One of Beijing's most popular and critically well-received South American / pan-Latin restaurants, Mosto recently emerged from the revamping cocoon about a week ago up on the third floor of Nali Patio. They've got a bit of a new look, a new focus, and a new food menu. The short take-away is thus: it's definitely worth revisiting if you haven't been in a little while. Lots of new and wondrous and fantastic things happening on the food and drinks menu. And it still looks like an elegant and impressive place in which to exhibit your own elegance and impressiveness to whoever -- out of town guests and family, friends and colleges, significant otheresses and dates. Yeah, dates in particular. You could really rock a proper date in this place, for sure. It looks like this: Open and airy seating in a sprawling one-room dining area, with a cocktails bar and a (newly) opened-up kitchen. It's bright, warm, and slightly chic, while still being quite accessible and inviting. The dining experience is pretty relaxed and casual, with close-quarters communal dining in various table allotments. Candles lighting up (the lighter) brick walls and simple blond woods for dining surfaces and chairs. Flickering candles off wine bottles sort of thing. Renovations come via Coro Urdaneta of Coromoto Architecture Studio. The menu is a user friendly one-pager, from which you put together a two- or three-course repast sort of thing, mixing and matching from starters and sides to more substantial meat- or pasta-based mains. It is, however, the operational policy of this website to always two-fist it from the metaphorical banquet of life whenever we can, though, so we opted for the special five-course tasting menu, replete with wine pairings. Get strapped in, this is going to be a thing. Here is the five-course tasting menu, available nightly. This was also newly rolled out to coincide with the relaunch, and in comparison to their older tasting menu, this one's a lot more wallet friendly at 298rmb for food, with the option of 180rmb for wine pairings. The older one was about 100rmb more expensive or so. Food-wise, it's also simpler and more basic -- "deconstructed", as they say -- with simpler ingredients and fewer pyrotechnics going on with the presentations. Perhaps this represents Mosto's overall step back from expensive-ass capital F "fine dining" to more of a populist "just really fine and creative food" sort of place. Let's do this! This was some champagne I had. This picture's more for my mum, really. You probably already know what champagne looks like. Hi mum! Check it out! But, yeah, this is presented as the opener to "cleanse your pallet". Of course. Tuna - Tartar, Mango Chutney, Soy-Tempered Sauce, Chives First course: a tuna tartar with mango chutney. Paired with some sort of ebullient and fruity white wine. Simple and bright flavor, with a smokey almost BBQ-ish sort of edge with the soy-tempered sauce. Very flavorful. Wild Mushrooms - Sauteed, Polenta, Fresh Sprout Next up: wild mushrooms. Clean, deep, and earthy, with the mushrooms combined with a strong, fresh sprout flavor. Paired with an Australian Chardonnay, this was a warm and pastoral sort of dish. Sort of a rustic and home-style. Kind of made me feel like Bilbo Baggins with a Comparative Lit degree. (Not really.) Yellow Potato - Foam, Chorizo Mousse, Chive, Spicy Oil Next up: a yellow potato soup, which was paired with a Pino from France. This was a very deep and hearty soup, with a back-end of warming heat, thanks to the spicy oil topping. Very thick and savory. At this point, the meal starting getting super impressive. Very finely constructed but simple dishes, exploiting a bunch of different origins. Kind of feels like you're traveling around a bit. France, Italy, the Shire... Beef Tenderloin Steak - Sweet Potato, Green Asparagus, Avocado Salsa The main course: a succulent beef tenderloin with a beautiful avocado salsa, representing a South American viewpoint. The dish was paired with an Argentinian red wine, and had a very Latin BBQ, exquisite saltiness to it. A damn fine and tender cube of meat. Had me making mumbling noises, creeping out the next table over. Mirroring the opening tuna dish, the whole thing has a nice, cyclical sort of journey element to it. Pretty fantastic. Bitter Chocolate - Souffle, White Chocolate, Passion Fruit, Vanilla Ice Cream For dessert: a bitter chocolate souffle, with white chocolate interior, golden pool of passion fruit sauce, and vanilla ice cream, paired with a port. Deep, deep, rich chocolate. Pretty insane. Took maybe 7 years off my life. But just the shitty ones at the end, so, in all, a good thing. * Damn. Fantastic meal. Simple and accessible, but still very far-reaching and representative of a lot of different flavor combinations and sensations. Probably not an everyday sort of thing, but definitely worth it if you want to treat yourself to something unique and interesting, and at the same time not egregiously expensive. Great special occasion meal. Was feeling pretty satisfied, buzzed, and food-high... good way to be. Conversely, going with the a la carte menu, damage would be about 150-300rmb per person. *** Other points of interest at the new Mosto. A new Bar Bites menu... Rotating daily specials, like these French Mussels... Daily Special - French Mussels And a brand new cocktails list. 50rmb per cocktail. Super serious stuff. Here's a Blood & Sand... Blood & Sand - 50rmb ...and the house cocktail, the "Mosto" -- a jasmine tea, lime, and cinnamon sort of guy. Mosto - 50rmb Both very sweet and delicious. Would definitely come back to get to know this cocktails menu more. *** That's it. The new Mosto. Great for a blissed out sort of evening with fine food and drink, in a casual and composed sort of place. Mosto is on the third floor of Nali Patio. Get off on the third, hang a louie, and walk around the side a bit.