La Cantina in Venezia, Changi Village Hotel

I'm thinking that this place could probably be just the poorer cousin to San Marco if not for the fact that Cantina (#08/09-02, Changi Village Hotel, 1 Netheravon Road ) dwelt in one of the most remote of locations and the service here is quite spotty. I was honestly quite taken in by how the restaurant had made it's placement at the roof top of a surprisingly pleasant Changi Village Hotel and in spite of being just on the 8th storey, it was one of the tallest spots in the vicinity. Which grants a nice, if not so scenic view of the beach. The night ambience in the al fresco areas with the roof top pool made it a quiet and pleasant place. One could always reduce the value of an al fresco dining appeal since the weather is virtually humid all year round, however this was located just beside the sea and well, there was the occasional sea breeze. Did I mention having also to look past the tacky wooden bars and retro styled crystal lamps on the walls?

If you haven't yet been sufficiently bored by the description of the place, you might still recall that I had also mentioned that the service was rather spotty. I didn't think I had expected top dollar service. I was more interested in what I could get to my stomach then any superficial flair that an eatery might practice, but I'm sure that there's minimal expectations that one would normally have. The restaurant was slightly over half filled on a Friday night with no wait staff bothering to even bring a menu to our table until we requested for one from a group of waitresses that looked like they couldn't be bothered to even glance to a table of 3 that was just seated and without a menu. To be fair, the service evolved towards an old world charm was quite friendly when it finally happened.

The prices here were what I consider to be quite regular of standard Italian places. That meant that while it wasn't really cheap, it also wasn't anywhere close to exorbitant. Portions did look quite generous and the food is in a nutshell, pretty ok. So while it wasn't mediocre, there are other places that do better. Which also means I'll difficult time justifying a return.

I managed to break my routine of just getting pasta and since this was my first visit, and I hadn't any idea if there was anything that was great about theirs. The menu didn't look too interesting, so apart from an antipasto platter, I grabbed the Saltimbocca alla Romana.


This is a regular olive oil drenched antipasto platter of vegetables and cold cuts that was serve chilled and marinated. That was something that I hadn't expect. I was thinking that they'd be grilled instead. Oddly, their button mushrooms were so soft that they almost disintegrated in the mouth without having to chew on them. The mortadella and salami were really, just ham and salami. Apart from the enjoyable hard and crumbly Parmiggiano Reggiano, I don't really have much comments here.


From what I had gathered, the Saltimbocca is a meat dish lined with proscuitto. Here its done with pieces of chewy pork wrapped in Parma ham, seasoned in sage and sitting on top of pan fried potatoes and some vegetables. Hearty would be the good word for this dish and I quite enjoyed the slightly charred potatoes. I couldn't quite make out what the sauce was however. The taste was a little buttery and saltish.

A million deths?

We interrupt this gastro diary with "Long live Dave Mustaine!". It definitely rocked ass last night!

Yakitori obento set lunch @ Kushigin

Kushigin at Cuppage Plaza now does lunch on Sundays too. I'm not sure for how long has this option been going on, but I remember it being only available for Mondays thru Saturdays. I've been told about their yakitori bento sets which is suppose to be great value at $12.50. The bento comes with 5 grilled items along with the rice that is topped with seaweed, sauteed mushrooms and ground meat (I can't really tell what this is but I suspect it is chicken). On top of it, is a miso soup and a dessert (I got a red bean dessert with mochi). The grill on sticks are pretty good since I see them freshly made on order for the bento. We get a chicken with leek, chicken balls, quail eggs, asparagus wrapped in pork belly and some mint in chicken things. I thought it was pretty decent and rather affordable.

One gripe on the bento lunch is that the rice which is really, not the regular Japanese rice that one would expect. It wasn't very sticky all in the first place and the minced meat and mushroom toppings had sauce that seeped into the rice, breaking it into a soft mash which was simply a trial to eat with chopsticks. Since they weren't sticky at all, it was akin to eating regular rice from a box like that which was really just a hassle. I wonder how this fares against the bento at Nanbantei.

