Fabbrica

City Centre 1, Sector 1, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700064. Ph: 033 4000 1104

Meal for two: Approximately Rs 2500 + taxes, without alcohol

Fabbrica, when it first opened doors in the city created a stir for its Neapolitan-style pizzas and their Burrata-based antipasti. One of the very first standalone restaurants in the city to serve a whole Burrata with pesto, and sourdough diners would go for the antipasti alone and come back impressed with their pizzas. Their second outlet in the city opened in City Centre in 2020. It is larger, airier with a popular al fresco section and a bar menu well-stocked with Italian classics like Aperol, Campari and a collection of Italian wines. Their gin-based cocktails looked good on the menu but on the day we went nothing but the Negroni was available. You cannot get more Italian than that, we figured. So we sipped on the boozy Italian cocktail as we pored over the menu. Their pepperoni pizza is an oft-ordered dish at home (it survives 60-minute travel time and still tastes good), so we ordered Bruschetta Con Burrata. Blistered cherry tomatoes, melty Burrata olive oil on a crunch sourdough – a simple enough dish but executed perfectly. Prosciutto Burrata came with a prior warning. They were out of imported Balsamic so the slightly liquid Indian variety would be served.

For pizza we ordered a delightful Fab Fungo. Redolent with porcini mushrooms, white truffle, and melty oozy Fontina cheese it was decadently bougie. For pastas we went with more cheese and ordered Spaghetti a la Carbonara. They make it a point to check whether you want your pasta al dente or well-done and it arrived as ordered. With a perfect bite to it and that luscious cheesy sauce, it hit the spot. The Rigatoni al Tartufo, too, was pleasantly cheesy, fragrant with truffle cream and charred mushrooms.

For dessert, we had Budino, a teeny three-layered cake made with dark chocolate, caramel and white chocolate and a tiramisu. While the Budino was a tad too sweet for us it was still excellent. The tiramisu had a distinctly crisp texture. Perhaps the lady finger biscuits needed to be soaked a little more.