Ristorante de Parma

The usual carb / pizza craving brought me here. Nice ambience, tucked away in a quieter corner of Serangoon Gardens.

The starter - Fungo di Portobello $14.90++:


The mushroom was nice and 'meaty', but somehow paying over $15 for a single mushroom just seems wrong...

Went with the classic Margherita Pizza :


It was quite good - the crust was thin, the way I like it, and the tomato sauce was sweet without being overtly so. Think they used fresh and authentic ingredients and it shines through in the finished product. Can't remember the price, but was pretty sure it was reasonable.

Will probably come back again, but stick to the pizzas... and maybe try the pastas.


Ristorante de Parma
14B Kensington Park Road
Serangoon Garden Estate
Tel: 6281 3380

Da Mario Pizzeria

I have the occasional carb craving which has to be satisfied with pizza and/or pasta, and it was one of these occasions when I tried this place at Robertson Quay. This place has grown from a hole in the wall restaurant to a relatively big outfit. I remember reading quite a few good reviews about this place when it first opened and was quite curious if the quality was sustained even with the expansion.

To satisfy part 1 of the carb craving, we ordered the Pizza Primavera (tomato, cheese, capsicum, artichoke, button mushrooms, olives) $17++ :


It was a decent pizza... I'm not a fan of olives but big pieces are easy to pick out so no complaints. The artichokes were a nice touch. This pizza was thin-crust, just the way I like it.

To satisfy part 2 of the carb craving, we also ordered one of the specials - Pumpkin Ravioli with Gorgonzola sauce and Truffle $18++ :



This was surprisingly yummy - I liked the sauce so much that I tried to wipe up as much of the sauce as I could :) Gorgonzola definitely is an acquired taste but this one wasn't too sharp. The truffle, despite the huge chunks, did not have a strong taste - I guess it was cheap stuff. But it all went together really well.

Ambience was nice, but service left much to be desired. Took forever to get their attention for anything. Not a bad place to have dinner if you are in the area but don't eat here if you have no time or patience for spotty service.


Da Mario Pizzeria
60 Robertson Quay
#01-05/06 The Quayside
Tel: 6235 7623
www.damariopizzeria.com

Pietrasanta - The Italian Restaurant

Was Meip’s birthday and she chose this place for dinner – we were at the restaurant next door (Cicada) for my birthday lunch two months before.

The meal started off with freshly baked bread –


It was served warm and was pretty yummy!

G & X wanted to order some starters and ordered the Four Cheeses Pizza $17.90++ -


I was convinced it would end up coming with the main courses (I mean, pizza does take a while in the oven) but it did come as a starter. I love cheese pizzas and this one was not bad, with a thin crust too. But didn’t want to eat too much and leave less space for other food :D

Another starter that we ordered was the Sauteed Clams $25.90++ -


While reading other reviews on this place, I read that many people ordered the Black Mussels for $18. Ok, so what we ordered wasn’t mussels, but its quite a bit more expensive… Hmm, not much impression of it but the price puts me off (specifically in comparison to the mussels).

The birthday girl wanted to try the Escagots $13.90++ so we did...


It was served shell-less, in a tomato stew. It was ok I guess, I’m not a real fan of escargots (i.e. snails). I’m surprised by how many there were in one serving. Ok, this dish is good value… if you like snails :D

For my main course, I decided to be adventurous and order something completely different from what I would normally order – Maccheroni Verdi $16.90++ :


It’s supposed to be sheets of pasta with a white wine meat sauce. I checked and it turns out that verdi means green – for the green pasta. The minced meat kinda tasted like spam (or at least what I imagine spam would taste like). It had this cheap, artificial taste about it. Looks good, but it was quite a disappointment… and yet more reason for me not to be too adventurous when it comes to ordering.

Also tried a bit of the Ravioli Spinaci $17.90++ :


It was ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach, served with a butter and sage sauce. It wasn’t too bad, but I just never quite feel that Ravioli is worth it – that price for a few pieces?? That said, it’s normally a filling meal despite it’s seemingly small portion. A great vegetarian option!

For desserts, I tried the Melting Chocolate Cake $10.90++ -


It was not too bad, baked to pretty much perfection. Definitely one to share.

Despite the many reviews I read with bad service, our experience was pretty ok. Love the atmosphere – very rustic and homely. A bit of hit and miss with food – some dishes are quite good and reasonably priced, but some are just crap and expensive. Stick with the safe bets I reckon.

