Located on the entire second floor of the JIA Shanghai and also accessible from its own street level entrance in the heart of Shanghai's business, shopping and entertainment area, Issimo serves a truly authentic home-style Italian cuisine in an invitingly warm and rustic ambience.

Issimo seats 60 in the main dining area, 30 in the lounge and bar, and up to 35 in the private rooms.

For private events, Issimo can cater up to 80 for dinner and 300 for cocktails. Issimo is also ideal for intimate fashion shows as the wooden walkway that leads through the different areas creates a natural catwalk.

Yenn Wong, founder and owner of the JIA boutique hotels, has partnered with Italian-Japanese grand chef Salvatore Cuomo, a well-known personality in Shanghai and Japan, to conceptualize the menus and kitchens. Cuomo is known for his Shanghai restaurant, The Kitchen Salvatore Cuomo, which is a big hit with the Italian community for its truly authentic Italian cuisine and ambience, and in Japan for his chain of 50 restaurants and pizzerias specializing in authentic Neapolitan cuisine. His signature pizza D.O.C. has won Napoli's Pizzafest, the ‘world cup' for pizza-makers, for three years running.

The Italian culinary team at Issimo includes Cuomo's Shanghai-based business partner and Executive Corporate Chef Asia Pacific for the group, Enzo Carbone as resident cuisinier, hailing from a family of trattoria owners in Naples; and executive chef William di Nardo, who has worked at notable restaurants throughout Italy and the United States.

A sexy and playful space, Issimo is rustic and cozy with eclectic accents and bursts of colour throughout. Created with mostly natural materials - bricks, wood, leather and copper - the space is described as a modern chalet by interior designer Darryl Goveas of Pure Creative International who honed his design skills in Paris before setting up Pure Creative in Hong Kong ten years ago. Pure Creative International is responsible for several award winning restaurants and bars in Asia and also for flagship store concepts for luxury fashion brands Dior, Dior Homme and Fendi.

A diamond-cut mirrored staircase with copper features leads from the understated street level entrance into the chalet-influenced bar – with comfortable leather seating, logs for the wood burning ovens and antler-shaped sculptures. Rustic furnishings are juxtaposed with contemporary pieces from noted designers, including Tom Dixon's Copper round shades and Jaime Hayon's Josaphine lamps and lights. A highlight of this space is the Anti-Bar area which features a unique mother of pearl bar. An adjacent bar serves a variety of delicious chilled and grilled antipasti. Behind this is an authentic wood-burning pizza oven and a grill oven, both clad with hand-beaten copper and inlaid with bricks imported especially from Naples.

A striking wooden walkway leads guests past an intimate glass-walled private dining room into the main dining area. Here, an impressive 12 meter long Olive-wood counter with a show kitchen adds drama and action to the main dining room, where guests can choose to sit at tables or at the show kitchen counter watching the chefs at work.

Corridors and arches are the key design element of the restaurant and define the various sections of Issimo, with moulding wall panels which blend into the historical building and windows. The solid wooden floors throughout Issimo are made from restored wooden boards interestingly used on its flip side to create a particularly unique design detail to the flooring. The bar and dining areas each feature European-style open-air balconies.

Issimo features interesting works of modern art such as the sculpture of antlers in the entrance lobby and private rooms, a hammered copper curved wall, copper inlaid overhead lighting shades and a series of specially commissioned black and white photography with a ‘woodsy-nature' theme by New Yorker Michael Weber. For more intimate dining, two private rooms at the back of the main dining room can be divided into three and offer flexible seating spaces for dinner or cocktail parties of up to 35. There is an additional cosy dining room just off the lounge area which seats up to 8 people, where guests can enjoy privacy while viewing the activity of the lounge and anti-bar area outside. Dramatic floor to ceiling drapes can be drawn to provide drawing room-style lounge seating and complete intimacy.

Issimo's menu features a range of authentic Italian chilled and grilled appetizers, deliciously crunchy bruschette, hearty home-style soups and garden-fresh salads dressed with premium extra virgin olive oil. A selection of outstanding pizzas are baked in an authentic Neapolitan wood-fired oven, and topped with imported buffalo mozzarella cheese from Italy. Pasta dishes are freshly cooked “a la minute” and served in sparkling copper pans, adding to the rustic theme of the restaurant. Dishes from the grill include jet-fresh seafoods and choice meats from around the world – Australian grass-fed beef, Veal ossobuco, New Zealand lamb chops and a selection of the freshest seafoods including Mediterranean P Pacific Snapper, yellow fin tuna, king prawns and Australian scallops. A highlight of the selection of side dishes selection is the fragrant roasted Rosemary potatoes.

Desserts are an inspiration, with Italian ice-creams and sorbets along with specialties including home-made Tuscany cookies served with a glass of Vin Santo wine D.O.C., Chocolate profiterole, Disaronno ice cream cake with home-made amaretti and espresso sauce and Tiramisu with double espresso sauce.

The concept of Issimo's menu is to offer family-style portions for sharing, however single portions are also available if preferred. Issimo also offers Pranzo set lunches from Monday-Friday with a choice of 3 or 4 course menus inclusive of house pour wine, spirits or soft beverages.

An exquisite list of exciting regional Italian wines and iconic selections from around the world complements the cuisine and a sensational cocktail menu has been put together by Issimo's Girl about the Bar, Erica Fedrigo, who ensures the bar is stocked with everything from genuine Absinthe, French Agricole Rhum, hard to source Italian Amari, boutique cocktail bitters and of course only freshly squeezed juices, in order to satisfy the most discerning cocktail enthusiasts.

SCHIAFFONI WITH TRADITIONAL TOMATO SAUCE,
BASIL AND IMPORTED BUFFALO MOZZARELLA CHEESE