Palatino is a frustrating place to review. It's been open for five years now and, although it's well-established, it's showing its age. Every time I noted something really good, there was an imminent BUT.

The pasta was good, but the sausage sauce was dry. They're not BADLY priced, but they're not even homemade (except the fettucini, I was assured); there are cheaper plates of pasta in the city that have been lovingly hand-wrought from semolina, not just imported. The herbs were on point (thyme, tarragon, rosemary), but the chili was just there for decoration.

Really, though, I'm being fussy here. Actually the crab ravioli (118rmb) were good, with a lovely sharp, buttery sauce. The properly al dente (sorry, Casa Mia) linguine with cream, sausage and truffle (128rmb) was satisfying, too.

Desserts followed the general pattern of the evening. The fairly bland tiramisu (48rmb) was salvaged by some generous dark chocolate chips; the crostata di amarene (45rmb) didn't quite live up to its description on the menu, despite it's nice crust. I enjoyed them, but not enough to order either again.

Service is pretty smooth, but the decor is faded and doesn't match the price tag (we paid 459rmb for two, including a couple of Asahis). It also irrationally annoyed me that the bathrooms were dimmer than the restaurant. I want to be able to safely check my teeth mid-date, not squint around for the soap bottle.

Palatino is not-too-expensive, not-too-bad and not-too-exciting. Their pastas, pizzas and puddings generally meet expectations. You won't get any nasty surprises here, but there won't be any amazing ones either.

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