Otto Weekday Lunch

A meal at Otto is always a treat. The husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary there last year by having the $120 degustation menu, and apart from being too stuffed to get roll back to our car without needing physical assistance, we only have positive things to say and wonderful memories of the place. I was really happy when a friend suggested having lunch there - my conscience, combined with my income bracket, doesn't allow me to fantasize about such midweek luxury - but I can be led into temptation if its someone else's idea.

I have always had good memories of Pontini (at Grand Copthorne) in the mid 2000's because of one man - Michele Pavanello. He cooked the best vongole pasta for my dad, who was a huge fan of his (meaning we were there practically every weekend).

Image taken from http://www.alacarte.com.sg/chef_michele_pavanello.html

When Michele left for Il Lido, so did our loyalties. We had one brave attempt at Pontini under the leadership of a certain unmemorable Francois something - nothing is worth remembering except that he was a skinny chef, and therefore untrustable. Pontini was simply not the same. 2 years later, we found out from a newspaper advertisement that Michele had gone back to Pontini, and shortly after that, we heard that he had joined Otto. By this time, we were steadfastly loyal to Otto, after getting tired of the emotional roller coaster associated with Pontini. It was simply better in terms of quality, and the parking (open-air URA carpark) was way cheaper too.

On a weekday, the place was two-thirds full of well-dressed people having a business lunch. Which makes me wonder how many of them were eating on their personal account (like me). The weekly set lunch at $38++ (including coffee/tea) was a reasonable choice, but it did not appeal because there seemed to be a lot of meat (chicken or snapper) for the main course. I knew the pasta would be good, and it was disappointing that there was only one pasta dish to choose from the set menu. I settled for ordering a pasta from the a la carte menu instead.

The selection of breads at Otto is always wonderful - onion, raisin, olive foccacia, plain, wholemeal - almost a buffet in itself. And the best thing was that they kept coming back to top up our bread plates. Here's one of my lunch companions being spoilt for choice.
Close up of the bread platter. As much as we wanted!

The onion bread came with a bit of melted cheese.

Raisin was nice too, but a bit odd with the olive oil (which was very good too)

The amuse bouche: white asparagus with some basalmic vinegar. To quote my eating companion No 1: "why does white and green asparagus taste a world apart when they're both asparagus??"

My eating companion No 2's dill marinated scottish salmon with lemon scented cous cous

My pasta choice was absolutely wonderful: Slow-braised veal cheek agnolotti served with porcini mushroom sauce ($28). There must have been some truffle oil in there as well.

Here's a close up of one of the pasta parcels...this was divine, and I could easily have had another plate if I was hungrier.

Eating Companion No. 1's squid ink tagliolini with scallop and sun-dried tomatoes ($26)

Eating Companion No. 2's aubergines and ricotta cheese green ravioli served with tomato and mint sauce, which was part of the set lunch.

Eating Companion No. 1's Tiramisu,which he said was very good. By the time I remembered to take photos of No. 2's dessert, which was a mixture of ice cream and sorbet, it was a complete rainbow mess.

The bill was more reasonable than expected, with a 20% discount for Citibank platinum cardmembers for the a la carte menu.

28 Maxwell Road #01-02 Red Dot Traffic Building Tel: 6227 6819