Mad for Garlic

First established in Korea, Mad for Garlic is a garlic-specialized Italian restaurant, aimed at infusing garlic into everyday Italian cuisine!

Tutto Mushroom Salad

Tutto Mushroom Salad ($14.90) – Garlic and rosemary marinated mushroom salad served in Teriyaki sauced with grilled red pepper, asparagus and arugula. We adore the mushroom salad – savoury earthy fresh tender mushrooms with sweet caramelized onions soaked in a subtly savoury Teriyaki sauce.

Gorgonzola Pizza

Gorgonzola Pizza ($21.40) – Unique and popular pizza with Italian gorgonzola cheese served with honey dipping sauce. This is a very unique, hit-or-miss kind of pizza. The gorgonzola chunks, with the signature blue veins, exuded the salty cheesy characteristics of blue cheese. On its own, the thin crust pizza was packed with strong savoury flavours. The addition of the sweet and viscous honey dip cut through the pungent flavours of the blue cheese. This pizza could go 2 ways, as while there are those who enjoy this unique combination of a sweet salty pizza, there are also definitely those who find it rather queer. But do give it a go, with an open heart, and you might find this combination rather surprising.

Gorgonzola Cream Pasta

Gorgonzola Cream Pasta ($24.60) – Creamy potato gorgonzola cheese pasta served with scallop and grilled king oyster mushroom. We kind of felt that a more appropriate pasta for this gorgonzola cream could be something along the lines of gnocchi, penne or farfelle – a smaller, bite-sized pasta which could better absorbed the white sauce. The sauce wasn’t all that cheesy, more of a creamy and salty sauce, thickened with potatoes. The addition of fish roe provided that extra salty burst. Both scallops and oyster mushrooms were fresh, with a chewy bite.

Garlic Sizzling Rice

Garlic Sizzling Rice ($21.40) – Garlic fried rice with garlic pickles, bacon and fish roe. The fish roe has shone in the garlic rice as well! The fish roe acted as miniature pockets of flavour and texture, bring a surprise kick to every mouthful of rice. The fried rice wasn’t overwhelming with garlic taste, though minced garlic can be easily spotted in every spoonful. It was slightly spicy and very fragrant. The bottom charred portions of the rice added that slight crunch.

Mad for Garlic
Block 3B, River Valley Road
#01-16, The Foundry
Clarke Quay

Trattoria SolePomodoro

A trip to Quayside Isle saw us trying out Trattoria SolePomodoro’s traditional wood-fired pizza.

SPECIALE

SPECIALE ($25.50) – Tomato sauce, mozzarella, prawns, ham, gorgonzola cheese. The 12-inch pizza arrived at our table, looking pretty appetizing with its charred edges and plentiful chunks of gorgonzola cheese. Unfortunately, the taste wasn’t comparable to the looks. The pizza was generally quite bland and tasteless. The tangy tomato taste was barely evident and the gorgonzola cheese was a tasteless chewy chunk. The small cubes of prawns were miserably scattered across the pizza. Though the crust was very thin, the lackluster toppings and the lack of strong flavours was a major turn-off.

SolePomodoro
#01-14 Quayside Isle
Sentosa Cove

Skinny Pizza

Another F&B outlet under the Spa Esprit Group is Skinny Pizza, with its signature super-thin crispy pizza base and fresh produce.

Spinach and Egg

Spinach and Egg ($20) – Spinach, grated egg, creamy ricotta cheese, fried sage and delicious herb olive oil. Indeed, the pizza base was crispy as Skinny Pizza made it out to be. It was super thin, cracker-like and the crispiness was akin to Indian papadum. There was a generous amount of spinach, grated eggs and onions. The pizza toppings had an aromatic saltiness to it. The toppings of fresh rocket leaves also made the entire pizza healthier, adding a fresh herby bitterness to it. However, one disappointing factor was the creamy ricotta cheese. Rather than being smoothly integrated into the pizza toppings, the ricotta cheese appeared in clumps on different parts of the pizza.

Skinny Pizza
#B1-63/64, Raffles City Shopping Centre
262 North Bridge Road

Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Deli

Hot Chocolate

Nothing better to kick start our meal at Ricciotti than a cup of Hot Chocolate ($5). We were given a choice of Italian or Asian flavour. The Italian version of the Hot Chocolate was dense and very thick. There was a top layer of foamy froth, which was very rich and viscous. The flavours were strong and evident of premium chocolate quality. At the end of a day’s work, it was simply comforting to sip down this warm cup of pure delight.

Rigatoni Al Telefono

Rigatoni Al Telefono ($19.50) – Rigatoni with eggplant mozzarella in tomato basil sauce. The biggest flaw of the Rigatoni Al Telefono was its lack of sauce. There wasn’t enough tomato sauce to thoroughly encompass the rigatoni, hence certain portions tended to be a little drier and not as flavourful. The eggplant came in chunks, contrary to what we had expected. In fact, we had hoped for something like a parmigiana, where the eggplants came in slices, and were covered with cheese. For the Rigatoni Al Telefono, we could see mashes of mozzarella cheese, but we still found there to be inadequate. On the whole, the Rigatoni Al Telefono had strong flavours, but was let down by the insufficient amount of sauce and cheese.

Nutella

Dessert for the night was the Nutella pizza ($11.90)! Replacing the typical tomato based and cheese toppings was a layer of Nutella spread sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts. The pizza crust was a bit tough to slice through. Obviously, the nutella was chocolately and rich, but we found that once again, the spread was a tad too thin and not mind blowing enough. Somehow, the Nutella pizza appeared to be something that could be easily whipped up at home.

Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Deli
B1-49/50 The Riverwalk
20 Upper Circular Road

Modesto’s

Back to Modesto’s for round 2, for more pastas, pizzas and desserts!

Quattro Formaggi

Funghi

Quattro Formaggi (Regular – $23.50) – Tomato, scamorza, mozzarella, gorgonzola and parmesan cheese. The aroma of freshly baked pizza, accompanied by a salty cheesy fragrance, was enough to whet our appetites. The pizza had a thin crust that spelled a good balance of dough and crispiness. At the same time, the base wasn’t too tough, allowing the pizza to be sliced relatively easily. The Quattro Formaggi was expectedly rich but there was no sharp overwhelming pungency. The pizza wasn’t overly dry and every mouth contained melted cheese with a crunchy pizza crust.

Funghi (Regular – $20.50) – Tomato, cheese, sauteed shiitake and button mushrooms. The Funghi pizza was not as rich as the Quattro Formaggi but no less appetizing. The addition of mushrooms saw an added juicy and chewy texture, and the injection of the wild fungi taste broke the monotony of an all-cheese pizza.

Linguine Alla Modesto

Linguine Alla Modesto (Single – $28) – Flat spaghetti with fresh prawns, squid, clams, mussels, whole crab, anchovies, capers, black kalamata olives, dried chili, garlic, white wine and fresh tomato sauce cooked in traditional Italian Cartoccio style. To our disappointment, we realized that only the double portion was served in the aluminum pouch. The pull factor of the Italian Cartoccio method was the unveiling of the aluminum pouch in front of the guests prior to serving. However, what arrived before us was the pasta already dished out on the plate, which lacked the ‘wow’ factor we were expecting. Putting the disappointment aside, we particularly liked the sauce of the spaghetti. The tomato puree base created an overall appetizing and mouth watering sourness. But it was the overall combination of seafood and anchovies which made the sauce rich and the sweetness neutralized part of the acidity of the tomatoes. There was a generous serving of clams and squids. However, the crab was rather scrawny and did not have much flesh. But the best thing of this dish remained to be the sauce, which was packed with the essence of all the seasoning and accompaniments.

