Down-home Italian

Da Marco offers all the traditional Italian favorites that will have you exclaiming: "Mama mia!" Provided to China Daily

Shanghai

The food is hearty like the chef, and this is where Shanghai goes to savor the best of home-style Italian cooking. Shi Yingying browses the menu.

Italian restaurants here are usually Tuscan and expensive, but Da Marco is neither. That probably explains why the restaurant's Changning branch is packed to the rafters even on a Tuesday evening.

Hidden along the edge of a relatively anonymous service apartment, this warm, welcoming restaurant is a place where value for money, not style, attracts large family groups, many of whom are residents from the neighborhood.

Hanging on the shingled wall right at the entrance is an eye-catching oil painting - a typical Italian family portrait of owner Barbieri Marco and his Chinese wife,

Jennifer Yin.

"It's all about home style and the restaurant wasn't as grand as you see now. We started with only serving 80 seats," says Marco, who came from the northern part of Italy and opened his first restaurant in Shanghai 11 years ago.

"I used to cook at the back and my wife worked in the front."

When asked why the restaurant is called Da Marco, the chef smiled and pointed to his beer belly.

"That's why. 'Da' in Chinese means big, right?" he says.

"I first met my wife at my favorite Italian restaurant in Shanghai, where she was the cashier. After we dated, we wanted to open our favorite restaurant - cozy and for the family," Marco says.

The bright palette of citrus hues welcomes you before even taking a seat in Da Marco, and the greeting from the owner is equally warm, with Italian-style pecks on the cheeks. The service is both good-humored and accommodating, and patrons are made to feel at home immediately. Think about it: You have to speak Italian, English and Chinese in order to work here.

A glance at the menu brings on a reassuring familiarity. Classic dishes from northern and southern Italy are all represented, with more low food than haute cuisine hitting the spot for diners looking for a comforting feast of pasta.

Poached veal topped with tuna sauce, tomato and mozzarella salad, beef carpaccio with shaved Parmesan are all good. The thin-sliced veal has been slow-cooked for 16 hours. Served with a salty tuna sauce, it is one of the dishes that lure diners back.

Da Marco makes its own mozzarella - a creamy, rich and stringy cheese. It goes very well with fresh, locally grown tomatoes.

The cooking at Da Marco is old-world at heart with robust flavors and simple garnishes - like the homemade tortellini with parma ham in pink sauce. These little squares of dough stuffed with chopped pork or veal come with smoked ham in cream sauce. It is both lusty and luscious.

"You can't eat this on a summer day, you will fall asleep because it's such a winter dish," Marco says.

The chef's devotion to authentic taste almost sacrificed a menu favorite. The free-form lasagna is hearty and good, but Marco almost took it out from the menu once because, in his words, "it doesn't taste like what my mama cooked".

"My mother was very good at lasagna, but I don't know how to make it any closer to mama's style," Marco says. "I still remember when she made lasagna, I always licked the plate clean."

The home atmosphere also means the restaurant is more than accommodating when it comes to special requests.

"Can I have a half-portion of calamari for my kid?" a customer asks. Answer: "Don't worry. If it's not on the menu, we'll make it."

If there is something you like which is not on the menu, try asking. The chef is usually glad to make it, if the ingredients are available.

This is also a restaurant where the chef encourages diners to take a doggy bag if you cannot finish your meal.

"Marco doesn't like to waste food," the waitress says. "And you can tell how fresh the product is by tomorrow morning." Now that's quality assurance.

Restaurant opens from noon to midnight, and the price is around 150 yuan per person.