Visited Lino Pasta Bar at Shaw Centre over the past weekend, an offshoot of Lino by the Les Amis Group situated in the same area within the mall where their other restaurants such as Indigo Blue Kitchen and Tenjin are located. Here, only set menus are served for both lunch and dinner service, with patrons being able to opt between a two-course menu and a three-course menu, picking the variety of appetisers, mains/pasta and/or desserts listed on the menu.

If there is any place I would like to credit for making me fall in love so badly with this combination of ingredients for pasta, it would be South Union Park's Butternut Agnolotti — a dish that was long removed from their menu since. Piquing my interest when I skimmed through the menu here, this brings back those memories and familiar flavours — the filled pasta encases pumpkin and cheese (ricotta?); a medley of sweet-savoury flavours that goes together oh-so-well all wrapped within a pasta sheet that is sufficiently thick to hold the fillings within, yet without being too doughy, providing a good bite. Beneath the pasta lies the brown butter; provides a nutty and buttery note to the pasta that also helps to provide moisture to the pasta, while the pine nuts helped to add a roasty, nutty flavour that further enhances everything else on the plate. The sage gives the dish a crispness, whilst carrying a herby note that rounds everything off perfectly. Really enjoyed how this one was executed; very well-balanced, and everything that we love about this exact same list of ingredients thrown together — something which we would most certainly revisit Lino Pasta Bar when the cravings hit!