Donna Carmela, Greenwood Avenue

So I've heard that this place (2 Greenwood Avenue, Hillcrest Park, tel : +65 6463 4206) is essentially run by the people that used to do Mama Lucia, which would explain the similar theme of having both Italian food and churrascaria under the same roof. The dinner had started off quite promising with their rich and creamy burrata cheese that was topped off with truffle oil and some shaven black summer truffles. They had both of them mutually accentuated the flavours of each other resulting in a heady and creamy concoction.

Their Gorgonzola risotto was pretty disappointing as I was expecting unadulterated pungent flavour coming from such a straight forward dish. While it tasted cheesy, it wasn't stinky from the blue cheese and it was actually saved by the serving of grated cheese and pepper on the side. For $28, I thought that one could be much more generous with the Gorgonzola. Sigh......

This was the bombette which were strips of tenderloin rolled with Scarmoza cheese and then probably pan roasted. The result were tubes of flat salty medium rare meat which I thought was something more suited in their churrascaria offerings rather than the Italian menu. While it wasn't bad tasting, it didn't come across as spectacular. And tad overpriced.

We picked the white profiteroles (the other option was black) for dessert. Choux pastry turned out to be blanketed under a thick coat of cream which tasted suspiciously like melted marshmallows. The pastry underneath which was a little soggy and housed a rich chocolate cream in the middle. I actually liked this even though it was a little sweeter than my usual preferences.