Pietrasanta, Portsdown Road

I'd be tempted to drop by this place (5B Portsdown Road, #01-03 Wessex Estate, tel : +65 6479 9521) more often if not for the location. Funny thing that I used to work a few minutes drive away and I've never came by even though I was aware of it's existence then.

Pietrasanta themes itself as a Tuscan styled restaurant. As much as can be seen, the setup was comfortably country. It's a little unfortunate about the weather here or otherwise, outdoor sitting would have been great.

We started off with some trippa alla Fiorentina which was a delicate balanced mix of flavors that wasn't overly tangy from the tomato base with a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese and a very appropriate use of rosemary on the soft stewed tripe and beans. Definitely wasn't excessive on the herbs and that made the stew aromatic rather than overpowering. Portions and flavors were nothing short of hearty. I think I liked this better than the one over at La Braceria.

The same heartiness could be used to describe their polenta with bits of spicy sausage. It did arrive looking quite similar with their stewed tripe, but here, the flavors was a nice mix of smokiness and spiciness. The meaty textures were also of a different type since this was really minced sausage over a steaming hot cake of comforting polenta that disintegrated after you popped it into your mouth.

Very nice tagliatelle con salsiccia e tartufo they have here. The sauce was both light in texture and rich in flavors, fairly intensely of the truffle coupled with generous bits of more sausage. Quite the best representative of Italian ba chor mee I've ever had. This one, for it's lack of oregano and a much more truffle-y flavors beats the rendition from Da Mario.

Their cannelloni di cinghiale gratinati did look rather ubiquitous, but pleasantly surprising were the fillings of intense flavors. The minced wild boar was gamey enough to remind me of mutton which I found myself enjoying, blended in almost equal parts of intensity with the chopped olives and Parmesan cheese on the insides. Juicy!

The cannoli was unfortunately a little disappointing for me. It wasn't so much of the fruit filled ricotta cheese than the not so crispy chocolate tube. I was really imagining something like the one over at Garibaldi.

Blood orange sorbet here was pretty good. There was a nice mix of bitters and citrus there. The texture was surprisingly creamy and one might have thought that there was cream until it melted in the mouth and the flavors told otherwise.

This is the part where I'm suppose to say, I'll be back. :p