Osvaldo

I went with 2 friends to try Osvaldo, the newest Italian place along Maxwell Road. Since both friends are lawyers, it was a very quiet lunch for me : )

I had heard so many good things about Forlino, and was really disappointed when I finally managed to try the degustation dinner there. The Chef himself was no longer at Forlino's by then, so I was really excited when I saw a new restaurant with OSVALDO written on the windows walking to work from the MRT station.

Fortunately we made bookings since the place was full, and people were waiting by the bar at lunchtime.

The bread was good, and the olive oil superb.


We all had the set lunch for $32++ each. I had the minestrone soup, which was pretty good - nice and thick, and not tasting overwhelmingly of tomato.

My friend had the oven-baked chicken leg with zucchini parsely. It came with a mushroom stuffing that was absolutely brilliant. The chicken was very tender and flavourful, and the mushroom stuffing was extremely tasty.

I had the seafood pasta which the waiter claimed was fresh linguini. We were a bit sceptical since restaurants here hardly serve fresh pasta in the form of linguini...and after a few bites we were quite confident that it was dry pasta. But the sauce was pretty good, since they were generous with the seafood and with the tomatos and basil creating a pretty robust flavour. Almost as good as the marinara pasta at the Stokehouse in St Kilda Beach, which is the all-time benchmark for me.

Dessert was a Gianduja Chocolate. It was pretty good but the cream was a bit heavy.

It was a really enjoyable lunch except that we had a waiter who wasn't particularly interested in his work or customers. Dessert came without spoons (we had to ask for them), water wasn't topped up all the consistently, and his disinterest showed most strongly in the poorly-foamed milk, resulting in a disappointing coffee. But this place warrants a second visit to try the freshly-made pasta, and I'm sure the other waiting staff were probably better.

I also wonder how Otto's business will be affected, especially since Giacomo Gallina has left the establishment. While Michele is in his own right a really good chef, Giacomo was a magician.

Osvaldo Ristorante Italiano

#01-03 Maxwell Chambers

32 Maxwell Road

Tel 6224-0978

Lunch: 11.30am-2.30pm

Dinner: 6.30-10.30pm

Closed Sundays