Da Paolo La Terrazza

This post is nearly a month late! So I shall faster blog about it before I leave, since I'm pretty sure my photos will dissappear to the recesses of my computer and I'll never find it again. Mixed Grilled Vegetables ($20++)
An assortment of eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, tomatoes, green apple and cheese.
Look at the picture carefully - there's something that shouldn't be there. I've forgotten what kind of cheese it is, but then it went pretty well with the smokey taste of the grilled vegetables. Risotto Padovada ($30++)
It comes with morsels of duck braised with the risotto, and is topped with 2 pieces of foie gras.
I liked how the risotto was done - cooked but then not soggy. The sauce was very rich, meaty and creamy. As you can see, I have a piece of terribly charred foie gras - I think that they shouldn't have even served it, but when I showed it to the waiter, he was very apologetic, and immediately said that he'll get me a new piece. Perhaps it was because they had a power short-circuit not once, but three times the whole time we were there - so maybe my unfortunate foie gras was sitting in the pan happily roasting in the dark.

My whole family (except me ) eats and loves their beef.

The pasta of the day ($28++) which had crayfish (or was it lobster??), scallops and tomatoes, cooked in a white wine sauce. It was very tasty, and had the sweetness of the shellfishes. Also, there were many pieces of scallops and lobster/crayfish. The pasta was done al dente - delicious!

Tiramisu ($10++).

No Italian meal will be complete without Tiramisu. This tiramisu had a nice splash of alcohol, and the mascarpone cheese layer was cold, sweet and creamy. Also, it's a good sized portion for $10.

The Panna Cotta ($9++) came with a thick puddle of chocolate sauce on top and when I ate it, I though that it was orange chocolate cos there was a distinct sourish/citrus-y taste. Retrospectively, I think it's Valrhona Chocolate, cos it's pretty acidic and also has a sourish aftertaste. Well, I'm not sure what kind of chocolat it was, but my siblings were very happy that I wasn't eating my portion of the dessert since they could have more of it. I was slightly late for dinner, and found that my dad and my sister had ordered an $8++ of atas (mineral) water. The waiter had asked them if they wanted still or sparkling. Even though most

of the other tables had tap water. Can't stand restaurants who ask if you want still or sparkling!

And because it was Da Paolo, I was quite dissappointed to find that they had left the lable on my grilled apple, and to be served charred foie gras. Oh well, I think I had higher expectations cos it was Da Paolo.

Da Paolo La Terrazza

Blk 44 #01-56 Jalan Merah Saga

Holland Village

Singapore 278116

Tel 64761332

Da Paolo Il Giardino

Da Paolo's weekdays set lunches are incredibly yummy and affordable. For $22++, you'll be able to get a starter, main (pasta), dessert and coffee/tea. And of course, the bread basket and olive oil.

For $30++, you can also get the fish of the day or the meat of the day. Meat of the day was tenderloin when I visited.

Parma Ham with melon and salad. There were 2 big pieces of parma ham and the melon was very very sweet. Its really easy to make this dish but I've been very lazy and still haven't gotten around to doing it.
Smoked salmon with salad. The serving of salmon was very generous, 2 slices of smoked salmon bigger than my hand dressed in olive oil and black pepper. The smoked salmon wasn't the over salty kind which leaves the throat feeling dry. I actually prefered this starter to the parma ham.My Spaghetti with seafood and tomato sauce - expect nothing less than al dente pasta, delicious fresh morsels of seafood (scallops mussels prawn and squid) in a chunky tomato sauce. Most other places would already charge you about $20 for a plate of spaghetti, but the Da Palo set lunch costs $22++ only. Pretty worth it. This is the meat of the day tenderloin, which was a juicy beef tenderloined seared to perfection. It was still pink and juicy but not too raw and bloody - perfect for a medium rare done-ness.

Chocolate brownie - the dessert was quite dissappointing - if the starters weren't so good I'd probably not recommend this lunch cos the brownies were very simple. Really nothing to shout about. It's a pity that they didn't give a nicer dessert because the starter and main were so good - I had high hopes for the dessert. There isn't any choice for dessert - it's just dessert of the day. Here's the path you'll pass through when you're walking to Da Paolo from the surface. I really like bamboo - next time if I have a garden I'll plant lots of bamboo and make the whole place look Jap! No ponds for me I hate frogs and toads!The place at Cluny is really small so do book esp for dinner.Al Fresco seating - but the weather has been so insanely hot everyone takes refuge inside.

Overall, I'll give Da Paolo il Giardino 3.5 stars for their lunch set - but do note that the $22 mains are all pasta - so don't go there if you dislike pasta. Though it's cheaper than Au Petit Salute, I still prefer APS because the desserts there are really fantastic!

Michellelim Star Rating:

Da Paolo Il Giardino

501 Bukit Timah Rd

#01-05 Cluny Court
Singapore 259760

Tel 64639628

da Palo's Nutella Bar and Lemongrass chocolate cake

I like da Palo's takeaway cos the food's quite yummy and best of all there isn't any service charge, which can easily make the bill zoom up by like $4
This is the spinach lasagne, which is really delicious cos there's some creamy sauce. I think it's bechamel (Italian white sauce which uses butter, milk and flour for a really indulgent creamy finish to lasagne). But the spinach is quite strong and so if you don't like to see cooked frozen spinach you won't like this.
I've tried the salmon lasagne previously, and being meat, it's much tastier than the spinach. But the sauces and cheese are about the same. I think they cost about $7 or $8 for a generous portion, and best of all it tastes great even though you've just microwaved it yourselt - think about it, you're saving about 2bucks microwaving a perfectly yummy and fresh lasagne - no more frozen lasagnes for me!

On the left, it's the da Palo nutella bar, and on the right, the chocolate and lemongrass cake. I had very high hopes for both, because I've seen them for about 3 times before and did not have the opportunity to get them as they need to be refridgerated.

I didn't like the nutella bar simply because it didn't have enough nutella inside it - only the top most icing tasted like nutella - the layers inside tasted more like caramel with chocolate to me. That's $7 bucks wasted :( of course, this is just a slice , the portion can give about 3 slices of that size.

The lemongrass chocolate cake tasted more lime-ish/lemon-ish than lemongrass. And there were these weird greenish yellow goo which I suppose was supposed to be the lemongrass. Yikes - I didn't even finish this one :( Another 7 bucks wasted.

Ahh if only everything tasted like the black and white chocolate cake, I would be so happy!

Da Palo Gastronomia is located next to That CD shop, Great World City
Cluny Court
Chip Bee Gardens

Da Palo Gastronomia - Great World City

Black and White Chocolate cake - it's fluffy moist spongy and yummy - thought a bit too sweet but it's really nice for $8 you get quite a good sized cake and it's chocolately and smells wonderful.
Compared to those cafe $5 cakes, i'd rather top it up by $3 to get these wonderfully huge portions :D

Banana cake - $3 for a small piece - it's packed full with bananas and it's very dense too. I suppose you're paying for all that bananas.

All the desserts in the cooler - got so many! Tiramisu, strawberry cheesecake, black forest, banana chocolate cake, hazel nut cake, nutella cup cake etc etc etc it's about $8 for a small box, so tt's why we got the biggest box we could find for $8 - the Black and White Chocolate cake :D
Meringue - $4 each for a big piece
Lemon cupcakesThey have lots of other take-away stuff, including pasta sauces (a very wide range indeed) and I can't wait to go to the chip bee branch (nearer my house) to grab some sauces (cos they need to be refridgerated)


Da Palo is located next to That CD shop