Category Archives: Italian

Parcoccafe

I always wanted to try this place out ever since I saw it published on a Japanese magazine.

So thought I called my troopie Maizy (aka steady) to meet me to try it. Its been really years since I last saw her, and I think this place seemed to have a very nice chillax ambience, and would be a nice place to catch up and relax 🙂

On the way to finding this place, I got lost (ok whats new). Its at the very extreme far end of Raeburn park, and its towards right far end of the industrial estate looking side. head along there and you will find the cafe!

Entrance

I was 1/2 hour ++  late trying to find this place. It was also raining on the day! double whammy .. but ok finally reached in 1 piece 🙂

interior

wall deco

so we ordered off the brunch menu

Parco Continental Colazione : Freshly Baked Bagel with Crème Fraiche, Grilled Ham,
Frankfurt Sausage, Golden Hash brown, Seared Tomato,
Gratinate Portobello with Gruyere Cheese and Poached
Asparagus

and for myself,

Portobello: 2 Farm eggs* on Grilled Portobello Mushroom served with
Smoked Salmon, Poached Asparagus, Baked Sweet Potato
with Crème Fraiche, Cherry Tomato Bruchetta and Toasted
Black Olive Bread 

perfect egg

Latte

 

in between our catch up, we got interrupted by the owner of the restaurant, who offered us some sweets / pre-desert snacks. He is a very friendly Italian chef that makes the effort to make sure everything is alright at your table. So he served us

lady kiss, almond biscuit

The sandwich biscuit he called them lady kiss. The second is a moist almond biscuit.

We then proceeded to order dessert. What is a meal without dessert really!

Parco Caffe Chocolate Lava: Dark Molten Chocolate Lava Cake served with Vanilla Gelato

Strawberry Cheese Cake

Verdict: 1.5/2 of us will return.

troopie maizy mentioned that Dessert wasn’t a stellar. That I agree. The strawberry cheese cake was disappointing.. well not quite how we expected it to turn out, and yet disappointing in that, the biscuit base is too soft?.. 😦 Her main, the Bagel was not ‘good dry’ .. But the sausage and has was nicely done .. but other than that, not something to shout about.
I thought the molten cake was good. Size was right and the cake was ‘crispy’ and oozy (with chocolate lava).
My main, hmm I didn’t see and could not understand how the sweet potato would compliment the hollandaise? My eggs were poached well though I must say, and the hollandaise was one of the better ones I have eaten by far. The Cherry Tomato Bruchetta had too much raw garlic on it – making it abit too spicy for me.

Overall, we both enjoyed the ambience and the coffee.  Maybe the next round if we return, we might just hit the pastas or other mains instead. Service is very efficient and warm.  I liked it that the chef at least bothered come out and greet you and make sure everything is good. The location of this place is just abit too far off .. but I guess thats where the ambience factor comes in.

Parcocaffe
Parco Caffè @ Raeburn Park
10 Raeburn Park #01-28
Singapore 088702

Pasta Brava

A belated birthday celebration to my bestie 🙂
She has been an important part in my life and I really thank God we crossed paths and still are close friends even until today 🙂

since it was her birthday, so she decided on the place she wanted to go. We went to one of her favourite pasta place 🙂

Entrance

This place has been around for quite a long while, and all over their walls are plastered with various awards.

Crayons! to keep yourself entertained while waiting for your food

Bread as starters

and of course, our mains. She ordered for herself

Seafood Squid Ink Pasta

and for myself,

Chicken Breast with mushroom sauce

and to round off the whole meal – what is a meal without desserts right?

Molten Chocolate lava cake

Verdict: 2/2 of us will return. The ambience is very nice and cosy – reminds me of the italian restaurants in Melbourne. The service was excellent. They were all very attentive and fast.

For the many years that she has been here, she said that the standard has not dropped. The pasta was those that they really used squid ink for the whole dish, and not like some of those outside that only used squid ink pasta and tomato based sauce.

My chicken breast was very well cooked. It was not at all tough and dry. The sauce was very creamy and had tinges of mustard (personal favourite).

Dessert on the other hand, hmm the molten part was just a little too much .. To better explain this, for once I felt the cake should be cooked slightly longer because I felt the molten parts tasted more like chocolate sauce than what I term as “an uncooked chocolate cake that Oozes happiness out”.

Will definitely come back here and chillax.

Pasta Brava
11 Craig Road,
Tanjong Pagar,
Singapore 089671

La Nona

So then we headed down to holland V after another studying session for dinner 🙂

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Was craving mushroom risotto so we ordered to share:

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calamari

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Tomato Cream Crab Linguine

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Close up

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Porcini Mushroom Risotto

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Close up

 

Verdict:2/2 of us will return! Well the mushroom risotto was a disappointment for me… I wished they had more mushroom stock inside it! It was too buttery for my liking… The crabmeat linguine was nicer though:) nicely balanced between tomato and cream sauce 🙂 the sauce for the calamari was also nice 🙂

 

Michelangelo’s

In the midst of my studying, my dear troopie beanies called me out to dinner with her And pleasantly surprised me with a small gift to cheer me on for studying, as well as part of her project bless 🙂 super awesome to cheer up the week 🙂

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Chip Bee garden is a really nice and quiet neighbourhood to walk around in 🙂

So we went to MichelAngelos, as she has a groupon voucher that can offset a free main! Yay for groupon!
And we ordered:

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Bread sides

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Red : sundried tomato pesto Brown: peanutty? Green: Olives

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Rigatoni Salsiccia: Spicy Italian Sausage meat with large tubes of pasta, mixed with mushroom and wilted baby spinach

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Risotto con Porco e Porcini : Risotto with stock mixed with Porcini and champignon mushrooms and white wine , truffle oil and braised pork belly

Of course to round off the meal, one must not forget dessert!!!