Gnocchi Alla Boscaiola

Gnocchi Alla Boscaiola ( $24) – Traditional Italian potato dumplings with cooked pork ham, mushrooms, diced tomatoes and basil in cream sauce. The gnocchi wasn’t springy and chewy enough. Rather, it turned out to be a little on the soft and mushy side. We liked the creaminess and richness of the cream sauce base. However, perhaps instead of using pork ham, the use of bacon might accentuate the fragrance and taste of this dish.

Tiramisu Modesto's

Tiramisu Modesto’s ($12) – The original version of mascarpone cheese, espresso, savoiardi fingers and coffee liqueur. The most popular Italian dessert – Tiramisu! We have tried Tiramisu at many Italian restaurants before and there were a selected few which impressed us. Unfortunately, Modesto’s was not one of them. There wasn’t any taste of coffee liqueur. The mascarpone cheese wasn’t smooth enough as well. This was a very mediocre Tiramisu.

Cassata Di Ciliege Con Salsa Cioccolato

Cassata Di Ciliege Con Salsa Cioccolato ($11) – Home-made Italian cherry cassata served with chocolate sauce. It was essentially a slab of ice cream with small pieces of cherries and pistachio embedded within. There was nothing too impressive; in fact, disappointing. The ice cream did not taste too premium. The additional ingredients seemed to be a separate entity from the ice cream, doing little to complement the ice cream. It was nowhere near the standards of even Walls or Nestle ice cream. We couldn’t quite appreciate this dessert in general.

Modesto’s
#01-166/167, VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk

Enoteca L’Operetta

Starting from the UOB centre and along the Boat Quay stretch, you will find many pubs and seafood restaurants along the way. Right at the intersection between Boat Quay and South Bridge Road lies Enoteca L’Operetta, a classic chic and stylish Italian restaurant.

Enoteca L'Operetta

Enoteca L'Operetta

A step into Enoteca L’Operetta and we could immediately feel the sheer chic and classic design. With its white pastel based setting and the many black and white art pieces, this Italian restaurant was vastly different from its neighbouring dining places.

Bread

We were served with 2 slices of walnut baguette, together with butter and olive oil.

Quattro Formaggi

Quattro Formaggi ($30) – Our all-time favourite four-cheese pizza! With the addition of blue cheese, the pizza was noticeably more salty, stronger and richer in flavours. The crust edges were more puffed up and crispier. The inner regions of the crust were on the thin side and was more chewy than the edges.

Risotto Mantecato al Minuto nella Forma di Parmigiano

Risotto Mantecato al Minuto nella Forma di Parmigiano

Risotto Mantecato al Minuto nella Forma di Parmigiano

Risotto Mantecato al Minuto nella Forma di Parmigiano

Risotto Mantecato al Minuto nella Forma di Parmigiano ($28) – Homemade risotto tossed with classic Parmesan cheese cooked a la minute. The risotto was definitely the highlight of the meal! The risotto was first prepared in the kitchen. After which, the piping hot risotto was placed into a shallow and wide depression in a wheel of Parmesan cheese. Aided by the heat from the risotto, the server would then start scraping the cheese off the wheel. He would then continuously scrape and mix the cheese with the risotto. And finally, he divided the risotto into individual portions. The entire process left us amazed and utterly eager to start digging in. The risotto wasn’t fanciful or decorated with different flavours and toppings. It was a simple, absolutely divine cheese risotto – the ultimate risotto for cheese lovers. But do take note that the taste and aroma of the cheese is really very overwhelming. It was the first time we’ve seen such a presentation and it was truly an eye opener.

The serving staff were very polite and hospitable. They were very enthusiastic in ensuring that our dining experience was comfortable and enjoyable. They were very familiar with the menu and entertained us with their remarks and jokes. Service was impeccable, ambience was great and the food was delightful.

Enoteca L’Operetta
78, 79 Boat Quay

 

a³ Bistro and Bar

a³ Bistro and Bar

A new Italian casual eatery along Bukit Timah, a³ Bistro and Bar is headed by the ex-group executive chef of the Da Paolo Group. a³ serves a good range of appetizers, pasta and pizza, all at very reasonable prices. We ordered the Gorgonzola Pizza ($17) and Gratinata ($18).

