A significant year for the sis, a whole big step into adulthood and so I treated her! A first at Italian dining at its best for both of us. 3 course lunch it was, after googling all the known Italian eateries island-wide. La Strada it had to be, for the location, for all the raving reviews (ok, I rely quite a bit on word of mouth!)...all for the darling lil sista.
Coincidentally, ST Sunday Life! did a writeup on "affordable" set lunches in luxury settings. La Strada was one of them.
A little writeup about La Strada (means "The Street" in Italian), one of the many restaurants under the Les Amis Group, located in the row of Les Amis restaurants, there's The Canteen, Canele Patisserie and Aoki round the corner. La Strada reopened in 2007. Their resident chef is a female! Chef How Poh Poh.
I made bookings one week in advance, making clear instructions for a "cosy corner" for my sis whom I celebrating a birthday for. Very professional over the phone, of course.
Down the walkway! Orange-brown combination. See the white panel? It's the menu! Good for potential customers who are browsing menus and don't want to feel "threatened or obliged" to enter the restaurant. Comes with pricing too, I like that idea!
We were shown to our seats, a cosy corner indeed, by the window-side. Good to people and car watch! At slightly after noon, the restaurant was not packed, save for two families with bawling kids that somehow shattered the serenity of the place.
The pretty posies on the table.
The modern setting of the restaurant. Pristine clean white table cloths...funny that they don't have napkins with their logo embroidered on them.
Two instances that made us go "wow" with the service level, none the artificial smiles and pushy waiters that some places have.
The waitress took our request for "warm water". She returned with a chair for our bags! Service that surprises. The warm water came warm, not lukewarm, not boiling hot, warm. They came at regular intervals to fill the cups too! I prefer service like that, not too persistent on their sparking or still water that most italian places insist you get, or take forever to get you glasses of water. Impressed, I already am before the food begins!
Orange leather bound menus. The waiter took time to regurgitate what was out of stock, the new additions and remind gently the waiting time for risotto.
Two set lunches it was, 3 course. We did our research way before and felt set lunches are a good way to try most of the restaurant's delights.
The forks are somewhat kinda long don't you think?
Freeflow of warm bread. Lightly toasted bread and warm tomato pizza topped with cheese. We had two servings of pizza! The bread's chewy and tasty, simple ingredients yet tasted so good. Dipped in olive oil, I say oohlala. We loved it.
My starter of pasta of the day. Penne carbonara with 4 different types of mushrooms. The portion's quite big for a starter. The penne wasn't too soft, slightly hard with a bite. The mushrooms were really delicious. I'm not a carbonara person but it blew me away. I found myself licking the plate clean.
The sister's choice of soup of the day, pumpkin soup! I found it a little on the sweet side.
My mains of pizza of the day; 7 inch asparagus, mozarella cheese, ham and peppers wood-fire baked pizza. This is slightly different from the pizza bread. Not as chewy but equally delicious. My first time trying asparagus on pizza! The cheese shavings are a first too! Shaved SO fine, it melts in your mouth literally. I stole a bite of quite a few servings of cheese shavings! Not salty.
It was a "hot plate" served quite hot, to maintain the warmness of the pizza and refraining it from becoming cold. Brilliant move.
The sister's mains, Char grilled 70 day grainfed sirloin with sauteed forest mushroom and mesclun salad, medium. The sirloin's sooo tender and melts in your mouth! The salad's got a refreshing burst of flavours, probably due to the balsamic vinegar. The sirloin steak sat atop a bed of mushrooms that by this time, I declined trying any. I had way too many mushrooms for the meal.
Service surprise number 3! After the mains were cleared, the waiter very amusingly took a "blade" of some sort and cleared the table of crumbs, as white as before!
And then the birthday surprise! I was wondering why the dessert took quite a while, until I saw the waiter carrying it from afar...I still tried engaging in small talk with the sis. Surprised she was too!
The waiter was rather amusing, "I'm not sure who's the birthday girl since both are sisters." Zucchini walnut cake on the house! Wise choice of cake since I hardly touch chocolate. The cake's also found on the menu proper. It's full of walnuts, warm and moist...and there's a zesty twang to it, can't quite pinpoint to what exactly.
Tea with coconut cookie.
Hers, warm berries clafoutis with vanilla ice-cream that came piping hot. The bowl was sooo hot!I found it somewhat tasteless but that brought out the taste of the berries. The sis liked it though.
My cannoli filled with white chocolate mousse and raspberry sorbet. Delightful on the palette, the sherbet's slightly sour, the crunchy almond flakes at the bottom gave it an added crunch. The canolli's a crunchy pistachio covered biscuit shell, filled with a light creamy white chocolate mousse. Wasn't as soft as mousse, it had more bite. Yummy. Loved it. A really awesome finish.
Food-wise, I cannot complain. All three courses were satisfying, the sight, the smell and taste, equally outstanding. It ain't that pricey after all, for the quality of food and service. The portions weren't as bite-sized as originally thought, in fact, much more than anticipated. We were really stuffed.
Indeed, service level at such "atas" places matches the price you pay. But truly, La Strada's comes across as unpretentious good service. For the number of times they've surprised me, I say..well done! They take pride in making sure mains, appetizers, desserts are removed promptly and arrive together. They don't hound you endlessly with the irritating phrase "do you need anything else?" which I take as a hint of "order some more!". Neither do they hover like an irritating housefly to chase you away once you're done with the meal.
2 hours it took, a good 2 hours that we enjoyed tremendously. A slow lunch for once! They change their menus on a monthly basis, the website isn't that updated though.
Customers were still streaming in even after we left at 2pm.
La Strada, I'm sure I'll be back! For exquisite food, for ambience...for service. I'm a mighty pleased customer.
