The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing is home to the top Italian restaurant, Barolo, while the Ritz-Carlton, Financial Street, is no slouch with its award-winning Italian restaurant, Cépe, an award-winning high-end restaurant.
In 2017, Yixuan won various awards such as the Best Restaurant in Tatler, The Beijinger Best Hotel Italian Restaurant, and the Best Western Restaurant Award in the World. Chef Fabio Nompleggio has an extensive track record of accomplishing restaurants in Sicily, Rome, Manchester, Mykonos, Munich and other cities, including the one-Michelin-starred Ristorante Acetaia 11, Unico, and then the Executive Chef of Frankie's, founded by three-Michelin-starred chef Marco Pierre White in Dubai.
Cépe's menu is dominated by Northern Italian flavours. The appetizer is preceded by classic cold-cut and cheese dishes such as Spanish 5J ham, Parma ham, Curatello ham, etc., and the oysters are selected with few varieties but the meat is fresh. The restaurant's name, Cépe, which means "porcini mushroom" in Italian, is an indispensable ingredient in Italian cuisine, and most of the mushroom dishes are special. This is the case with porcini mushroom consommé in the soup, the wild yellow porcini mushrooms have a crisp taste and strong aroma, plus foie gras mousse, porcini mushroom jelly and chestnuts, the taste is fragrant and not greasy, the taste is smooth and the taste is natural. Another soup, Fabio seafood soup, is also one of the restaurant's recommended dishes. Mediterranean crayfish, foie gras, and venison loin flakes are also the most distinctive starters.
The main dish of pasta and risotto is lobster noodles, which are delicate and flexible handmade noodles, and the smooth lobster meat is soaked in cherry tomatoes, spaghetti powder and rich sauce. Porcini mushroom risotto, porcini mushroom flakes are full of aroma, rich milk mixed with the unique fragrance of porcini mushrooms, wrapped in plump rice grains, rich and fragrant, smoked beans and oregano leaves also add a lot of color. Traditional bolognese noodles are homemade wide noodles with a chewy texture and a rich sauce and a pure taste. Seafood and grilled seafood are decent, and the basic taste is passable, but it lacks deep memory points. The quality of the desserts is decent, and the creative tiramisu and hazelnut experience is the most popular among diners.
The décor of Cépe is a rich red colour palette, with red Mumbai-style curtains, burgundy sofas and crimson cherry wood. At the entrance of the restaurant, 3,000 special silver-plated mushrooms hang from the ceiling, which echoes the restaurant's mushroom cuisine. The service of the restaurant can basically meet the requirements of a five-star hotel restaurant, but in fact, the excellent service can only be done superficially, and the details cannot stand scrutiny, and the 15% service charge is a bit unsatisfactory.
