La Strada, Scotts Road

Out of the ashes of the old La Strada rose the current (1 Scotts Rd, #01-13 Shaw Centre, tel : +65 6735 6656). A once upon a time classy, starched white table clothed and napkin ristorante into the rustic trattoria with a warm glow today. Still there are residual of Les Amis which didn’t quite fall squarely into the traditional trattoria look. The curved drinking glasses, stylish table lamps and some of the tableware looked distinctively Japanese rather than Italian - but I thought it was a good effort. The prices seemed to remain at similar ranges as before.  

This was their fritto misto, fried seafood and vegetables. The portions were supposed to be for two, but I thought it was quite lightweight for two. There were shrimps, whitebait, some little fish that tasted like sardines, a mussel, a couple of scallops, soft shell crab and one small squid. Not much vegetables beyond a few thin slices of zucchini. We liked the variety of seafood, possibly the fritto misto with the most variety in this country. I kid you not. But I would have liked better if there were more of some of the seafood. Like the mussels or the scallops. Even the sardines.

La Strada's porcini risotto had Romanzini snails. The risotto itself was lightweight, earthy and savoury. This one went real easy with the cheese so the flavours of the stock and mushrooms shone. And there were plenty of what tasted like fresh porcini mushrooms in it. It was a little pricey though.

I remembered liking the their rendition of carbonara previously. The noodles seemed to have changed. What's the difference you might wonder. It's the texture. While it had all the other elements, it didn't taste so impressive these days. I could say that we didn't get a very molten yolk from the confit egg tonight, but that wasn't the reason why it wasn't good for me anymore. Maybe my preferences have evolved out of this particular pasta. 

This was a soufflé from their board. Matcha and coffee. Very nice. And very competently done with a light fluffy texture and a mild egginess. It took quite a while in the kitchen and the restaurant tided us over with a chocolate tart and vanilla bean ice cream on the house through the wait. Now that's the Les Amis service I remember.