Gorgonzola Pizza

Gorgonzola Pizza – 12-inch pizza with mozzarella cheese, gorgonzola, caramelized onion and crispy bacon. The crust of the pizza was a good intermediate between the crispy wafer-thin crust and the thicker bread-like crust pizza. The layer of mozzarella cheese was pretty thick and generous, contributing to the saltiness of the pizza. The gorgonzola, an Italian blue cheese, was slightly bitter, with a more pungent flavour. The gorgonzola and caramelized onions were not well spread throughout the entire pizza, hence there were certain areas which were slightly more bitter, and other areas sweeter. The pizza, on the whole, was a very satisfying and hearty treat! We would definitely return for other flavours.

Gratinata

Gratinata – oven baked short pasta with bacon, Italian sausage, egg plant, scarmoza cheese, tomato and touch of cream. The short pasta came in a pink sauce – a mixture of tomato and cream. The sauce was thick and viscous and packed with flavours. The egg plant had an oily taste to it, and we suspected that it had been pan-fried with olive oil prior to its addition into the pasta. The Italian sausage had a slight tinge of spiciness, but generally, its taste had been overpowered by the accompanying pink sauce. The lumps of scarmoza cheese atop the pasta was very thick and simply enveloped our entire mouth.

For reasonably priced Italian food at a family-friendly location, do give a³ Bistro and Bar a try.

a³ Bistro and Bar
881 Bukit Timah Road

Peperoni Pizzeria

Peperoni Pizzeria

Peperoni Pizzeria on a Friday evening! It is always good to make reservations at Peperoni as this place is totally packed on evenings.

4 Formaggi and Prosciutto & Funghi - Family Pizza/XXL 21 inches

4 Formaggi (Mozza, taleggio, scamorza and gorgonzola) and Prosciutto (ham) & Funghi (mushrooms) in the largest pizza size! 21 inches! Double Extra Large!! The previous time saw 3 younger versions of us struggling to finish the 21 inches pizza. This time round, we had a party of 6 to share the pizza (and hence more room to try other main courses and appetizers!). The family sized pizza looked majestic, impressive and very appetizing. The base crust was thin, with the edges being very crispy. Taste wise, the 4 Formaggi was more savoury, cheesy and less dry. The Prosciutto & Funghi was not too bad as well, but as we are avid cheese lovers, we tended to enjoy the 4 Formaggi more.

Oven-baked Eggplant

Oven-baked Eggplant – with tomato and mozzarella, parmigiana style. The Oven-baked Eggplant was rather soft and mushy. It wasn’t flavourful enough. The eggplant itself was pretty tasteless, the accompanying tomato sauces wasn’t strong as well, the dish could also do with a larger proportion of cheese.

Portobello Mushroom

Portobello Mushroom – Fried portobello with chicken and red wine. We believed that the inner portion of the portobello mushrooms were coated with mashed potatoes and then deep fried. With its crispy texture and soft inner core, the savoury  Portobello Mushroom was a crowd favourite! The chicken piece however, were rather tasteless and there was an obvious lacking in red wine.

Mixed Seafood Risotto

Mixed Seafood Risotto – Mixed seafood cooked in rich prawn stock. It was indeed rich prawn stock as the risotto had a very strong seafood taste. In fact, just take a whiff at the dish and you’ll feel like you’re just by the sea. But no worries, the risotto wasn’t overly fishy. In fact, the savoury cheese and tomato based sauce complemented the seafood well. There were pieces of squid, prawns and scallops inside. The scallops were rather mushy though. Each grain of rice was firm but not hard, and had thoroughly soaked up the flavours of the seafood, tomatoes and cheese. This is one of the better risottos we have tried.

