I have been wanting to give Gattopardo (Hotel Fort Canning, 11 Canning Walk, tel : +65 6338 5498) a try for quite a while now. In retrospect, it had turned out to be a case of anticipation that finally met up with a series of mixed feelings.
What had caused those mixed feelings over a place with good service and delicious Sicilian food you might wonder? I guess I had expected a little more out of their sardines alla Beccaficu with stuffing of breadcrumb, olives, pine nuts and raisins. I would imagine that such a combination would result in a play of textures and flavours. I couldn't have been more wrong. The stuffings felt like a paste - a blob of cooked polenta perhaps and was overwhelmed in both textures and flavour by the sardines. I did enjoy those fresh warm sardines, but I guess that was pretty much all there was to them.
Next up was their seafood stew served in a terra cotta pot. Didn't quite think that presentation scored with that since the pot was obviously not used for the cooking. The broth was infused with the flavours of seafood and tomatoes, but it had ultimately felt like a seafood ratatouille. Didn't think it was worth that they had charged since it was pretty much the usual seafood for a signature stew.
What had caused those mixed feelings over a place with good service and delicious Sicilian food you might wonder? I guess I had expected a little more out of their sardines alla Beccaficu with stuffing of breadcrumb, olives, pine nuts and raisins. I would imagine that such a combination would result in a play of textures and flavours. I couldn't have been more wrong. The stuffings felt like a paste - a blob of cooked polenta perhaps and was overwhelmed in both textures and flavour by the sardines. I did enjoy those fresh warm sardines, but I guess that was pretty much all there was to them.
Next up was their seafood stew served in a terra cotta pot. Didn't quite think that presentation scored with that since the pot was obviously not used for the cooking. The broth was infused with the flavours of seafood and tomatoes, but it had ultimately felt like a seafood ratatouille. Didn't think it was worth that they had charged since it was pretty much the usual seafood for a signature stew.
The pizze Arrotolata was a hearty one. What did I like about it? The fillings were milky and chewy with generous stuffing of mozzarella; porky and greasy with the bits of suckling pig meat and fat. All of those aforementioned cheesy and porky goodness was further bolstered by a robust platform of flavorus from the porcini mushrooms.
I guess I had also been expecting bits of crispy suckling pig skin in there which there wasn't. And I guessed that their supposedly smoked mozzarella tasted exactly like the regular ones and that it would have been great if they hadn't forgotten that grape sauce which was suppose to be in the pizza. Wow, talk about mixed feelings.
I guess I had also been expecting bits of crispy suckling pig skin in there which there wasn't. And I guessed that their supposedly smoked mozzarella tasted exactly like the regular ones and that it would have been great if they hadn't forgotten that grape sauce which was suppose to be in the pizza. Wow, talk about mixed feelings.
Ordering desserts is usually a good thing for me since I would not have bothered if I had felt that the rest of the meal wasn't worth the time or money to invest further. Their rum baba turned out to be an excellent choice as the rum infused cake was amazingly light. It must have been really soft and airy if it wasn't soaked in the rum. Would have been great if there was more cream to go along and the lime sorbet was a nice touch.
You sound very bored in your post & pretty bummed. Yet another case of heightened expectations met with sheer disappointment.
ReplyDeleteYou could say that it was a little disappointing, but I'm not writing them off yet. The pastas are intriguing.
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