Pizza Fabbrica without pizza

As much as the name may lead one to think otherwise, there is much more to Pizza Fabbrica than just their pizza. I would even venture as far as to say that they're competent with their pastas to the point that they would give many a number of other similar restaurants a good run for the money as well. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

This was a Parma ham and mango salad. It would have been perfect for me if it was only just the ham, the mango and some shaven Parmigiano Reggiano. Those were all that were good. But there were also rockets and olives and bitter bits of radicchio. Unnecessary distractions.

The mangos were so fragrant that if one attempted to wrap the ham around to eat a slice, most of the taste of the ham would be lost. Such was the quality of the fruit, ironically unbalancing the seemingly mild flavours of the prosciutto.

Rather impressed with their garganelli with a chocolate lamb ragout and smoked ricotta. The sauce was rather well balanced. Nothing quite overpowered the other and though I wished for a little more punch from the lamb. I liked it. The smoked ricotta on top was just icing for the pasta. I'd gladly eat this again

We don't often do pasta with frutti di mare very often because it's very often tomato based which I'm not a big fan of in general. This fregola with seafood, shaven zucchini and bottarga wasn't one of those. The tasty seafood broth was well absorbed into the pasta, shrimp was de-veined and succulent, squids hiding at the bottom was tender yet with bite and there was even a solitary scallop waiting to find a home. And yes, that's a scampi there. With sweet tender white meat that I scraped out with my fork.

If I had to gripe, it'd be how little bottarga there was.

This was off the current specials. Which described a bacon wrapped beef filet stuffed with Marzolino cheese topped with shaven truffle. The plating could have impressed a Master Chef finalist. And it tasted pretty much like how it looked. Quite good I would say.

Dessert was a saffron panna cotta with a sauce call Sambuca Red Berries. I assumed that it was Sambuca in a berry sauce/compote. The aniseed flavour was ever so mild and complimentary that we didn't mind. Pudding was wobbly and creamy. Enjoyed it.

Will definitely be back.