Hmm, turns out that this place is open by the same people who opened the cheap pizza place near Holland V, that has since closed down.


Pietrasanta – The Italian Restauran
5B Portsdown Road
#01-03 S139311
Tel : 6479 9521

Prego

It's been a while since I ate here but I always have fond memories of the warm, fresh bread and the tangy tomato dip. Had a voucher to use for the restaurants at the Fairmont so decided to come here for dinner one evening.

The bread and dip was as good as I remembered, so dinner was off to a good start. Starter was a salad spinach that I forgot to take a picture of... oops :P

For main courses, we ordered Parpadelle Gorgonzola and Spinach Lasagne.

The Parpadelle Gorgonzola $25.00+++ was just plain weird -


I kinda forgot what gorgonzola tasted like and had a rude reminder when I took my first taste of the pasta - it had a pungent smell and tasted really bitter. And if you can tell from the picture, the pasta was cooked with sundried tomato and kai lan. Interesting combination but thrown together, it didn't taste all that great. I think gorgonzola just does not make for a good pasta sauce. Maybe it takes an acquired taste to appreciate this, but for sure I'm not that person.

Also ordered the Spinach Lasagne -


And when this arrived, I remarked "Wow, it really looks like meat lasagne!". I took a bite and guess what? It WAS meat lasagne!

We had asked when we were ordering if the dishes we ordered were vegetarian and were reassured that they were, so we were quite shocked when they served us a meat lasagne. They later served us the Spinach Lasagne $25+++...


which was just ok. The waiter was apologetic about serving us the wrong dish... but what was strange was that we saw a guy at the next table being served the wrong dish when he ordered the spinach lasagne too!

This place has some serious service issues that they need to iron out for sure, getting two orders wrong in less than an hour. And for the prices you're paying, the food is incredibly mediocre, bordering on bad. Now I remember why I haven't been back in a while, and will definitely not be back anytime soon. There is surely better Italian food in Singapore.


Prego
80 Bras Basah Road
1F Fairmont Singapore
Tel: 6431 6156

Sarpino's Pizzeria

Met K for lunch and we decided to pop into Sarpino's Pizzeria just a hop and a skip away from his work place.

We ordered quite a bit of food, but K and I both have huge appetites so it was no problem finishing it. The Mix and Match Meal lets you pick One Regular Pizza and One Pasta for $23.80+, so we went with the Vegetarian Pizza and Seafood Carbonara Oven Baked Pasta AND added a side order of Garlic Bread $3.50+ :


The food took a while but I took that as a sign that the pizzas are made fresh. Plenty of veggie toppings for the pizza with a not-too-thick crust. Baked Seafood Carbonara had prawns and crabsticks with a creamy carbonara sauce - it was just ok, I think I prefer baked pasta of bite-sized pasta (fusili, penne etc). The Garlic Bread is served with a Jalapeno Dip - sounds like a strange combination but it actually goes together quite well.

Pretty decent food using fresh ingredients. There are a few outlets located across the island, but a convenient alternative is the delivery service.


Sarpino's Pizzeria
9 Clover Way (Off Jalan Peminpin)
S579081
Tel : 6258 0600
http://www.sarpinos-singapore.com/index.html

La Pizzaiola

Yet another recommendation from ieatishootipost that sounded good enough for me to hunt down. It turned out to be a real hole in the wall place with just enough seating for at most 8 people. Take away is an option though. Being another "ang mo chef in the heartlands" story, it's likely to attract a lot of attention... so be prepared for a crowd.

The pizzas here are just $13.90 for a 12" pizza, great price! I tried the Quattro Formaggi (blue cheese, mozzarella, emmental and parmesan cheese) -


The base was thin but not the kind of thin we are used to - there was about 1cm of bread. As mentioned by ieatishootipost, the tomato sauce was a bit tangy but went well with the cheese.

The Vegetable Lasagne $6 looked a real mess...


But tasted much better than it looked. And at $6, it's quite a bargain.

It's a relatively good option for cheap and good pizza. Come here when you have a pizza craving!


La Pizzaiola
43 Holland Drive #01-63
Tel : 67795502
Operating Hours : 10am to 10pm
Closed every Tuesday
www.lapizzaiola.com.sg

Galbiati Gourmet Deli

Gerry had been here before and really wanted me to try the food... after one failed attempt, we finally made it here one hot Saturday afternoon. A bit out of the way but have car, will travel :)

I was expecting it to be relatively crowded but it was only half empty. Gerry had raved about the Squid Ink Pasta $18 so I had to try it - the last time I had really good squid ink pasta was... with Gerry in Barcelona!