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Sticky date pudding

Verdict: 2/2 of us will not return. According to trooper beanies, she ordered the same dish 3 times and there seem to be no consistency – sadly each time worst than the previous. The pork chunks in my risotto was super saltish and big .. But without that blooper would have been quite nicely done 🙂
Dessert i felt cheated reading reviews about the sticky date pudding and ordering it. The pudding without the sauce was insanely sweet, however there’s not enough butterscotch sauce for our liking (if this makes sense).

Nonetheless, great catch up time 🙂 that’s what dinning should be about 🙂

Michelangelo’s
Blk 44 Jalan Merah Saga,
#01-60 Chip Bee Gardens,

Portabello pizza twisted

Ever felt sometimes like you are in the inbetweeb stages of ‘ok i dont really feel like eating something’ and ‘i want something light but filling?’

Well thats what I felt today and I decided to do a little twist on instant pizza:)

I bought this

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And decided to add more toppings on it! So i bought portabello mushrooms,

Step 1: cut the mushrooms

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Step 2: saute with garlic, black pepper and pinch of salt .. If u have herbs even better 🙂

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Step 4: top if off with some cheese – whatever kind you fancied! I love mozzerella

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Step 5: cook it by following the instructions on the box and you get

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Great studying snack 🙂

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Pepperonis’s revisited,

After attending my friend’s convocation, We decided to go nearby and have a mini celebration for her  🙂
So we went to Pepperoni’s at Hill crest!! just like the last time that I took away with another group of friends!

Environment inside

1/2 Mushroom and Ham, 1/2 Pepperoni

Fish and Chips

we didn’t order much because we all had our own dinner later .. so we thought pre dinner starters :p
the ambience is nice and chillax!

Pepperoni
 6 Greenwood Avenue, 
Hillcrest Park, 
Singapore

Pepperonis

Decided to take away pizza instead and chillax over at a friend’s house with a few bottles of chilled moscatos that we purchased from triple one.
[*disclaimer please don’t drink and drive!! (ï¿£^ï¿£)ã‚ž-]

Ok so we went to hillcrest and took out pizza from pepperonis
Our stash from below:

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Funghi Pizza

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Rockets and Parma ham

And of course, we cant forget this food that played a part in our childhood years of eating Mac Donalds: Shaker Fries!!!!!

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Shaker Fries : Seaweed flavour

Pepperoni
6 Greenwood Avenue, 
Hillcrest Park, Singapore 

Arbite

So we went to Arbite.. a change of our usual hangout spots .. 🙂
I can’t remember where I read from, but if I am not wrong, the chef here used to work in Michelangelos and thus this place prides itself in handmade fresh pasta .. so looking forward to it!!!  🙂
I dont think we were disappointed 🙂

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mushroom soup

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Carrot Cake

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Pappardelle with mushrooms and parma ham

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Tagliatelle with prawns aglio olio

I would return to try the other things on the menu.
The pasta was pretty good. Cooked al dente and the sauce was not too overpowering as well. I just finished up everything on the plate.
The place is quite a quiet hangout place to be, and the staff was very meticulous in attending and clearing our plates as well.

Arbite
66 Serangoon Garden Way  
Serangoon Garden Estate, Singapore 555962

Easter Holidays #2

So the eating feast continues 🙂
Before I left for Hong Kong, I checked out this new pasta place that newly opened in Goldhill. I must say I am pretty impressed by their service. After returning 2 times, they remembered my sister and me 🙂 We must be really be both looking either very ‘memorable’, but this is commendable. I mean, how many service staff actually take the effort to bother to remember their customers? that only patronized them twice?

So its like a common eating italian pasta place for us  .. so we went there .. 🙂

Crabmeat Penne in Tomato based sauce

the crabmeat pasta was pretty standard. couldn’t really go wrong. I liked how the pasta was not over cooked and cooked to al dente.

My favourite - Stuffed sausage Ravioli in mushroom cream sauce

The cream pasta still had retained its consistencies – nicer when shared, so it doesnt get too jelard ( over poweringly sick after consuming too creamy a thing)

Squid Iink with tiger prawns

The squid Ink tiger prawns pasta – the prawn didn’t go down well with the prawn tasters. They said that it didn’t taste fresh?
*disclaimer all prawn things, are not tasted by me because I hate eating the actual prawn itself*

SO this place is … a HIT 🙂 well for the friendly staff that redeemed the place, the cream pasta, as well as the free home made dessert ( couldnt take a picture in time – it got eaten up quite quickly)

Da Luca
51 Goldhill Plaza, Goldhill Plaza 51, Singapore 308900
+65 6258 4846 ‎

Al Dente Trattoria(Esplanade)

Another way to celebrate the Youth Olympic Games Closing (YOG) closing .. I was feeling a little down and my trusty friend accompanied me to go see the fireworks from the closing of the YOG ceremony. I was quite excited to be able to see the fireworks since I mean the opening ceremony one, I liked the part when they played the National  Anthem and the fireworks that accompanied that part was the highlight to me.

So we scoured the restaurants near the esplanade rooftops, and found this place where it was pretty near one part of where the ceremony was being held .. and caught the fireworks as well  🙂

The night view

our view from where we were sitting

our drinks 🙂

Baked Parmesan Egg plant

Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Risotto with truffle oil

overall the ambience was pretty and it was quite a good place to sit at to catch the night view of the Singapore CBD buildings, as well as the marnia bay sands.  Have a good evening!!

waiting for the fireworks

i like this shot the best!

 

Al Dente Trattoria(Esplanade)
8 Raffles Avenue, #01-13 
Esplanade Mall,
SingaporeÂ