L' Angelus, Club Street

Pleasant dinner which was otherwise perfect if it wasn't marred by a particular wait staff that confused himself with the order, gotten the wrong starters and gave a subtle to blatant display of displeasure by his attitude at the prospect of having to get the wrong orders corrected. That particular moment reeked strongly of pretentiousness which I have yet to encounter in other French places which I've visited so far. Even at Raffles Grill. The encounter was the lowlight of the evening. I would have liked to avoid any negative comments because L'Angelus was honestly a rather nice restaurant. Ideal for dates. 


Their pan fried foie gras came in quite a generous portion. I'm not too sure what has gone into the sauce but it appeared to be a balsamic glace of sorts. Had a robust vinegar-y flavour over a mildly crisp skin and soft quivery insides. Dissolves on your tongue.


I'm quite pleased with the ribeye. Turned up a bit larger than I had expected since I've always had the impression that portions tend to be more dainty in French places. The steak was served with a grilled tomato and a side of gratinated potatoes which arrived separately on a hot plate. There is the option of either pepper or blue cheese sauce. Needless to say, I picked the blue cheese which was actually quite strong. While it wasn't so juicy, the meat definitely didn't lack the beefiness I was looking for. There was soft fat on the sides while the steak as a whole was tender yet firm. I thought that the fat wasn't excessive and that's a good thing. Not to mention that this was a properly done medium rare which I liked. This cost about as much as the tenderloin from Brasserie Wolf but was much more enjoyable and definitely better value for the money. That's my take. Would love to come back and try more of their food.

Alaturka Turkish & Mediterranean Restaurant, 16 Bussorah Street

Had a little difficulty finding Bussorah street because we weren't familiar with the area and we almost didn't find it until we stumbled upon the sign at the back door of the restaurant in the alley. Pretty cosy restaurant adorned with mosaic tiles, decorative plates, Turkish lamps on the ceiling and little tea lights secluded into alcoves of the brick walls. Definitely felt Middle Eastern. Which was jarred by the fact that there was a multi media kiosk at the front of the restaurant rotating through images of the food from the restaurant.

We ordered the karisik kebab (mixed grill) along with an iskender lamb kebab (which I didn't get to find out about from Sultan Kebab), starters of hummus and babakanoosh (roasted eggplant & garlic dip) accompanied by their olive oil garlic bread. On hindsight, it was quite a lot of food for two.

babakanoosh

hummus

karisik kebab

iskender lamb kebab

olive oil garlic bread

The food was pretty much what we had expected. The iskender kebab came with something that tasted like lamb ham. I was expecting real grilled lamb rather than a reconstructed one. Was a little disappointed. The odd thing about the karisik kebab was that it also included a chicken drumlet and mid wing. Are these part of the usual items in kebabs? The prices I thought were pretty reasonable. All these totalled to about $50.

Modesto's, Orchard Parade Hotel

I have mixed feelings about Modesto's. After eating here, I'm not sure if it's a place which I liked or not. Probably have to come back again since the selection on the menu was large and there were some items which I found compelling. Hindsight impressed on me that the food wasn't all that great. I was thinking that certain things could have been done better. The service however was friendly and great despite the bustling crowd and agonizing waiting time. Over the course of an hour of wait for the food, the waiting staff had without prompt walked over to reassure that the food is in order and that they're doing their best for a busy Friday evening.

Bread served was pretty bad. Tasted like a dry herb focaccia which didn't taste fresh. Needed generous dips of olive oil and vinegar despite being hungry and having to go through a long wait for the food to arrive.

The starter of the antipasto italiano wasn't what I had expected. While quite palatable, the food felt limp. The grilled vegetables were a tad too cold, Mozzarella cheese felt crumbly from the caprese and there was noticeably little Parma ham that draped on the rock melons. 

The calamari fritti was second starter. Maybe because I like soggy fries, I had no complains with the soft batter that coated the squids which was actually quite enjoyable with the chew.

Was mulling over a few of the pastas and eventually ended up with the ravioloni di pesce al pomodoro.  Its fillings of supposed minced prawn and crab meat turned out to be quite disappointing. There was some creamy 'things' in the filling where neither the prawn nor crab were barely discernible. Whatever little of it was drowned out in the tomato sauce. The portions and doneness of the ravioli was good and if the stuffings were better, it might have actually been enjoyable.