La Locanda — Restaurant in Songshan District

Food: we loved the western authenticity of the food. We were recommended to this cozy Italian restaurant. The chef was Italian and we loved his touch on every dish we ordered.

Service: it got tricky here. The man server seems to be neutral at the beginning. His English was limited. We ordered a medium rear steak. It came out rare. When we nicely asked to cook more and said this seemed rare (not med rare). He did not understand and spelled R A RE to us. We said yes this is R A R E but we asked for medium rare. After 2 times he seemed not understanding what we were saying but kind of with an annoying expression agreed to take the steak back to cook more. My husband then googled the pic of the steak temp chart to show him what we meant. He got offended and said "this is our restaurant's way of med rare!"!?!?!?! Excuse me? Also, he went straight back in the open kitchen and mimic my husband action (showing the phone) to the chef and tattle tail on us!? I can see it dude! And we were nice about everything too but he got offended! This was such a turn off. Dude, youre making YOUR CHEFF look bad AND this nice restaurant for having such a BAD attitude toward customers. Please be kind because we are here to support!

The food is on point here. Dont get me wrong....

Lovely surprise to find the cozy La Locanda. All pastas are handmade in house, and cooked al dente. We were pleasantly surprised by our charcuterie plate selection and the tomato, caper and anchovies salad was fresh and a great portion size for our fresh veggie craving selves.

We picked a bottle of Soave with dinner, it was very reasonably priced, though served at cellar temp. Ice bucket solved this quickly.

Save room for dessert! Both the chocolate pudding/budino and the Verona-style almond cake (served with a shot of grappa) were a pleasant surprise.

Definitely recommend.

The only slight disappointment in the evening was the cheese plate, which featured a blue, a parmesan, a truffle-flavored rinded, as well as two other mild cheeses, but overall was a bit bland and...

We've been going here for years and the food never disappoints. They also try to offer seasonal dishes using local ingredients when possible. The best part is that the menu changes with the seasons, so there's always something new to try. Highly recommended place, but know what this is more of a neighbourhood place rather than a fancy restaurant.

Good, hearty Italian food for a fair price. The risotto was spot on.

Update: A year on, this place has gone from strength to strength and if possible is just getting better. We've yet to have a bad meal here and the great thing is that the menu changes with the seasons and there are weekly specials, so there's always something new to try.

Several years on and the food here is still great. It's our go to Italian...