OTTO Ristorante, in my opinion, is the best Italian restaurant in Singapore. Much like how Saint Pierre is for French. Chef Michele Pavanello and his team consistently deliver excellent pastas and main courses and promotional menus and quarterly refreshes of the menu helps to keep one going back for more. Most memorable of this visit was trying Chef’s Sea Urchin pasta creation, which I must admit, not only sounded interesting at first, it was pretty much a novelty to me.

Another key attribute that sees me returning back to a particular establishment lies in the quality of the service staff. The service here is nothing short of being impeccable. Everyone, from the lovely receptionist at the door to Paolo, the affable Italian general manager, are friendly and always seem to go the extra mile when dining at OTTO.

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Your humble blogger has blogged about the history of the now-defunct Borgo, and  its successors, Al Borgo and Borgata. Today, it is time for me to blog about the restaurant that took over Borgo’s premises – L’Ancora.

In terms of the interior design and decor, much of the old Borgo still remains except for the grill that Mimmo used to be helm, is now an air conditioned, walk-in dry cheese room and store. The same tables and chairs that once lined Borgo, today line L’Ancora; the bar counter, too, looks exactly as it were.

My sister and her family are regulars to this Italian joint and has, many a time, spoke of their excellent pastas. Today, I was on a mission, a mission to understand the reasons behind her many return trips.

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It was 7pm when I stepped into the restaurant; seeing  a filled dining room, my expectations were naturally heightened. The dining room looked pretty much the same from how I remembered it to be, dark walls, dim lightning and relatively large tables, all clad in white table cloth.

This blog had visited Garibaldi once previously but unfortunately, that visit did not leave much of an impression. I’m not saying that the food served was in anyway bad, it was just, how should I put it, not mind blowing?  This would most definitely explain my 2 year hiatus from the restaurant.

A part of me, was hoping that Garibaldi would not disappoint and figuratively blow my mind away, yet the other wants to be reserved, given the magnitude of both positive and not-so-positive comments that I’ve heard.

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It seems that Valentino’s is now ubiquitous with Casual Italian Family Dining (“Fine-ish prices though”), and it is not hard to see why. Friendly staff (though, they seem to treat their regulars a lot better) and comfort Momma’s cooking are clearly reasons why people continue to patronize Valentino’s on a regular basis. Personally, the ever changing list of  ‘specials’ is THE reason why I return.

My last visit was way back in February and the review can be found here.

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