[Qualifying note: I try to avoid featuring poor food in my blog since I don't like to knock the small guy. If I eat something that I think is terrible, and costs below $10, I swallow my disappointment (literally) and shut up because someone's livelihood depends on them being able to sell several of their $3 bowls of noodles. But in the case of Forlino, there was no way I could shut up and sit down.]Last week, the husband brought me to Forlino for 2 reasons: It had been a long time since we went out on a date to a nice restaurant, and because Her World had a 1-for-1 set meal offer for loyal Her World readers (like him-ha!). This dinner had already been postponed once due to a family emergency, so we had been looking forward to it for a while. Having eaten a few times at Il Lido, we were expecting an experience that was quite similar, except with Marina Bay in the background instead of the Straits of Singapore.
We didn't manage to get a window seat, but the view was fairly decent from where we were sitting. Or at least, it was decent for the time being.
I was quite impressed at the beginning when the waiter gave me a mushroom stool for my handbag. Most restaurants in Singapore don't seem to think that women are really not comfortable putting their bags either on the seat behind them, on their laps, or on the floor.
We ordered the degustation menu, which is priced at $120 per head. They also have another $88 option, but we thought that the more expensive menu looked more interesting. The husband ordered a class of chianti, while I had a sangiovese shiraz, which was yummy. All still good. 
They served us a piece of focaccia with olive oil - this was very average. But at this point, we were still looking forward to the meal. The amuse bouche came. We were staring at it for a while after the waiter put it down. "Pork sausage", he explained briefly, before scuttling away. Yeah, I can tell. And I could have said that it had some alfafa/bean sprouts below. 
A closer look at the pork sausage. It was average. And the bean/alfafa sprouts were weird. The 2 items didn't go together at all, but we shrugged it off as maybe a one-off pairing experiment. 
Course 1: Swordfish carpaccio with peaches and summer truffles. First, I couldn't find any peaches. Second, I was too excited upon seeing the truffles to bother about peaches.
The fish was pleasant, but there was certainly no peach taste (well, if the menu says peach, I would expect to taste it). It was mostly soy and salt that we tasted. And we couldn't figure out what the flowers were for. 
The truffles were Disappointing with a capital D. When we bit into them, it was as if we were eating paper. Or maybe pear slices. If I had closed my eyes, and someone had put the truffles slices into my mouth, I would have guessed pear. There was absolutely no truffle flavour at all. Also, the salad with vinegarette was just too average. Not what we were expecting for a restaurant with this sort of hype. 
I belatedly realised a problem with our seats towards the back of the room. Whichever hotshot interior designer it was (or maybe it was the client's preference) had innovatively decided to locate the serving station in the middle of the restaurant. Now, most fine dining restaurants have their serving areas behind the customers so that no customers have to see the service areas, as well as the spills, knocks and misses that every waiter inevitably will cause. Not this one. We had a glorious view of the waiters knocking over glasses (okay, just once), hissing instructions to each other "have you given the XXX to table Y yet", and just doing their thing with lots of movement. Acceptable in a hawker centre, maybe. But I can't accept paying over a hundred bucks for a nice dinner, only to be distracted every 10 secs by waiters walking past, clanging china and silverware, and talking to each other. Here's the view from our table. 
Course 2: Pan-roasted scallops with walnuts and french beans. One of the better courses.
The scallops were cooked to the right texture and degree of done-ness. I enjoyed this very much. 
Course 3: Braised veal shank ravioli with summer truffles. The portion looks really substantial, doesn't it?.....
...until you zoom out and realise that the plate is huge....and the serving small....
The ravioli was very good, although I felt the filling was too smooth - it was almost creamy, and I would have preferred something with more bite. The Otto version was much better. Check out the size of the ravioli against the cutlery (placed there for scale) : (
And again, the truffles were tasteless. Very disappointing - unless summer truffles are tasteless...but then, why bother with truffles, in that case? Porcini mushrooms would have worked even better. 
Throwing in another pic to show how disturbed we were the entire night by all the movement to and fro in front of our table.
Course 4: Duck breast with seared goose liver, cauliflower cake and fig sauce. Again, the waiter just put the plate down and said "duck breast" before turning away. However, before he could vanish, I brightly asked "what's that?", pointing to the yellow lump at the top of my plate. His intelligent reply was "star anise". I nearly hit my head against the wall (maybe I should have hit him instead). After pausing for a while, he finally realised that I meant the yellow stuff and told us it was cauliflower cake with onion shavings. Not one for words, I guess. 
The duck breast was cold and tough, but fortunately without a gamey taste. The cauliflower cake had too much cinammon and star anise in it, and tasted exactly like my mother in law's lor bak (that she cooks with tau kwa and hard boiled eggs). The onion shavings were just confused little strands. The goose liver was the only good thing. It was good for me that the husband was not a fan...which meant that the entire dish was a disaster for him. 
Course 5: Three-milk robiola cheese (what's this? - our waiter didn't even reply) with organic honey selection. Not sure where the honey was hiding, but if you compare the cheese against the hazelnut, you will be able to realise what a substantial portion this was. By this time, we were dying for dinner to be over. Our conversation at this point revolved around whether we should head to Newton or Whampoa Market for some good ol' fishball noodles or bak chor mee. I was honestly quite angry and upset that I was hoping to get out of the restaurant ASAP and pay more money elsewhere just to get a greater sense of satisfaction (and satiation) for the evening. 
Course 6 (FINALLY!!!) was the best of all: Raspberry and almond tarte. This was really good. It almost saved the day (almost, but not quite). The almond ice cream was brilliant, and went so well with the raspberry tart. The coffee was not too bad either. 
This sad experience has unceremoniously led to the creation of a new tag called Failures since I was probably too naive earlier to realise that at all levels, there are inevitably disappointments in our food industry. All the weird interior decor could not salvage the poor food and service. Ultimately, even paying $60 per head could not pacify us because it was just not value for money. 
Weird decor ya. And....NO ONE EVER TOLD US THERE WAS A DISCO NEXT DOOR! Having a vibrating floor, table and chair was not a particularly pleasant dining experience.
Neither was the service anything to crow about. I have received better service at Maxwell Market and Newton Hawker Centre. No one was rude, mind you. But no one was interested in engaging us any further apart from putting plates down and picking them up. Not once were we asked how the food was, or whether we liked it. When we asked our waiter about the dishes, he gave one-sentence answers. I think that if we had paid $120 per person we would have felt REALLY REALLY cheated. As it was, we felt REALLY cheated even with the 1-for-1 deal. Even if we were budget diners, I don't understand why the waiters were not trained to cultivate a one-off customer into a regular patron.
Name, address and phone number not supplied to limit other innocent diners from going through the same experience.
Afternote: The Hungry Greedy Hippo is looking forward to eating at Otto tonight - and looking forward to paying full price and getting value for her money.