Chicken wings 8pcs

Chicken wings (8pcs) was a last minute order. The chicken drumlets/wings were on the spicy side. The batter was slightly different from elsewhere in that it had been mixed with some chopped leaves and spices to give it additional fragrance. The skin was crispy, with tender chicken meat beneath. Nevertheless, nothing too fantastic about it. One thing they could improve was the accompanying mayo dip. The chicken wings were on the oily side,  mayonnaise is typically oily too, hence it felt overly oily. Perhaps a sour refreshing dip would be more appropriate.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu – Savoiyard biscuits, coffee and mascarpone. Sadly, the Tiramisu failed to impress us. The liqueur taste was sorely missing and hence compared to Italiannies, the Tiramisu, which was rather mild in flavour, paled in comparison. There was also barely any mascapone cheese taste, instead it tasted very rich in cream.

Though Peperoni Pizzeria was packed to the brim on a Friday night, the waiting staff were still rather attentive to us. They readily topped up our ice waters and cleared our plates. They were friendly, always with their bright smiles and made the entire meal an enjoyable one.

Peperoni Pizzeria
6 Greenwood Avenue, Hillcrest Park

Italiannies Pasta Pizza & Vino (revisited)

As promised, we did visit Italiannies a second time, for the free dessert, as well as their main courses.

Complimentary Bread

Complimentary bread was served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The two kinds of bread were served slightly warm. One had a faint herb taste (and rather bland) while the other was a conventional baguette. Nothing too extraordinary about the bread.

Cheese Gnocchi

Cheese Gnocchi

Cheese Gnocchi – Potato dumplings served in a creamy blend of five cheeses cream sauce. On first glance, the gnocchi do look like maggots. Somehow, the presentation of the dish wasn’t very appetizing and attractive. Taste wise, the potato dumplings were very bland. There was barely any taste of potatoes, rather they were more like chewy starch dumplings. The five cheese sauce was strong in flavour and pretty savoury. This was the saving grace of the dish.

Italiannies Vegetable Calzone

Italiannies Vegetable Calzone

Italiannies Vegetable Calzone – Italiannies’ special folded pizza with mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and mixed vegetables. Strangely, the fillings within the calzone wasn’t warm, yet the outer crust was pretty warm and a little charred. The fillings included mushrooms, olives, pickled cabbage, cucumbers and carrots. The carrots weren’t cooked thoroughly, hence they exuded the raw crunchiness. The amount of mozzarella cheese was very little such that there were times we suspected that there was no cheese in the first place. The outer crust was slightly oily as olive oil had been drizzled on it prior to serving.  The faint herb taste made the crust delectable. The accompanying tomato puree was sour and was a good dip for the calzone as the fillings alone was rather bland.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu

According to the waiter, the free dessert was the peanut butter pie. Italiannies was pretty flexible in allowing us to opt for a different dessert of our choice.  Our choice was Tiramisu – Lady finger cookies dipped in liqueur & espresso coffee with layers of creamy mascarpone icing and topped with dark chocolate powder. Italiannies’ Tiramisu has got to be one of the better Tiramisu versions around. The Tiramisu was very smooth and literally melted in our mouths. The best part was the generous addition of coffee liqueur. Every single time we forked out a piece of Tiramisu, coffee liqueur would be oozing out from the bottom layers. It was an absolute delight!

Italiannies Pasta Pizza & Vino
#01-02, TripleOne Somerset
111 Somerset Road

La Villa Italian Grill and Bar

Complimentary Bread

La Villa – a culinary oasis right next to the city centre. We were there on a Tuesday night. The place was not too packed, and it had a pretty nice al fresco dining area.

A basket of complimentary bread was served at the start of the meal. 3 different kinds of bread – the triangular (seemingly looking like a tortilla) bread was more flavourful, but a bit oily, giving us the impression that it was deep-fried. Not too healthy, and certainly not a good way to begin a meal. The bread with sunflower seeds was a bit healthier, it tasted more bland, with a fragrant aroma. The last plain looking bun was just a typical baguette.

