca special featuring the calzone with mozzarella, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, beef salami, artichokes and gorgonzola cheese.

Nearby in Changkat Bukit Bintang and Jalan Ceylon, popular Italian outlets do booming business, dishing out likeable Italian favourites that keep customers coming back for more.

Being in an area with so many competitors, spurs on Delucca’s owners because here, they are at home among neighbours.

“Italian food is popular around the world and in Malaysia for its likeable taste and use of healthy ingredients like olive oil and herbs,” said operations director Firas Sowiedan.

Director Sen Soon-Mun added: “There’s a lot more to Italian food than spaghetti and pizza and in this enclave alone, there are about seven Italian restaurants.

“We felt it was time to bring something new to the table in terms of Italian cuisine.”

With their foolproof plan, Delucca’s six partners have delivered to KLites a place that’s comfortable and classy without being too overbearing.

Black tagliatelle: Marea Nera is a plate of squid ink tagliatelle with mixed seafood in vodka cream sauce at Delucca.

And of course, Delucca’s niche lies in its delectable dishes and impressive old and new world wine selection.

The focal part of this elegant place is the blue-tiled bar dominating as the centerpiece, injecting a shock of brightness to the interior with comfy bar stools for customers to feel right at home with the bartenders and their bevy of drinks.

Situated at the entrance, the island bar gives the outlet its casual allure.

To the right is a stage, hosting jazz musicians and singers on weekends.

Having had a taste of Delucca’s fare before this, I was ready for an onslaught of Italian food.

Yummy treat: The Ravioli allo Zafferano e Noci at Delucca is a serving of ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach served with creamy saffron walnuts sauce.

Tuscany chef Nicola Carradori had pasta on his mind for us because of the 11 types of fresh pasta made in-house.

The light pink Pasta Rosa — pink tagliatelle tossed in porcini mushrooms, fresh basil, mascarpone cheese in pink vodka sauce beckoned us for a try.

The sinfully rich tagliatelle dish (RM34) is chef Carradori’s mother’s recipe.

“It is a simple dish with tomato paste that gives the pasta its colour and porcini, mascarpone, vodka and cream add flavour to the dish,” chef Carradori said.

As it would be pastas all night long, we were cautious not to eat too much right from the start.

However, the Crespelle Vege­tarian (crepes baked with mixed Mediterranean vegetable in bechamel and tomato sauce) was light and was easily finished off.

The Ravioli Allo Zafferano e Noci (RM34) — ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach served with creamy saffron walnut sauce was yet another vegetarian dish. By now I was convinced that the chef was probably Catholic and observing the month of Lent.

I soon changed my mind when the Marea Nera was served.

Although the Marea Nera may seem intimidating because of its colour, Sen said Europeans and Japanese enjoyed the black pasta fare.

The squid ink tagliatelle was yet another creamy version with mixed seafood and vodka cream sauce.

Somehow, my taste buds fancied the Black Ink Pasta with Crabmeat on the previous menu which is no longer available.

A pasta dish that is not seen every day is the likeable Trofie al Pesto.

This tiny twirled Liguria style pasta is tossed in pesto and olive oil and enhanced with French beans and potato.

Other hand-made pastas available are tagliolini, gnocchi, pappardelle and agnolotti.

Tired of too much vegetarian dishes, we welcomed the sizeable Delucca Special calzone (RM36).

Packed with semi-soft mozzarella, fragrant mushrooms, sweet sundried tomato, beef salami, artichokes and veined Italian blue cheese gorgonzola, the calzone revealed a tasty amalgamation of flavours to complete our Italian gastronomic adventure.

With the Panna Cotta unavailable that night, we indulged in Delucca’s version of the Italian dessert Tiramisu (RM20) and Rum Baba (RM20), a dessert with bite-sized sponge soaked in rich rum served with mini fruit salad and vanilla ice cream.

Delucca, which means off Lucca in Italy is certainly dishing up riveting favourites off the Tuscanian town!