Some eats from Casa Vostra during the new year

Back at Casa Vostra in Raffles City. 

Agnolotti all'anatra in brodo - duck filled agnolotti in a duck consommé. The minced duck in the pasta was delicately textured but pretty packed with flavour. The broth, for the lack of a better word, was duck-y but also lightweight at the same time.  

Nicely done broccolini. Great pairing with that creamy/cheesy sauce on the plate.

That's their pizza prosciutto e fichi which featured prosciutto di Parma, fig puree, walnuts and rocket with shaven Parmigiano Reggiano. Fig puree tasted like honey.

Dark chocolate gelato's not bad.

Rather liked their strawberry lemonade. Granted I was pretty thirsty then.

Cheese Volcano pizzas from Domino's

Cheese sauce was a little sweet? Also not enough to go around which was disappointing. Pizza was...edible I guess. Will not be getting these again.

Casa Vostra, Jem

Casa Vostra has opened an outpost at Jem (#01-03 Jem, 50 Jurong Gateway Road) and it appears to have inherited the queue which is equally crazy as the original spot at Raffles City. We got there 15 minutes before opening and ended up spending about an hour in that queue.

There were some things on the menu that were only available here though.

Like their polpette alla fonduta featuring fried meatballs in Taleggio fondue. Great stinky cheese which we enjoyed - couldn't tell what meat the meatballs were made of after that though.

Aglio e olio's nice. It looked a lot spicer than it tasted because of red came from sun dried tomatoes. The one thing that this rendition differed from other aglio olio was the lack of garlic.

Pizza only available in this outpost included the 5 formaggi e pear. Found this very easy to like. I thought it needed a bit more of that pear compote for a more pronounced counter sweetness but I'm not complaining.

Another pizza only available here was their Amalfitana that's basically the seafood pie. Prawns, squid and clams. There was an option to top up extra prawns which we did. Profile's light tomato tanginess with clean thalassic flavour. Nice. Wish there were more clams though.

Just needed to end this with the triple espresso tonic after all the food.

Pistachio and Mortadella pizza from Lucca's Trattoria

We were at Lucca's Trattoria recently and came across a pistachio and Mortadella pizza with burrata. There was creamy rich with saltiness from the cheese and ham; that paired with the nuttiness from the pistachio paste and toasty crushed pistachio. Nice. 👍🏼

Fini's, Elgin Street, Hong Kong Central

We waited about 45 minutes for an order of pizza and the place was barely a quarter filled up. Now that that's out of the way, we were in Fini's (49 Elgin Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 9143 2402) to try their New Haven styled pizza. Allegedly the first in Hong Kong to do so.

Meatballs were tender, quite loosely packed and pretty delicious. The sauce though tasted like a blend of fresh and concentrate tomatoes. Pretty tart. Not impressive.

This was their Bronx that came with a few meat toppings like sausage, meatballs and salami over their thin, almost biscuit New Haven crust. Didn't taste bad but I didn't find it particularly memorable. I think what bothered me was the tartness in the tomato sauce that felt invasive for every flavour nugget on the pizza. For a 318HKD pie, it was expensive and not half impressive methinks.

The chilli sauce that came with it thanks to Uncle K.

Alice Pizza, Cochrane Street, Hong Kong Central

Interesting. This relatively new looking Alice Pizza (G/F, 18 Cochrane Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 6685 9642) does Roman styled pizza al taglio.

One basically picks a pizza with the topping of choice and indicate a preferred portion. The pizza is weighed and then charged. Just like in Rome. We picked one with Mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio. Greasy in a good way with a crunchy crust and not bad tasting with chilli flakes.

Holland Bar L'Operetta, Lorong Mambong

Pizzeria L'Operetta shuttered at Icon Village and re-opened as Holland Bar L'Operetta (23 Lorong Mambong) in Holland Village. I remember them doing Neapolitan pizza styled pizza in the past but it did not look like those today. Something's changed.

Meatballs were nice. Coarse ground meat with some beefy flavour.

Pasta's not great. The fettuccine with lamb ragu had a red wine-ish sauce that wasn't exactly lamb-y with meat that was lean and somewhat stringy. Frutti di mare was...boring.

So the pizzas don't look Neapolitan nor taste that way. Crust wasn't puffy and the "leopard spots" were kinda missing. Toppings were decent but that quattro formaggi needs more blue cheese. With the 1 for 1 offer they have at lunch, I couldn't complain. Wouldn't look forward to paying the full price for these.

PST (Pizza Studio Tamaki), Tanjong Pagar Road

Pizza Studio Tamaki (38 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 8072 9512) is apparently a name in Tokyo known for their Japanese Neapolitan pizza. Never knew of them until recent months when the usual social media machinations cranked their gears for the hype train.

They have their fluff. Gemini mentions numerous accolades, including multiple listings on the Michelin Guide Japan's Bib Gourmand list in 2022 and 2023, four consecutive years on the Michelin Guide Japan list, and multiple wins in the 50 Top Pizza World and 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific awards as of 2024. And then, there's also their unique blend of flour, 30 hours aged dough and blah blah......

What's also alluded was that the chef behind it, Tsubasa Tamaki, was mentor to Eddie Murakami of Beyond The Dough, another Japanese Neapolitan joint that set up shop not that long ago here. Word out was that it was hard to get a table, but we managed a walk in.  

We were served complimentary cold potato onion soup.

Meatballs were not bad. Love the grind and that these weren't overly soft, draped with a fresh tasting tangy tomato sauce.

Our first pizza was their seasonal tomato kakigori pizza. That's right, kakigori and pizza. Never had them together before. This was awesome.

We were guided to spoon in the kakigori with basil, followed by a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. By slice. Flavour from the kakigori was intense tomato which formed a chilled layer over the warm cheesy pizza profiled with basil and olive oil. Like they also said, great for our weather. Nice! 👍🏼  

The other pizza we got was their Diavola. Did not look like how we imagined. Not spicy as well. But the olives and sausage flavoured it nicely.

Vanilla ice cream with olive oil.

They obliged our request for more olive oil. Nice. 

Espresso here was intense and bitter.

Casa Vostra ending Year One

It's been about a year since Casa Vostra opened. Time sure flew by. The queue is still around. Some new stuff have come up on their menu.

Like braised beef cheeks flavoured with rosemary and pepper. Not bad tasting but wore its welcome quickly.

First year anniversary pizza featuring their wagyu bresaola. I was thinking that maybe more bresaola would be nice but after going through it, I was impressed by how much of the flavour came through with those slices.

Ravioli alla zucca was also new I think. Mini raviolis filled with pumpkin puree. We were tasting a lot of cheese and butter in this and lesser of the pumpkin. Not bad.

Today, we learnt that the menu allows an additional shot of espresso for their double shot espresso tonic. Nice.

Pizza Mansion, Jalan Mesui, Kuala Lumpur

Came across Pizza Mansion (25 Jalan Mesui, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur) by chance.

Tried their clam pizza. Kept expectations low. Pretty edible. Double the clams and much more dill would have made it respectable. The amount of dill was barely garnish level. Also, not big on the crust.

Lamb bolognese tasted cheap. The tomato sauce was tart; tasted like it was mostly concentrate. No flavour coming from the lamb at all in both the sauce and the actual mince meat. Minced meat portions in the sauce were lean and paltry. That's just sad.

Now we know which pizza shop to stay away from.