Any dish with squid ink can only be had with good girlfriends coz the squid ink gets all over your mouth, teeth and lips... you can easily use up a whole napkin with the constant wiping. Or maybe I'm just a messy eater :) I digress... the Squid Ink pasta lacked a certain sweetness that I remember from the Squid Ink Pasta in Barcelona. But without that basis of comparison, this was a reasonably tasty pasta. In case you're wondering, the chunky bits is pieces of squid.

Gerry had the Seafood Marinara $18 which was brimming full of seafood -


We also ordered some Antipasti $16 to share -


I love antipasti but it just seems so wrong to pay that much for a simple dish of marinated grilled vegetables... but they just taste so good! I especially love grilled tomatoes and eggplant.

We were pretty stuffed after that carb heavy meal, but could not leave without trying something from their range of desserts. We ended up ordering the Profiteroles $5 -


which were just ok. I should have learnt my lesson by now - everything I see profiteroles, I just have to order it and it never quite meets my expectations. Sigh. The other desserts look good though... I ended up taking away some meringues which were heavenly.

A option when you feel like Italian deli food but want to be served (Da Paolo Deli is great but you can't sit down and eat a full meal there). Service was attentive and prices are pretty reasonable... if only it wasn't so out of the way...


Galbiati Gourmet Deli
400 Upper Bukit Timah Road
The Rail Mall S678050
Tel: 6462 0926

Michelangelo's

S wanted to meet for lunch one day and we decided to try out the set lunch at Michealangelo's since there was a one-for-one offer with American Express credit cards.

The set lunch started with Mushroom Soup -


For the Main Course, there was a choice of either the Pasta, which S had :


or Grilled Bratwurst Sausages with Baby Potatoes, which I had -


It was a pretty decent-sized serving - I hate having heavy snooze-inducing lunches :)

And for dessert - a pretty nondescript scoop of ice-cream and a cup of tea :


The normal price of the set lunch is $28+++, but with the one-for-one offer with American Express credit card, it comes up to about $17 each - which is a real bargain... Take advantage of this promotion if you have an American Express credit card!


Michelangelo's
60 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-60 Chip Bee Garden
Singapore 278124
Tel: 6475 9069
www.michelangelos.com.sg

Pizza Walker

This is one of my current favourite places to go to when I have a carb craving. The pizzas and pastas here are pretty good, reasonably priced and there is hardly ever a queue.

My two favourite things here are -

(1) Quattro Formaggi 8" $14.80+++ :


and (2) Mediterranean Pasta $14.80+++ :


The Quattro Formaggi pizza has an extremely thin crust and is super cheesy. The Mediterranean Pasta is done with sun-dried tomatoes, olives and feta cheese - all of which comes together with the tomata-based sauce perfectly.

On one visit here, there was a pretty big group so we tried the

Wasabi Supreme 8" $14.80+++ :


Vegetariana 8" $12.80+++ :


and Marinara 8" $14.80+++ :


I don't remember being very impressed by these pizzas so I'll stick to my two favourites as mentioned :)

One annoying thing about this place is the fact that they don't serve ice water. My solution : order the free-flow Ice Lemon Tea $6.00+++. I figure as long as you can drink more than 3 glasses, it should be worth your money... only problem is the caffeine keeps me up if I have it at dinner...


Pizza Walker
435 Orchard Road
#01-37 Wisma Atria
S238877
Tel : 6238 6141

Da Paolo Bistro Bar

A while back, I realised that I’ve never eaten at any Da Paolo restaurants so I put the latest Da Paolo outlet, Da Paolo Bistro Bar, on my wishlist… and when we were arranging to have dinner with M (who was back from HK for a visit), I suggested having dinner here.

The place is made of a chill-out bar area and a restaurant area. The décor is similar to most of the other places in Rochester - it has the very familiar zen look surrounded by lush greenery. Needless to say, this kind of restaurant has ambient lighting (i.e. lit by tea lights)… which meant that the pictures of the food turned out really dark... as seen here by one of the better photos -


...so once again, I’ll just have to depend on words to do the talking :)

Looking at the menu, I was a bit surprised by the limited variety of dishes – there were about 6 main dishes available. Seeing how this was a ‘bistro’, I expected a more extensive menu of casual deli-style food.

