Pastaria Abate, Craig Road

Perbacco has closed. #sad. It seems that in return, Craig Road has been left with a recently opened Pastaria Abate (43 Craig Road, tel : +65 6909 0672); a frills free family run Italian restaurant where prices are kept low and much pasta is fresh and made in house. There is no table service; one helps themselves to the necessary cutlery and condiments and food is likewise self collected when the buzzer goes off.

According to the owners, wine drunk at Italian homes is normally in drinking glasses and not wine glasses. So wine is served in drinking glasses here. Part of their home/casual dining theme that's the style they're going for. I thought this was a smart way to keep cost and labour down as well.

We had a half portioned cold cut board. Salami, coppa and prosciutto that came with some obligatory salad and dry crispy bread. I could have sworn tasting nutmeg in their salami.

There's fried mozzarella on the menu. They're served with a strawberry sauce. Ask for more sauce.

One of the pasta specials was tagliatelle with porcini and white truffle. It's less than $19 so no, none of that shaven stuff here. What form did that white truffle come in you might wonder? The answer is in the first picture in the post. But importantly, this pasta was pretty good. I'm encouraged to come back and try the others.

There was something called Martini grilled pork on menu as well. I loved this. That Martini sauce they used made this remind me of ba kwa, char siew or even a Barolo wine reduction. Yes, it would be one of those caramel-y sweet flavour profile which works with meat. I'd eat this again.