Southern Italy is in Bukit Timah

Antipasto bench

Somewhere on the Amalfi Coast, some schoolchildren are sitting on the floor because the bench they used to sit on was used to hold the massive serving of antipasto we had last night at La Braceria Pizza & Grill.

As far as Italian restaurants are concerned, we’ve lucked out with two good locations in a row – both in the Bukit Timah area – the other restaurant being Valentino’s.

Both are family-run establishments, and both have gigantic dining tables on which to put school benches containing your hearty portions of home styled food. Just the sort of place last night to have a dinner with Naomi’s brother, his wife, and Kai’s 21 month old cousin Yasutaka, visiting from Shanghai.

OK, not quite. Because the transition from the relative cold of a Shanghai February to the al fresco of a Bukit Timah neighbourhood might have been a bit too drastic a change.

On a side note though, I was a bit peeved when I read some reviews on HungryGoWhere.com that I tweeted my displeasure, and this prompted a response from the site’s owners. I’ve got nothing against the site, and I think it works great as a directory of restaurants.

It’s just that some users post things that are not exactly useful. Take for instance this excerpt from a review of La Braceria Pizza & Grill:

Pizza – Pizza was nice, thin crusted. Seems to be the main choice for most diners!

But to be completely honest, it’s really because I’m just a grumpy diner who cannot understand how people can rate Ajisen Ramen higher than Ramen Santouka.

Facebook Comments Box

Posted

in

,

by

Comments

6 responses to “Southern Italy is in Bukit Timah”

  1. ladyironchef Avatar

    hey dude, i just went to Valentino's a week ago, and like what u say, it's like dining in your Italian neighbour house! awesome 🙂

  2. Tym Avatar
    Tym

    Yeah, I refer to HungryGoWhere for contact information but I don't find the reviews very helpful. I suppose as with any arbiter of taste, you need to know what the reviewers' benchmarks are before you know how relevant their experience will be to you.

  3. Mr Miyagi Avatar

    Update: They've removed one of the reviews I found to be extremely unhelpful, and which skews the ratings too much.

  4. Mr Miyagi Avatar

    Now go try La Braceria

  5. mirror Avatar
    mirror

    Ajisen is rated higher than Santouka? How can that be?!?

    Have yet to try La Braceria though i've heard raving reviews from my sis. Will try it some day.

  6. Wayne Avatar
    Wayne

    i love la braceria. have been dining there since before they moved to greenwood. i love their antipasti better than their pizzas tho. haha. another place i just discovered (coz i don't go orchard very much) is la strada at shaw. it's really good!

    the reviews on hungrygowhere are hilarious lah. i once read review by a couple dining at a french restaurant for the first time – he said the food was “not in small portions like you would expect from a french restaurant” and that they plucked up the courage to eat escargot. whatever possessed the writer to think ANYONE would be interested in such a loser review is beyond me.

Leave a Reply to Tym Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *