Da Luca Italian Restaurant, Goldhill Plaza

The spores of Italian cuisine have again spread. Located not far away from Matsuo Sushi is a relatively new restaurant, Da Luca Italian Restaurant (1 Goldhill Plaza, #01-19/21 Goldhill Plaza, tel : +65 6258 4846), at Goldhill Plaza. Little frills but serves hearty food. The type that I would prefer. The chef Luca, as I have heard was previously from Garibaldi and Gunther's. As a matter of coincidence, as we walked into the restaurant, we recognized the wait staff whom we've seen back in both Garibaldi and Gattopardo. Small world it is then.

Their bread served came in the form of thick sticks of olive foccacia. Crusty, porous and pretty good for soaking up dips which we dutifully did from the stewed tripe.

The stewed tripe was done in a tomato cheese sauce and Parmesan. The sauce was both light and creamy while the tripe was tender and chewy. It was a little less tart than the one at La Braceria and less cheesy than those from Pietrasanta. We enjoyed the warm heartiness of it and will want to come back for this.

I probably shouldn't be making comparison of the stracci here with the one at Oso since they are of different sauces. As much as I would like to decide that the latter is the better, I enjoyed this flavourful rendition as much. And also as much as I think that I generally avoid tomato base stuff, I liked every bit of the sauce. Wouldn't mind eating this again for sure.

Da Luca's soft spinach gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce was....dang, I'm out of adjectives for the day. Hearty it is then. No complains about the creamy Gorgonzola sauce which had the prerequisite pungent aroma of the cheese wafting from the moment the pasta was plated. Tempered by the sweet balsamic drizzle. Couldn't get enough of them.

Dessert was a tiramisu. We just wanted to try it for comparison's sake. Not with those served in other restaurants but with those that we've made ourselves at home.

The restaurant served a sugar dusted pastry, chiacchiere at the end that came with a zabaglione and chocolate dip. I have to be honest and say that it wasn't spectacular, but it was definitely a nice gesture. I think every table got one of these. Here's the part where I say that I'm definitely coming back again for re-visits.