Pizzeria Mozza, Marina Bay Sands

{ Cheesy bread stick (?) }

{ Fried squash blossoms with ricotta ($18) }

{ "Meat Lover's" - Bacon, salami, fennel sausage, pancetta, tomato & mozzarella ($37) }

{ Butterscotch budino, Maldon sea salt & rosemary pine nut cookies ($16) }

Spagio Pizzeria, Liang Seah Street

The accepted consensus between the two of us when it comes to buying Groupon or like vouchers, is that it's a lot safer to get cash value vouchers ($15 for $30 value etc.) rather than a set menu voucher ($15 for 3 course meal!). Besides the obvious issue of flexibility, many a times we've been conned into a really, really, really mediocre (some crap) 3 course meals, most likely a minimum-cost specially-prepared set for coupon abusers.

 The latest in our coupon list was Spagio Pizzeria, and this small pizza shop tucked at the tail end of Liang Seah Street (Shaw Towers side) is definitely not in the best of spots for human traffic.

{ Caprese Salad ($8.50) }

Slice of fresh mozzarella and tomato seasoned with olive oil and fresh basil

 We opted for the caprese salad ... the tomatoes came pale (appears red only cos of color correction) and greens yellow-y and wilting - not a good impression at all. Thankfully (!!!), the cheese was lovely - 5 thick and creamy slices of mozzarella, and the basil-ed oil gave it a wonderful lift. Just please, take better care of the vegetable colors!

{ Manzo (12" for $18) }

Tomato, mozzarella, thin slice beef, rocket salad and shaved parmesan cheese

 Instead of the regular prosciutto we opted for something slightly different ... in fact I'm not sure if we got the right pizza.

(1) The waiter uttered some other name, and we said we ordered Manzo, and he was like "that's right ..." and plopped it down. Hmm.
(2) I'm no expert, but that's baby spinach and not rocket. And we didn't even realize it until the next day as we had forgotten what was written on the menu. Damn!

So ... yes. Mystery pizza. Even so, the crust was good, thin and crisp. The thin slice beef, however, looks (and tasted) remarkably like cured ham. Shaved parmesan cheese ... at 3 paltry thin slices it shouldn't even be on the description. And after the fat chunks of mozzarella in the salad, this barely had enough to cover the dough.  

{ Tiramisu ($6) }

Layers in mascarpone, flavoured with aromatic coffee and kahlua

 Not quite sure what this was but it wasn't quite tiramisu. We couldn't quite taste the mascarpone, coffee OR the kahlua, it was just a mushy soft cake, and totally butchery but overdose of Hershey's chocolate and strawberry drizzle.

All in all, nothing great, and the tiramisu was sadly butchered. If you're looking for a decent pizzeria, do check out either Spizza or Etna for no disappointments.

Spagio Pizzeria

2 Liang Seah Street

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HGW Link (no rating at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/spagio-pizzeria-bugis/
Rating (out of 4) :

Etna Restaurant & Pizzeria, Duxton Road

 Can't quite remember how we decided on Etna but I think our decision-process went something like:

Friday night > need a drink and lots of carbs to comfort ourselves at the end of a hectic work week > mm yes carbs please > pizza to share? > Italian > somewhere near town > Tanjong Pagar > been meaning to try Etna haven't we? > oh hey they have DBS credit card discount > let's go

So to Etna we went.

 Yep!

 I had made a prior reservation through reserveit and would recommend it for an easy-peasy and instant way of getting a table (if, like me, you'd rather use a website than speak to a living being).

 I on the other hand (despite being a technologist) prefer speaking to a living being to make reservations simply because I know such websites can be unreliable, buggy and prone to human synchronization at times. But it worked well this time!

 Bread was served warm and very aromatic with bits of sundried tomato, olives and herbs. It was great by itself, but we dabbed away at the olive oil/balsamic.

 Awesome bread, lightly toasted and crispy.

{ Burrata di Andria con Insalata Rucola e Pomodorini Pachino ($28 + $4 for ham) }

Fresh mozzarella cheese served with rocket salad and Pachino cherry tomatoes

 We saw a tray of this burrata cheese making its way from the kitchen to a table nearby and were so impressed/curious that we called out to a waiter to make sure we got the same :) bit pricey this one - but we were informed that we were getting the freshest batch of air-flown cheese from Italy! The outer mozzarella side was firm, inside was wobbly and milky.. very interesting! The ham was good (nice saltiness), and the tomatoes worthy of praise also (so sweet!).

