Friday, May 09, 2008

Porta Porta, Stanley Street

Porta Porta
This sure took a long time. I've been caught up with wizards and snipers and centuries old alchemist being chased by the original 007 of Her Majesty's service that this entry was neglected. But I digress. Dinner at Porta Porta was a "sea catch" set ($40.50) and a couple of pasta and rice from the a la carte menu.

Porta Porta, bread tapanade
Porta Porta, bruschettaPorta Porta at Stanley Street (5 Stanley Street, tel : 6222 7461) turned out to be a slightly different experience than the one at Upper Changi. Mostly because I thought the food was a notch up at the Changi location. This was obvious especially for their still excellent prawn cream penne and their fish soup. But in spite of being lesser in flavour, the food was still enjoyable. Definitely room for improvement with the doneness of the pasta but I'm not complaining.

In spite of the differences, food here was generally good. Almost everything was bursting with flavour. From the fragrant aromas of garlic and tangy vinegar in the tomato bruchetta (this was really awesome by the way) to the richly flavoured fish bruchetta to the olive tapanade for the bread and the gravies that were used......every edible item with sauce sang.

Porta Porta, prawn cream penne
Porta Porta, seafood risotto
The seafood risotto wasn't bad, but became one dimensional after a while.

The sea catch set I had mentioned earlier consisted of a fish (or baby squid) soup, bruchetta, squid ink ravioli with crab meat (or a vongole pasta), a calamari & prawn secondi followed by desserts. The ravioli was properly done and like everything else, flavoursome with the sauce. The tissue thin batter for the fried seafood wasn't as thin as the ones from the Changi outlet. Still, for anyone who's been to Tenshin and think that those tempura masters do the lightest and thinnest batter around - you haven't had the calamari here yet.

Porta Porta, squid ink ravioliPorta Porta, fritto misto
There was quite a lot of espresso flavour in their tiramisu. The rest wasn't much to write home about. We're pretty sure we'll be back again for their pasta.

1 comment:

red fir said...

wow just wondering if they're still around. seems like they are.