Otto (yet again)

I seem to keep going to Otto...it's been three times in 2 months now! We celebrated a colleague's birthday there yesterday, and we all had the set lunch ($38 for 3 courses and coffee/tea). Not sure how often they change the menu, but it was different from the previous month's.

First up, the wonderful assortment of bread. I had olive, walnut and onion bread. Forgot to mention earlier that they use really good olive oil.

My colleague had the soup of the day, which was fennel. It was surprisingly good (then again, I've never tried fennel soup before)
The amuse bouche was gratinated mussel.

I ordered the starter of seven minute egg with chicken and morel mushroom raviolini and bacon bits. This was really good. I loved the runny egg. Not sure what they put into the stock, but I'm sure there were mushrooms involved, with a bit of cream.

The raviolini was really interesting. It wasn't pasta, but some sort of gelatinous stuff encasing the mushroom mixture. This was probably the best dish of the set.

For my main course, I ordered the braised lamb shank served with soft polenta. This was really quite ordinary (and therefore a bit disappointing). Compared to the lamb shanks I made in Melbourne 3 months ago, which were wonderfully fresh and tasty with no gamey smell, this could have been better - the meat didn't taste all that fresh.
Two of my colleagues had the snapper fillet with sun dried tomato crust and white wine sauce. I had a bite and thought this would have been a better choice compared to the lamb, even though I'm not a fish fan. I regretted not getting the pasta instead, which was ricotta cheese and spinach ravioli with sage and butter sauce.

There were 2 dessert choices. One colleague had the ice cream....

...while everyone else had the tiramisu!

The tiramisu was not too bad. Ordinary, but not in a bad way. It was a good ending to the meal.

The coffee was good, thick and strong. Enough to wake us up for an afternoon of paperwork : )

Otto (Again)

I had mentioned in earlier posts how cheated I felt at Forlino the previous week, and how happy I had been with Otto. I was at Otto again earlier this week for an old friend's birthday dinner. We all ordered the degustation menu ($88), and 2 of us had a glass of chianti as well (the birthday girl remained dry all evening...good on you babes!)

Unlike Forlino, the nice Italian waiter came over and took the time to go through the menu to explain what was on offer. He ran through the wine list with us and made a few recommendations. He even agreed to swop certain dishes on the degustation menu with other items on the a la carte menu. This is the sort of service I expect when you are paying this much for your grub.

The amuse bouche was portobello mushroom with parmesan. Pleasant, but nothing very exciting.

The friendly waiter with the selection of breads: onion, olive, walnut and sourdough.

Bread heaven. The olive oil they serve is not bad too.

First course: Wagyu beef carpaccio with parmesan cheese and mushroom salad. The rocket leaves (tucked under the beef) went well with the beef. It was pleasant, although ordinary.

Second course: Deep fried live prawn with japanese cucumber salad and chilled tomato soup. The prawns were fresh, and the tomato soup was very light and pleasant. Again, this was quite ordinary but it was a nice dish.

Course 3: Homemade squid ink tagliolini with dungeness crab and rosemary. The pasta had a great firm and chewy texture to it (the classy word to use would be al dente) but the crab was a bit dry. I was probably expecting the creamy Valentino version, so I was a bit disappointed. Overall I would still give this dish a pass.

Course 4: My friends both had the tenderloin (taken off the a la carte menu)....

...while I had the slow braised veal cheek with truffle mashed potatoes.

Now THIS is what I call a real truffles....in comparison with the (recycled) cardboard I ate at Forlino.

The veal was beautifully braised until it was melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Course 5: dessert. My friend had the cheese platter (off the a la carte menu)...

...while I had the warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. This was ordinary....

...but otherwise pleasant and enjoyable.

I have always been partial towards Otto, but there was one thing about the service that irked me. It was only after we finished our desserts that we remembered that coffee and tea were part of the set menu, and we had to call a waiter over to make our orders. I would have expected it to be an automatic question upon putting down our dessert plates. So that's a big minus. Food-wise, I didn't see Giacomo (the original chef). So maybe that explains why the food wasn't jump-over-the-moon exciting as it wa previously. But nonetheless, a pleasant and filling meal.

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