It’s been almost a year since Sapore Italiano set up it’s first restaurant in Singapore, bring in the concept of an Italian caffe bar to our shores. I remember some hype surrounding it’s 6pm-8pm Happy Hour, where diners get to enjoy a buffet of finger food items when they purchase an apertitivo. I never got round to trying that out, but thanks to some work matters, I managed to taste a sampling of their food recently, and quite frankly got hooked – I’m quite in love with their pastas now! It didn’t take me long to go back again for another try.
Upon ordering, a bunch of parmesan sticks are presented for nibbling purposes. A little plain, nothing too fancy.
The complimentary bread scored – warm, homemade, crusty on the outside, chewy and moist on the inside, with a selection of both olive and onion breads. There’s something about this bread that I love! Bonus points as always for warm bread too.
Sapore serves a large variety of pastas and pizzas, but I wasn’t as impressed with the pizzas as I was with the pastas on my previous visit, so pasta was the focus of this trip! The Tortelloni Burro e Salvia ($20) – filled ricotta cheese and spinach tortelloni in a butter and sage sauce, was right up my alley and so delicious! Granted, the menu says tortelloni and these squares of filled pasta are raviolis, but I honestly wasn’t bothered. The generously stuffed, fat squares of al dente, homemade pasta goodness were well complemented by the light but sinful sage-fragranced butter sauce – and really, ricotta, spinach and pasta is a wonderful combo.
The Carbonara ($20) is the dish that impressed me the most on my first visit, and a definite must try. My friend who came back from Europe recently showed me a picture of the carbonara he had there, and it looked exactly like this, with eggshell and all. It’s apparently the authentic way of serving carbonara, so the diner gets to mix in the egg yolk on the spot and have it fresh.
yolk atop the pile of pasta, all ready to be mixed in!
I find carbonara in every restaurant that serves pasta, but so few do it well. Sapore’s version has tasty, not-too-fatty bacon (is there such a thing?), and I like the creaminess of it that’s not too overwhelming. That said, carbonara is always a heavy dish, so it’d be good to share, or be really hungry.
We tried a scoop ($4)of their gelato, which they make in-house. If you look at their menu they have tons of huge, fancy gelato creations, but we were stuffed so we just tried a scoop of Ferrero Rocher, which is hazelnut gelato with chunks of chocolate bits. Not one of the better gelatos to me, since I like mine really dense and chewy, but it was the necessary sweet to end the meal!
On both occasions that I’ve been there, the place is filled mostly with the caucasian crowd. I get this feeling that the relatively high prices put most people off even trying this place, but those who have tried it find it worth the while – at least I felt so. I’ve also heard some not too good things about their service but had none of that when I went – service was prompt and friendly. A place for keeps, I’d say!
Sapore Italiano
Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road #01-15
Singapore 179103
(65) 6333 4236
If you like this articles, share it with your friend! Digg it StumbleUpon Facebook Twitter del.icio.us Google Yahoo! Reddit
I’m impressed with the carbonara presentation! Bravo!
Wow the carbonara looks damn good! If you like carbonara, you should try the one at Cugini. It’s damn good too!