Yum China's Ultra-Premium Experiment: Atto Primo Shanghai
I wrote in my last post about Les Élites, Yum China’s experiment in a premium extension of the Pizza Hut brand. Now I turn to an experiment of a different sort: a high-end restaurant located in prime real estate, right along the Bund, with stunning views. I chose this restaurant for a team celebration, so you’ll get to see many dishes!
Atto Primo doesn’t have any reference to ties to Pizza Hut or Yum China. Perhaps this is more of a learning lab to see if any menu items might eventually trickle down to their mass brands?
The interior was suitably dark, with big windows framing the iconic view of the Bund.
The menu… I believe the chef is from the Piedmont region of Italy, based on the menu items.
Like the Vitello Tonnato, the classic Piedmontese dish of thin slices of veal with the pool of cool tuna sauce in the middle. An interesting mix but it works.
Then we had a couple salads - one with seafood.
And one with roasted vegetables.
Bruschetta, artfully presented.
An eggplant stack.
This was probably my favorite dish: braised meat agnolotti in a truffle sauce. The pasta was firm but so meaty and flavorful. I could have eaten many more of these!
The truffle and egg pizza was a disappointment. The truffle too thickly shaven, and then cheese in a heavy layer on top. The version from Jean-George’s Mercado, not to far away along the Bund, was much better.
Finally, we had a big steak!
Steak and Italian are so popular in Shanghai now.
We finished with baba au rhum.
A chocolate dessert.
And tiramisu (always my favorite).
I really enjoyed Atto Primo! It was quite empty when we went, on a weekday evening. Italian food is so popular in Shanghai; there are SO many Italian restaurants continually opening, and perhaps this one just didn’t have that edge or newness compared to the others. So I was sad, but not hugely surprised, to read that they’ve closed for 2022.
