This was quite an impromptu decision to head down to da Mario's (60 Robertson Quay, #01-10 The Quayside, tel: 6235 7623). The case with a place that gets media attention is that it inadvertently gets inside your head once in a while from its mentions and that constant reminder sometimes just makes you give pause and give it another thought.
This little restaurant turned out to be quite agreeable from the food (with their reasonable pricings) to the attentive service and I must say that this first enjoyable visit encouraged me to seriously consider returning. Though I was a little amused at seeing my name on the reservation tag and that the mouth stopper was grissini instead of bread? We decided on some of the chef's creations since it was a likely indicator of how we'd like the place. Dinner started with their insalata Mario, followed by a pizza that goes by dolce vita, their capellini regina and a tiramisu.
My original intention was go light for a starter and I certainly didn't expect the salad to be a warm one. This is basically a bunch of sauteed button mushrooms, sliced garlic, black olives and sundried tomatoes on a bed of semi wilted greens, cherry tomatoes and some mozzarella cheese. There was a noticeable dose of pepper on the sauteed portions and all turned out to be quite enjoyable. The portions was rather generous as well.
Pizza bianca is a type of pizza that excludes the use of the common tomato sauce for the base on the bread and has olive oil (or pesto) instead. It's probably not common here since I do not recall having anything like that apart from a cheese and garlic pizza in Brewerkz which was actually not good. Back on track, this dolce vita is one of a few pizza biancas available for selection and I think I find myself liking this variety quite a bit. For one, the toppings of the spinach and gorgonzola were noticeably more pronounced compared to a tomato based variety which for me, tends to murk the flavors. The crust wasn't the thinnest I've had, but that's not really not about having the thinnest crust since this is quite good.
The picture that you see is actually a half portion of the pasta. da Mario's cappelini regina is basically another of the crab meat pastas which seems to be everywhere. The crab here however comes in small chunks instead of being finely shredded. This is on top of button mushrooms, artichoke hearts and some sliced garlic done in a spicy white wine and olive oil sauce. The spiciness was quite noticeable, but not overwhelming in any means. The crab meat was pretty decent, but it wasn't fresh sweetness we're looking in there. It'll probably be difficult to tell with the spiciness. In the end I still find myself prefering this crab pasta over the one at La Strada.
To quell the curiosity on the tiramisu, we decided that we'll just have to try it to get it out of us. It was okay, but it wouldn't be something that I'm looking forward to again. I personally found the sponge fingers a little dry for my likings and I've had better for sure. Like the one from Da Paolo.
This little restaurant turned out to be quite agreeable from the food (with their reasonable pricings) to the attentive service and I must say that this first enjoyable visit encouraged me to seriously consider returning. Though I was a little amused at seeing my name on the reservation tag and that the mouth stopper was grissini instead of bread? We decided on some of the chef's creations since it was a likely indicator of how we'd like the place. Dinner started with their insalata Mario, followed by a pizza that goes by dolce vita, their capellini regina and a tiramisu.
My original intention was go light for a starter and I certainly didn't expect the salad to be a warm one. This is basically a bunch of sauteed button mushrooms, sliced garlic, black olives and sundried tomatoes on a bed of semi wilted greens, cherry tomatoes and some mozzarella cheese. There was a noticeable dose of pepper on the sauteed portions and all turned out to be quite enjoyable. The portions was rather generous as well.
Pizza bianca is a type of pizza that excludes the use of the common tomato sauce for the base on the bread and has olive oil (or pesto) instead. It's probably not common here since I do not recall having anything like that apart from a cheese and garlic pizza in Brewerkz which was actually not good. Back on track, this dolce vita is one of a few pizza biancas available for selection and I think I find myself liking this variety quite a bit. For one, the toppings of the spinach and gorgonzola were noticeably more pronounced compared to a tomato based variety which for me, tends to murk the flavors. The crust wasn't the thinnest I've had, but that's not really not about having the thinnest crust since this is quite good.
The picture that you see is actually a half portion of the pasta. da Mario's cappelini regina is basically another of the crab meat pastas which seems to be everywhere. The crab here however comes in small chunks instead of being finely shredded. This is on top of button mushrooms, artichoke hearts and some sliced garlic done in a spicy white wine and olive oil sauce. The spiciness was quite noticeable, but not overwhelming in any means. The crab meat was pretty decent, but it wasn't fresh sweetness we're looking in there. It'll probably be difficult to tell with the spiciness. In the end I still find myself prefering this crab pasta over the one at La Strada.
To quell the curiosity on the tiramisu, we decided that we'll just have to try it to get it out of us. It was okay, but it wouldn't be something that I'm looking forward to again. I personally found the sponge fingers a little dry for my likings and I've had better for sure. Like the one from Da Paolo.
5 comments:
Was the capellini done al dente?
Hi ice,
yes it was.
i tried the other signature dessert they had (sorry forgot what it's called), something with almond and pistachio, and i thought that was great, unusual too.
I noticed that dessert too and I was actually contemplating between that and the tiramisu. I'll probably give that a try the next time.
Is that gelato? I tried their pistachio & vanilla gelato before. They weren't good. At least it was a consensus all round the table.
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