Mio (Beijing, CHINA) ★★★★☆

After a brief visit to the 798 Art Zone, it's time to indulge ourselves and experience some contemporary Italian cuisine. When it comes to Italian cuisine in Beijing, there's no better place to be than Mio, the glamorous Italian restaurant on the third floor of the Four Seasons Hotel. 

At Mio, head chef Marco Calenzo, who was previously number two at London’s Michelin-starred Apsley's, helmed the kitchen and created a menu characteristic of his innovative fare. His effort was rewarded with the "2013 Best Chef of the Year" by TimeOut Beijing.

Marco Calenzo's exquisite menu includes culinary highlights such as spaghetti cooked in tomato consommé with sea urchin, squash tortellini and other delicacies. Be prepared for an Italian cuisine that is both authentic and inventive.

Mio's dining room sports one of the most glittering décor in all of Beijing's fine dining venues.

A bustling open kitchen takes center stage in the middle of Mio's dining room where a group of talented chefs work tirelessly behind the scene.



Right before the start of our dinner, a little amuse bouche came in the form of a foie gras mousse topped with a layer of passion fruit jelly and small patches of crushed coco beans. The foie gras mousse was fairly smooth but too bad the passion fruit was a tad too overpoweringly sour.



After a lovely slice of house-baked bread, our first and last starter was ready to be served and it was a dandy. The two slices of perfectly caramelized duck foie gras had silky smooth texture and deep liver flavor. 

That was very enjoyable although I wasn't quite sure if the rhubarb jelly and soil crumble were the ideal partner.

We were excited to try their pasta out and what better way to start than their signature Trafila pici. The homemade squid-ink spaghetti was excellent and had a lovely bite to it but the carrot coulis could be a little more flavorful and more importantly, there could be a little bit more Alaskan king crab meat in the mix.



Almost equally successful was their tagliatelle, with Japanese flying squid, artichokes and bottarga.

The Japanese flying squid was shredded into very small and narrow strips. We had a tough time picking them out from the tagliatelle but there was no artichoke purée.



Out of the many wood-fire pizzas, we picked the Crudo which has toppings of buffalo mozzarella, tomato, parma ham and arugula. This was slightly disappointed.



Marco Calenzo started his career as a pastry chef in Tuscany so his highly regarded dessert menu here at Mio is considered very sinful to all dessert lovers.

Unfortunately, we had a little too much to eat of late so we decided to take the bill instead. Before signing on the dotted line, a small petite four of homemade chocolates.....

Food Rating: 6.5/10
Price: ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥
Address: 3/F Four Season Hotel Beijing, 48 LiangMaQiao Road, 100125 Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
Closest Metro Station: Liang Ma Qiao
Tel: +86 (10) 5695-8888
Website: www.fourseasons.com/beijing/dining/restaurants/mio/ 

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