 Fan-fuckin-tastic, defintiely the best burrata I've had, and in fact we were reassured that this parrticular batch of cheese just arrived that very afternoon! And the pomodorinos were great as well, a sweet, rich taste rather distinct from other cherry tomatoes.

{ Etna ($25) }

Mozzarella cheese, porcini mushrooms, Parma ham, cream cheese, pistachio (from Bronte in Sicily)

 There are a couple of choices for pizzas, but we had to go with the namesake Etna pizza.This was absolutely delicious! I love the crust - it's just the right thinness + doughiness for me. The MUSHROOMS are out of this world.. it puts all other mushrooms to shame really. I question the purported origin of the pistachio but I think it adds a slight albeit interesting depth to the combination of parma ham and cheese.

 My boss did mention that the porcini mushroom pizza was great, and in the back of my head I was thinking ~mushroom pizza?? Where's my double bacon pizza playa?~ But this. THIISSSS. Boy oh boy. The first few bites it was hmm, yea this herb mix with the ham is really good! But when I bite into the mushroom motherload, the earthiness of the supreme-king-juicy porcini with the generous truffle oil (real truffle or no, who cares??) was incredible. At the crust - perfectly thin, crispy yet foldable without breaking.

{ Pistachio and Hazelnut Gelato ($7) }

 At this point, as we were finishing up our glasses of wine and polishing remains of bread, we sheepishly decided on dessert although we were barely managing to breathe :P Chose the gelato instead for something 'non-cake'. These came in smaller-than-usual scoops which was quite disappointing. However flavour-wise, the hazelnut one is really good!

 We would love to try their pastas if we were ever to return, but I don't see how much else in Etna could top the burrata and pizza that we had.

Etna Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

50 Duxton Road

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Main website : http://www.sicilia-mia.com/
HGW Link (79% recommended at time of writing) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Etna_Italian_Restaurant___Pizzeria__Duxton_/
Rating (out of 4) :

Hot Kitchen Bar & Bistro, Mistri Road

 We had bought a 1-for-1 pasta voucher for this place, after seeing that they offer naked carbonara (without cream!). Long since the fantastical traditional-carbonara-done-right at Avanti (seems hit and miss in the reviews now, but the carbonara should still be amazing), I've been trying to find a carbonara to match. Unfortunately, most of the Italian places I've been to since, definitely fell short.

 This spot is definitely ... strange. Mistri Road (indeed a mystery) was a tiny road neatly tucked between Anson Centre and M Hotel, near Shenton Way (opposite a big McD). Being a bar with lots of offices nearby, place was abound with people having after-work drinks.

 Very very strangely, while I wouldn't they have plenty of empty tables available, we were escorted to the very end of the outdoor seating area, where I was rather literally, staring down the above alley point into nowhere. Oh well, not did I minded since  was in the way!

{ Naked Carbonara ($16) }

As it should be, without cream

 Moment of truth - carbonara! But ... well it is without cream. In that sense, it was true to its word. But it's not carbonara - in fact nowhere near! Taste was closer to aglio olio with scrambled egg. The taste of garlic was fairly strong, and the egg yolks were mixed in while the pasta was still hot - thus causing scrambled eggs! But in all honesty, I actually still quite loved it. The bacon was generous and taste wise was still pretty packed (though a salty garlicky taste was predominant).

{ Chicken Pesto ($16) }

Roasted chicken slices tossed & cooked off with our signature home made asian basil pesto

 I can never resist pesto - in fact it's my go-to pasta base - so when I saw this I knew I had to try! This is a slightly spicier rendition of the traditional one I'm familiar with. It also uses asian basil which somehow seemed to give a Thai flavour (?) Very interesting! Lots of chicken bits too. For stated price of $16 this is pretty worth it in my books.

This didn't really strike us as a place to have a 'proper' dinner as most patrons seem to be taking advantage of the happy hour. But we were quite surprised by the quality and portion of the pasta that we had and would recommend this if you're nearby.

Hot Kitchen Bar & Bistro

2 Mistri Road

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Main website : http://snipurl.com/thehotkitchen
HGW Link (100% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/The_Hot_Kitchen_Bar___Bistro/
Rating (out of 4) :