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Otto Ristorante
Nestled in a quiet corner of the refurbished Maxwell Chambers building, Otto Ristorante provides the Italian option for corporate lunch within the CBD of Singapore. not quite a Zafferano, even though this institution has been around since it was originally located at the nearby Red Dot building, only moving over to this new premises in 2015. In all, Otto makes it a convenient place for business set lunches within the Tanjong Pagar area..
placing quite abit of emphasis of liquor to go with their meal offerings, the new design of the restaurant comes with a wine bar that carries a good selection of wines and spirits. the set lunch menu appears to be extremely popular amongst the office workers within the area as it comes in a 3-course set at very reasonable prices. 
kicking off the set lunch menu, popular choices would be their crab meat with avocado salad, or the daily soup. we had cauliflower soup on the day of our visit that turned out just right, freshly prepared and served warm to accompany a wide selection of bread that formed part of the starters. 
the choice of mains come in very ample portions, of which the lamb shank and the grilled Japanese squid came out as regular preferred choices. the grilled Japanese squid comes with Borlotti bean and onion salad, the texture of the squid is grilled well to ensure it is not overly chewy and seasoned to make it really flavourful. the lamb shank came with mash potato and seasonal vegetables, though the meat could have been a little bit more tender and the rich taste of lamb better masked. 
the desserts were pretty good with their very own interpretation of sorbet served with white chocolate and jelly a very popular choice. judging from the daily turnout especially during weekday lunches, advanced reservations should be made before visiting the restaurant. overall, Otto Ristorante whips up pretty good Italian fare and its set lunch menu would be a good choice to assess some of their main dishes at a very reasonable rate. 
Otto Ristorante 32 Maxwell Road #01-02/03 Maxwell Chambers Singapore 069115 Opening Hours Mondays to Fridays: 12 pm to 2.30 pm; 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm Saturdays: 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm (closed on Sundays) quality Italian food and amicable service in a sophisticated environment.. Labels: #italianfood, #maxwellchambers, #ottoristorante, #setlunch, #sgitalianfood Jamie's Italian (Singapore)
there was a certain degree of excitement when the news broke that Jamie Oliver's famous Italian restaurant from Oxford, UK is coming to Singapore and more certainly, a victory for Singapore retail as its first outlets opened within shopping malls. then came the challenge of living up to Singapore's more illustrious institutions for Italian food such a Amarone, Pasta Brava or La Nonna, and whether the Singapore version of Jamie's Italian turned out more normal than it's celebrity status..
we visited the outlet at Vivocity to find out, and found the demographic of the weekend crowd largely made up of tourists. it was certainly not as busy as when the store first opened in 2013, especially now that it has 2 outlets. the store is designed to recreate one of Jamie Oliver's kitchen settings, bar-top counters overlooking either the baking of fresh pizza or the preparation of pastas. there are also al-fresco dining areas (overlooking Sentosa) and normal table dining as well. we heard from other reviews that the restaurant service ought to have included checking with the patrons on how they'd like their pasta texture to be, or any other dietary requirements, but that somehow didn't happen during our visit. 
pastas are a must when visiting an Italian restaurant, so we tried the Spaghetti Vongole. it turned out to be a petite serving of pasta but with an ample portion of clams, sprinkled with chopped red chilli and garnishing. it wasn't bad pasta with the right amount of spiciness. we also tried a Ravioli Con Carne or beef-ragu stuffed ravioli dashed with brown butter and lemon. the texture was fairly crispy and for beef lovers, the stuffing was generous. 
checking out some of the restaurant's other mains, we ordered a serving of the Venetian fish stew, which came with fish, clams and mussels, prepared in a tomato based sauce with white wine. i actually loved this dish the most, where the sauces really soaked into the seafood, giving it a very rich flavour. the non-pasta mains generally don't come cheap though, and one should expect to spend at least $50 per pax for a visit here. 
the drinks were kinda blah unless you'd go for a fairly conventional selection of red or white wines. we went for some non-alcoholic cocktails which came in really huge mugs but was largely more sparkling water than juice. for a celebrity restaurant, this place brings with it a great ambience with food that won't go wrong. perhaps not too authentic as compared to other Italian establishments in Singapore, but i guess it is still a close representation of a British chef's interpretation of Italian fare, which earned it top accolades in the UK. you'd probably visit Jamie's Italian, if you'd want to be part of that experience. 
Jamie's Italian (Singapore) 1 HarbourFront Walk #01-165/167, Vivo City Singapore 098585 Opening Hours Mondays to Thursdays: 12 pm to 10 pm Fridays: 12 pm to 11 pm Saturdays: 11 am to 11 pm Sundays: 11 am to 10 pm tradition combined with current, innovative ideas and a Jamie twist.. |
..ThE lEgEnD..
Last Movie: Ad Astra
Golden Village, Singpost Centre 
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