Singapore Restaurant Week 2014 at Latteria Mozzarella Bar

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This is the last of our Singapore Restaurant Week 2014 trilogy. Our previous outings were to and Burlamacco. Our experience thus far had generally been positive and we were curious to know how our series of dining during the week would end. As in the earlier meals, we had selected Latteria Mozzarella Bar as it was a place we have not eaten at before. In fact we had not heard of it until we saw it on the list. Latteria is located on Duxton Hill. This is the part of the Duxton area where the the buildings seem prettier and the general atmosphere is more relaxed than the lower part of Duxton. It is a corner unit and so is able to create a large al fresco dining area out of the adjoining lawn.

We had been to this area recently and had lunch at another Italian restaurant, Alba 1836, which was just two doors away but we somehow did not notice Latteria. As we said in our post on Burlamacco, we support the Restaurant Week precisely because of this reason – introducing us to places we otherwise would not go to, even when it is right under our noses.

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As you can see, this is an attractive restaurant, both indoors and out. We would have preferred the outdoor seating but for the fact that the haze level was still quite high that day. Many other diners were like-minded which resulted in a packed restaurant indoors and about half the outdoor area taken up. Not bad for a Sunday night. For Restuarant Week 2014, Latteria offers a straight-forward four course menu. Except for the main course which you can choose between lamb or fish, all the dishes are fixed.

Latteria specialises in mozzarella. So it was no surprise that the first course was Bocconcini in Carrozza (deep fried egg-shaped balls of mozzarella cheese with a coating of flour) with arrabbiata sauce. Crispy on the outside, the ball hides a creamy core of semi-molten cheese. Biting into it gives you the same feeling as eating our local dessert onde onde. This quite unusual dish was enjoyed by all. The second course was garganelli with crab and mascarpone. Garganelli is a short tubular pasta that is quite similar to penne. The main difference is that garganelli is made by rolling up small square sheets of pasta so the eternal corner remain visible. This was cooked in a tomato based creamy sauce with crabmeat and mascarpone – a type of cheese made from cream. It was an excellent dish. The rich sauce blended very well with the chewy pasta.

By the time the first two courses were over, there was not much room left. Thankfully the restaurant was also good at pacing the food so by the time the main course arrived, we were ready for the task.

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The seabass fillet was served in a thick creamy gravy with chickpeas, pesto and cherry tomatoes The lamb shank came resting on a bed of mushroom orzotto which is like risotto but cooked with barley instead of rice. Both main courses were thoroughly enjoyed. We did learn a thing or two about Italian cheeses at this dinner as the dishes contained elements which we have not previously encountered. Dinner ended with a more mainstream item which needs no introduction – tiramisu, which provided a sweet ending to the night’s proceedings and also to our dining adventure during this Restaurant Week 2014.

We must say that this was the best of the three places we sampled in the course of the week. Not only was the food top notch, the service was attentive and prompt. Both the kitchen and service staff were able to handle the high traffic brought about by the good response from ordinary patrons to the Restaurant Week menu. We also appreciated the fact that it was a complete menu. No add-on charge for some courses or for coffee. All in all a hearty and enjoyable meal at the reasonable price of $35 per person. Latteria has a one-for-one corkage policy whereby no corkage is levied on your bottle of wine if you purchase a bottle from their wine list. Otherwise it is $40 per bottle.

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