Anyways, we decided to share starters and ordered the white-bait (pictured above) and the antipasti platter. For the antipasti platter, you have to proceed to the second floor to pick your choices from the spread of antipasti available. We were feeling lazy so we told the waiter to just pick the most popular ones for us. He had a confused look on his face… and must have thought we were kidding as the antipasti platter never came!

For the main, I had the cod which was pretty decent and was a bigger serving than I expected. M had the grilled breaded prawns which she said was quite good too.

We decided to share a dessert and we ordered the flourless chocolate cake… and I just have to bitch about how small the piece of cake was. Ok, so at these places, you never really expect the servings to be very big… but this was such a tiny piece of cake! Most guys would have polished it off in just one mouthful… and it wasn’t even very good.

So all in all, it was quite an unsatisfying meal… don't think I'll be heading here again anytime soon. But this disappointing experience is not going to stop me from patronizing other Da Paolo outlets, especially the deli (Da Paolo Gastronomia) – I feel like buying everything everytime I walk in there!


Da Paolo Bistro Bar
3 Rochester Park
S139214
Tel : 6774 5537
www.dapaolo.com.sg/bistro_rest.htm

Menotti - The Original Italian Cafe

This place has been open for a quite while now but I heard some bad things about this place (slow service, not serving ice water etc.) so I wasn't in a real hurry to check it out. But my girlfriends and I were in the area and it seemed like a nice place for a weekend brunch...

I ordered the Eggs Benedict $12.50+++ just because it's another one of those "Things that Esther hasn't had before"...


Since I've have never tasted Eggs Benedict before, I can't quite say how good it is... but it's got eggs and ham so I was quite the happy camper :) I did expect the Hollandaise sauce to be a bit tastier though...

Dorothy of The Dotted Line Shop raves about the Seafood Risotto $18.90+++ here and insisted that I try some from her bowl... which I gladly did, of course :)


According to the menu, the Seafood Risotto is done in a seafood and lobter bisque. Would explain why it's really tasty and it's chock-full of seafood too! I'll probably have this the next time I'm here.

What I also have to try the next time I'm here is the desserts - they all looked really good!

Don't forget to use your UOB card to pay as there's a 15% discount :)


Menotti - The Original Italian Cafe
252 North Bridge Road
#01-17 Raffles City Shopping Centre
S179103
Tel : 6333 9366
www.garibaldi.com.sg

Papi

I don't eat pasta very often, but every once in a while I do get a craving for it... and it was one of these times that I decided to check this place out.

The name "Papi" stands for PAsta and PIzza - which is exactly what this place serves.

Before I go any further, I have to rave about the water... yes, strange thing to rave about but the water that was served here was not just ordinary ice water - it was flavoured with orange, cinnamon and mint. Such a pleasant surprise for the taste-buds!

For a starter we had the Grilled Vegetables $12+++...


It was lovely! Never fails to amaze me how a simple dish like grilled vegetables can taste so good.

Also ordered the Squid Ink Pasta $17+++...


Definitely not the most photogenic dish... I was kinda disappointed for a few reasons -
(1) It was nowhere near as tasty as the Squid Ink Pasta I had in Barcelona last year and
(2) There was no seafood in it despite the waiter saying there would be. I just don't like having pasta with nothing else in it.


The Pappardelle with Chicken in Tomato Sauce was nothing fantastic either.

Ok, so we probably should have tried a pizza as well... but I had a pasta craving!

After a pretty uninspiring dinner, we turned our hopes to dessert. Everything on the dessert menu sounded really amazing but we went with the Pinenut Cake with Vanilla Ice-cream...


and the Chocolate, Cardamom and Coffee Cake...


The description of the desserts in the menu made it sound way better than it actually looks or tastes.

It wasn't bad or anything - it was the first time I've ever had pinenut cake and was quite intrigued with the taste, and we were a bit hesitant about the many flavours in the chocolate cardamom coffee cake but it all came together pretty well...

But we weren't quite blown away by the desserts as we thought we would be.

What I didn't like most about this place was the service. I've read a few blogs raving about the great service here, but I found that the waiter serving us crossed that very thin line between being friendly and being annoying.

While I'm quite happy to have an effusive, enthusiastic server, I felt the friendliness here seemed a bit fake and quite forced. Maybe it's just me...


Papi
5 Mohamed Sultan Road
S239014
Tel : 6235 0014