On Friday night I was in Beijing where I had dinner with Carlo Crosetto and his wife Susanne. Of course my wife also joined, she was on a project in Beijing anyway. Because Qi did not want to have Chinese food again (she had Chinese food the whole week already – and I always thought Chinese like Chinese food!) we opted for Assaggi in the Sanlitun diplomatic compound area.

I had not been here for several years, but it did not change too much. We had a table on the top floor at the window, but it was so dark there that we could not even read the menu. So we moved to the table in the middle. I ordered a Tsingtao beer because I was thirsty, and the rest went for a bottle of red wine. But because my Tsingtao beer did not arrive in time, I also started with wine. After10 minutes my beer was still not there, so I ordered it again. But also that did not help, I never got it (but it was also not on the bill).

It was not very busy, even though it was 8 PM on a Friday night. Later on it filled up a bit more, but it was never completely full. The food was OK, but not excellent. We started with a big plate of mixed appetizers, but (as Carlo put it) it was not made with love. Just some cold cuts on a big plate, nothing special actually. The polenta that we also ordered as an appetizer came after we finished the big plate. A little late…

As primi piatti I had a seafood risotto which I enjoyed. My secondi was sliced beef with parmesan cheese, but instead I got a beef tenderloin. I was quite surprised, but decided not to complain (this was my second choice, so it was not too bad). The ladies both had king prawns, that tasted great (I had to help Qi to finish her plate). After this I was quite full and could not even think about a dessert anymore! It was a nice dinner with interesting conversations about work at DaimlerChrysler and life in China. Too bad the service did not completely live up to our expectations, but I still enjoyed the evening.