Sunday, February 5, 2012

Etna Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria @ Upper East Coast Road

Located at 110 Upper East Coast Road. There are bus stops nearby (#14 or #197 I think), so it is accessible via public transport. If driving, then turn into Tay Lian Teck Road and park by the roadside. Didn't see any parking places nearby. The restaurant is facing the main road and it is actually quite smallish.

Walking into the restaurant and we were greeted almost immediately. Warm and friendly service. The place felt quite cosy too.

bar and cashier

table setting
menu

My friends arrived earlier, so they've already started on the bruschetta al pomodoro. Mr R has a thing for bruschetta...

bruschetta al pomodoro (toasted bread topped with fresh tomatoes and garlic)

Bruschetta is such a simple thing that it is not difficult to replicate at home. The version here was tasty as well.

Next item that was ordered, Insalata di Gamberi (prawns salad).

Insalata di Gamberi (prawn salad dressed with extra virgin olive oil and lemon)

The salad has a light clean taste. Prawns were fresh and bouncy. Nice but was rather mild in taste when compared to the bruschetta.

lovely prawns

We also had a bottle of white wine, the Montalto Pinot Grigio. It's pretty light and clean tasting. Crisp finish with fruity notes.

white wine (@$65++)
wine to sip

Realised that our dinner for the night had a recurrent theme; seafood and tomato based. We had Risotto alla Marinara (italian rice with mixed seafood and tomato sauce), Pizza Fruiti di Mare (tomato, mixed seafood and mozarella cheese), Linguine con Capesante (flat pasta with scallops in pink lobster sauce) and Filetto Maiale (baked pork wrapped with bacon in rosemary sauce).


risotto marinara

with squid, clams, prawns

We made the right choice with seafood. Liked the squids and the prawns. The risotto was lighter in taste than anticipated. The umami taste associated with seafood was kind of missing from the dish. Not the best risotto tasted thus far, but quite enjoyable. Generous portions too.

Next up, was the linguine.

Linguine con Capesante

large scallops

All of us liked the linguine very much. Very tasty and much stronger in flavour than the risotto. Had a hint of spice and the pasta was not undercooked. My friend was praising the freshness of the scallops but I had one that tasted kind of mushy. Hmm, maybe I ate the wrong part?

Next, was the seafood pizza. More carbo!

Fruitti di Mare

with large squid rings, unpitted olives, mussels and prawns

The pizza crust was nice with slightly (very slightly) chewy dough, crisp edges and loaded with mozzarella cheese. Best eaten by taking the pizza slice, fold it and use hand (fingers) to hold it. Give it a hearty bite and feel the cheese and seafood come together. Hahaa, not fine dining material or prescribed behaviour, but I liked it! Ok, but not sure why the prawns still had its tail shell retained...Aesthetically pleasing but abit harder to eat.

We're done with carbo, so out came the protein (meat).

pork fillet with bacon

It's three chunk of pork wrapped in bacon and baked, served with brown sauce with a bed of greens and mashed potatoes. Interesting dish and first time having this in an Italian restaurant.

It's like pork knuckles minus the fats (if you discount the wrapped bacon slice). Not melt in your mouth tender, but not chewy either. It was just nice. The sauce has just a slight sourness to it. A dish that had a hint of homecooked flavour to it.

Service crew were pretty attentive and will pop by to ask about the food, anything else that we need or to just pour out the wine to our empty glasses. Nice.

And because it was a birthday dinner, the service crew sang the happy birthday song when the cake was brought out. Hehe. Thank you to the restaurant for allowing us to bring our own cake.

fruit tart/cake from Fruit Paradise
yummy~

There's a 15% discount on food items (excluding alcohol) if you're paying via Standard Chartered credit card. For 5 pax, order just 1 or 2 starters, 4 main courses and it'll be more than enough food for everyone. Needless to say, we were stuffed from dinner and the cake. Expect to pay between $50~$60 per pax for a 3 course meal.

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