La Dolce Vita

I tried this restaurant twice in the last 3 days. The first experience was sorely disappointing. Apparently having opened prematurely, they did not have an available wine menu, so my girlfriend and I had to trust the judgement of our chinese waiter to bring us something decent. We ended up with a 350ml bottle of musty tasting chianti that was barely drinkable. Our tuna, salmon and sea bream carpaccio was lacking the sea bream, and the tuna and salmon were overly thick slices drenched in olive oil with a few lone capers on top. The fagioli soup and beef lasagne were unmemorable. My 4 little ravioli were actually very tasty, but left me wondering if maybe they forgot the other 4. The waitstaff were not only unattentive, but also fairly clueless - pretty much the norm in Shanghai. We didn't stay for dessert. 2nd attempt: I was told their pizza was great, and my friend wanted to try it, so I went back hoping not to relive my first experience. Upon arrival, I find out that during the 2 days since my first visit, they stopping serving ice water. It's understandable that a restaurant wants to encourage their customers to spend more, but they should do so by offering delicious food and great service, not by forcing their customers to drink expensive bottled water. I can almost accept it at an expensive, high quality restaurant, but when a place is serving mediocre food at mediocre prices, it's a little brazen to force the customer to buy water. As for the glass of wine my friend ordered, it was more like a sip, than a glass. And once again, the service was clueless and unattentive. We didn't stay for dessert. On a slightly redeeming note, the pizza was pretty damn good. Especially the Bufalina. But Velvet/Casanova, Issimo, Da Papa Mario, and Da Marco all of great pizza too. And at least those places give you free ice water.