{"id":77965,"date":"2026-08-20T15:40:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=77965"},"modified":"2026-08-20T15:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:40:59","slug":"why-ninettas-orange-carpaccio-is-hong-kongs-most-unlikely-new-italian-dish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=77965","title":{"rendered":"Why Ninetta\u2019s orange carpaccio is Hong Kong\u2019s most unlikely new Italian dish"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Hong Kong\u2019s Italian dining scene has traditionally been dominated by two extremes: the fine-dining temples \u2013 your Bombana<\/span>, Grissini<\/span> and Sabatini<\/span> \u2013 and the red-sauce joints that range from The Spaghetti House to Fini\u2019s. Ninetta, which opened last month in Central, proposes a third way. Pronounced \u201cnee-NET-ta\u201d, a term of endearment meaning \u201clittle Nina\u201d, the restaurant channels the image of a beloved Italian mama whose home is always open and whose table is always full. It is warm, approachable and serious about food without being serious about itself \u2013 a neighbourhood trattoria in the truest sense.<\/div>\n
Step inside Ninetta\u2019s kitchen, however, and you won\u2019t find a nonna<\/em>. It\u2019s chef Marco Xodo, formerly of Testina<\/span>, Central\u2019s much-missed nose-to-tail concept that made unglamorous cuts glamorous. Before that, Xodo spent more than seven years as chef de cuisine at 8\u00bd Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Shanghai. He conceived Ninetta alongside Antimo Merone and Graziano De Gregorio, chef and general manager of Estro<\/span>, respectively. The trio have more than enough fine-dining pedigree to find backers for any elevated concept. Surprisingly, they went in the opposite direction and chose a trattoria.<\/div>\n

\u201cFine dining teaches rigour, precision, and respect for ingredients,\u201d Xodo says. \u201cBut the heart of Italian cuisine lives in the trattoria. Moving towards more casual concepts is a conscious choice to strip away the stiff formality of fine dining. It is a step closer to the authentic spirit of an Italian kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Ninetta dining room. Photo: Handout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That commitment to unpretentious warmth explains the restaurant\u2019s playful, nostalgic decor. \u201cThe choice of the 1980s and 1990s aesthetic is deeply personal,\u201d Xodo explains. \u201cThat is simply the period we grew up in, a time when Italy was experiencing incredible cultural vitality. That vibrant energy translated directly into the lively neighbourhood trattorias and family homes of our youth. Food was always the thing that brought people together around a single table.\u201d<\/p>\n

That philosophy finds perhaps its purest expression in a dish that captures Ninetta\u2019s balance between rustic tradition and subtle fine-dining technique: orange carpaccio. On paper, it reads like a dare: fruit and fish, vinegar and citrus, chilli and dill. It sounds weird. Yet stopping at the menu description misses everything Xodo is trying to say about Italian culinary identity.<\/p>\n

The idea comes from the orange salads typical of southern Italy. Insalata di arance has been a staple of Sicily\u2019s tables for centuries. Its history is inseparable from the island\u2019s unique position as a crossroads of cultures. \u201cIn the ninth century, Arab rulers introduced bitter oranges to Sicily, fundamentally reshaping the island\u2019s culinary landscape,\u201d Xodo explains. Over centuries, Sicilians crossbred these with sweet oranges. Local peasants would pair the abundant citrus with cheap coastal staples like salted anchovies, wild fennel and local olive oil to create a refreshing, hydrating winter salad that has never really gone out of fashion.<\/p>\n

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The three founders of Ninetta (from left), Antimo Merone, Marco Xodo and Graziano De Gregorio. Photo: Handout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For Xodo, the dish is also deeply personal. He was born in Seregno in northern Italy, and his heritage straddles the country\u2019s north-south divide. \u201cHalf of my origin is from the south, from Calabria,\u201d he says. \u201cFrom my grandmother\u2019s house balcony, I could see Sicily and Mount Etna. That\u2019s why I try to mix the peculiarities of both cuisines.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Hong Kong\u2019s Italian dining scene has traditionally been dominated by two extremes: the fine-dining temples \u2013 your Bombana, Grissini and Sabatini \u2013 and the red-sauce…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[28579,1264,3569,2507,5010,28578,8968],"class_list":["post-77965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-carpaccio","tag-dish","tag-hong","tag-italian","tag-kongs","tag-ninettas","tag-orange","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}