iO Italian Osteria, HillV2

This place (#02-01 HillV2, 4 Hillview Rise, tel : +65 6710 7150) is by the people who runs Etna. I wanted to check them out because I liked Etna and I was hoping to see what they would do out of the concept of an osteria.

We had porchetta, a roasted layered pork stuffed with herbs. The portions were pretty large so my advice is to share it. As a starter, it could have been easily split two or three ways. I thought it was not bad; super crisp (I do mean super crisp) on the outside while moist and fatty on the insides. But they were very light handed with the salt on the meat. I supposed that worked with the accompanying mustard which seemed to have been nicely salted.

The other thing was their schiacciata, an Italian flatbread. This one was stuffed with ricotta, mushrooms and some truffle oil. Again, the portions were huge. This could have been breakfast for two. But it was also quite nice. The bread was served hot and crisp with the cheese oozing out of the edges.

Feeling adventurous, I tried a home made tagliolini with prawns and lemon. It was something that was probably off my usual flavour train and I was hoping that having lemons would zest up the noodles or the sauce. I couldn't taste the lemons and the sauce was a generic one that was made with the ingredients on the plate. Being adventurous doesn't always pay off. While I liked the texture of the pasta, the rest of the flavours was kinda boring. #disappointment