Funghi

Funghi – pizza with tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms, pancetta ham, egg, truffle. The unique thing about La Villa’s pizza is the runny egg in the middle of the pizza. And clearly, the addition of the runny egg in the middle is supposed to accentuate the taste of the pizza. Unfortunately, the egg was of little use. In fact, it tasted just like a sunny side up, though we thought it was supposed to be semi-cooked. The pizza was just mediocre, nothing impressive. It becomes worse when it turns cold. Till date, nothing beats the pizza at Pepperoni @ Greenwood Avenue!

Fettuccine

Fettuccine – Fettuccine Pasta with Bacon, Egg Yolk and Parmesan ‘Carbonara’ style. The cream sauce was rather thick, not too watery or tasteless. The fettuccine wasn’t too salty; most versions of carbonaras tend to be a wee too salty. But this version, with the flat and fat fettuccine, tasted pretty good.

Parmiggiana

Parmiggiana – Oven-baked traditional Eggplant “Parmiggiana” with Genovese Basil Pesto Sauce. Parmiggiana is is a Southern Italian dish made with a shallow-fried sliced filling, layered with cheese and tomato sauce, then baked. Looks and texture wise, the Parmiggiana was similar to a lasagna. Sadly, the Parmiggiana was pretty bland. Strangely, it reminded us of those frozen quick prepare food you can get from supermarkets or 7-11 convenience stores, where you pop it into the microwave and after 5 minutes, you get your warm food. Sure, the Parmiggiana did look appetizing, slightly charred, with the semi-melted cheese. But looks can be deceiving, the cheese had no taste as well, and we had to add lots of cheese powder to make the dish more savoury. The only saving grace was the Basil Pesto Sauce which added more flavour to the entire bland parmiggiana. The dish would be more appetizing if the tomato and cheese taste were stronger.

La Villa
#01-03
341 River Valley Road

Etna Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria

We were at Etna Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria on a Saturday afternoon. There wasn’t much of a crowd, probably only around 5 tables were occupied. It was a pretty cosy place, not too big, and you could easily see the chef preparing to oven bake his pizzas. After we got seated, the waitress was quick to make some recommendations for the food.

Quattro formaggi

We ordered the Quattro formaggi, which was a four cheese pizza consisting of mozzarella, gorgonzola, parmesan, pecorino (from Sicily) and the Linguine al Granchio e Crema di Aragosta. It was a flat pasta with crab meat in a pink lobster sauce, one of the highly recommended pastas in Etna. The pizza was baked in a traditional Italian wood fired oven. The Quattro formaggi was a Pizza Bianche, a white pizza with a mozzarella cheese base. The pizza was served piping hot, but before we could dig in, the pasta arrived as well. The waiter suggested that we ate the pasta first as it wouldn’t taste that nice when it was cold. Well, he didn’t say that about the pizza though. So we started on the pasta first.

The chef was very generous with the serving of crab meat. Every single mouth we took was just packed with crab meat. The linguine was al dente, just the kind we liked. The pink lobster sauce was thick and savoury. Perhaps cause the taste of the crab meat was just overpowering, the lobster taste didn’t quite stand out. But still, the freshness, juiciness and sweetness of the crab was the highlight of the dish. It was essentially linguine and crab meat – as simple as that, yet the taste was really good.

And when we finally started on the pizza, it had turned slightly cold, which might have caused it to pale in comparison. It wasn’t bad, but neither was it fantastic. In fact, after a couple of slices, I got rather sick of it. Somehow, I had to add quite a bit of chili flakes to accentuate the taste of the pizza. The pasta was definitely a better choice.

Etna Lava Cake

We didn’t plan on having desserts, but I kept tempting C with the Etna Lava Cake – Molten chocolate cake served with vanilla ice cream. Well, though we were pretty full, there’s always our spare tummy for desserts! So C finally gave in and we ordered the lava cake. The serving was pretty small, but the cake was pretty good. The molten center was very thick and dense. It didn’t really flow out like liquid or lava. But you could still tell that it was molten. We kind of liked it.

Etna Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria
110 Upper East Coast Road