$38++ per pax for 3 course/ $30++ for 2 course (appetizer and mains)
No discounts available.
www.lesamis.com.sg/
La Strada
Shaw Centre
Coincidentally, ST Sunday Life! did a writeup on "affordable" set lunches in luxury settings. La Strada was one of them.
A little writeup about La Strada (means "The Street" in Italian), one of the many restaurants under the Les Amis Group, located in the row of Les Amis restaurants, there's The Canteen, Canele Patisserie and Aoki round the corner. La Strada reopened in 2007. Their resident chef is a female! Chef How Poh Poh.
I made bookings one week in advance, making clear instructions for a "cosy corner" for my sis whom I celebrating a birthday for. Very professional over the phone, of course.
Down the walkway! Orange-brown combination. See the white panel? It's the menu! Good for potential customers who are browsing menus and don't want to feel "threatened or obliged" to enter the restaurant. Comes with pricing too, I like that idea!
We were shown to our seats, a cosy corner indeed, by the window-side. Good to people and car watch! At slightly after noon, the restaurant was not packed, save for two families with bawling kids that somehow shattered the serenity of the place.
The pretty posies on the table.
The modern setting of the restaurant. Pristine clean white table cloths...funny that they don't have napkins with their logo embroidered on them.
Two instances that made us go "wow" with the service level, none the artificial smiles and pushy waiters that some places have.
The waitress took our request for "warm water". She returned with a chair for our bags! Service that surprises. The warm water came warm, not lukewarm, not boiling hot, warm. They came at regular intervals to fill the cups too! I prefer service like that, not too persistent on their sparking or still water that most italian places insist you get, or take forever to get you glasses of water. Impressed, I already am before the food begins!
Orange leather bound menus. The waiter took time to regurgitate what was out of stock, the new additions and remind gently the waiting time for risotto.
Two set lunches it was, 3 course. We did our research way before and felt set lunches are a good way to try most of the restaurant's delights.
The forks are somewhat kinda long don't you think?
Freeflow of warm bread. Lightly toasted bread and warm tomato pizza topped with cheese. We had two servings of pizza! The bread's chewy and tasty, simple ingredients yet tasted so good. Dipped in olive oil, I say oohlala. We loved it.
My starter of pasta of the day. Penne carbonara with 4 different types of mushrooms. The portion's quite big for a starter. The penne wasn't too soft, slightly hard with a bite. The mushrooms were really delicious. I'm not a carbonara person but it blew me away. I found myself licking the plate clean.
The sister's choice of soup of the day, pumpkin soup! I found it a little on the sweet side.
My mains of pizza of the day; 7 inch asparagus, mozarella cheese, ham and peppers wood-fire baked pizza. This is slightly different from the pizza bread. Not as chewy but equally delicious. My first time trying asparagus on pizza! The cheese shavings are a first too! Shaved SO fine, it melts in your mouth literally. I stole a bite of quite a few servings of cheese shavings! Not salty.
It was a "hot plate" served quite hot, to maintain the warmness of the pizza and refraining it from becoming cold. Brilliant move.
The sister's mains, Char grilled 70 day grainfed sirloin with sauteed forest mushroom and mesclun salad, medium. The sirloin's sooo tender and melts in your mouth! The salad's got a refreshing burst of flavours, probably due to the balsamic vinegar. The sirloin steak sat atop a bed of mushrooms that by this time, I declined trying any. I had way too many mushrooms for the meal.
Service surprise number 3! After the mains were cleared, the waiter very amusingly took a "blade" of some sort and cleared the table of crumbs, as white as before!
And then the birthday surprise! I was wondering why the dessert took quite a while, until I saw the waiter carrying it from afar...I still tried engaging in small talk with the sis. Surprised she was too!
The waiter was rather amusing, "I'm not sure who's the birthday girl since both are sisters." Zucchini walnut cake on the house! Wise choice of cake since I hardly touch chocolate. The cake's also found on the menu proper. It's full of walnuts, warm and moist...and there's a zesty twang to it, can't quite pinpoint to what exactly.
Tea with coconut cookie.
Hers, warm berries clafoutis with vanilla ice-cream that came piping hot. The bowl was sooo hot!I found it somewhat tasteless but that brought out the taste of the berries. The sis liked it though.
My cannoli filled with white chocolate mousse and raspberry sorbet. Delightful on the palette, the sherbet's slightly sour, the crunchy almond flakes at the bottom gave it an added crunch. The canolli's a crunchy pistachio covered biscuit shell, filled with a light creamy white chocolate mousse. Wasn't as soft as mousse, it had more bite. Yummy. Loved it. A really awesome finish.
Food-wise, I cannot complain. All three courses were satisfying, the sight, the smell and taste, equally outstanding. It ain't that pricey after all, for the quality of food and service. The portions weren't as bite-sized as originally thought, in fact, much more than anticipated. We were really stuffed.
Indeed, service level at such "atas" places matches the price you pay. But truly, La Strada's comes across as unpretentious good service. For the number of times they've surprised me, I say..well done! They take pride in making sure mains, appetizers, desserts are removed promptly and arrive together. They don't hound you endlessly with the irritating phrase "do you need anything else?" which I take as a hint of "order some more!". Neither do they hover like an irritating housefly to chase you away once you're done with the meal.
2 hours it took, a good 2 hours that we enjoyed tremendously. A slow lunch for once! They change their menus on a monthly basis, the website isn't that updated though.
Customers were still streaming in even after we left at 2pm.
La Strada, I'm sure I'll be back! For exquisite food, for ambience...for service. I'm a mighty pleased customer.
$38++ per pax for 3 course/ $30++ for 2 course (appetizer and mains)
No discounts available.
www.lesamis.com.sg/
La Strada
Shaw Centre
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