Ristorante da Valentino

It's my birthday!!! And the hubby and I arranged to have dinner together. But he didn't mention where we were going. Knowing how bochap he usually is, I was expecting one of the usual places we go. To my surprise, he didn't say anything, just asked me to get in the car when he picked me up. I fell asleep, and woke up to find myself in The Grandstand. Still he kept mum about where we're having dinner. He couldn't find the place and we were staring at the directory. I asked him which restaurant he still kept quiet. Just dragged me all around the Grandstand, until we found the restaurant at some ulu corner with it's main entrance from the outside of the mall. And no signboard. It was until he spotted the menu with the restaurant name on it then he was sure he got the right place.

So here we are at Ristorante da Valentino. A quaint little Italian restaurant hidden at one corner at a mall in the middle of nowhere. He actually found it by random search online. After we browsed through the menu, the server came by and gave us a verbal commentary of the specials, of which I understood only parts of. But one of the recommended starters was something he described and sounded like 'mozzarella with tomatoes'. Hey, that sounds like Caprese salad and I like that! So we went with that (without even knowing the price actually).

When it arrived, the waiter let me take a photo of the whole plate, before he divided it into two side plates for us. And that's the moment that I was blown away, and HAD to immediately google what I thought I heard the dish is called. And I found it. That's a Burrata cheese. Something I've never heard of before this point in time, but something that replaced Buffalo mozzarella as my favourite cheese from this point forth. Imagine the freshness of Buffalo mozzarella. Now, keep that same taste in your head, but imagine a creamier, richer version. That, is Burrata. It was sooooo creamy... I looooove it. Totally. And the accompanying cherry tomatoes were so sweet and juicy, complementing the Burrata so well. I was totally in love with the whole dish.

Burrata cheese

I wanted a mushroom soup so we got mushroom soup. Theirs was served in a cup, and it was the velvety, mushroomy kind. As opposed to chunky or creamy kind, if you get my drift. Nice warm start to the meal. But pales in comparison to that amazing salad I just had. And what's Italian food without good crusty Italian bread? We were given three crusty rolls to go with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Hubby stopped at one so I polished off two. Yum. I love bread.

Mushroom soup

Crusty Italian bread

The hubby went for a Spinach lasagne. It's creamy and fragrant. I tried a bit of it and I liked it. The pasta was perfectly cooked, and the sauce perfect. But it was a little to rich for the hubby and he struggled through the second half of it. He never really did well with cream based food.

Spinach lasagne

I greedily went for the Carbonara. This was a REAL carbonara. Made with mainly eggs and lots of cheese, very little (if any) cream. It was RICH! I did enjoy the 'realness' of it, but I found the pasta a little too al dente to my liking. I would have preferred the pasta be cooked that little bit longer. So actually, I found myself liking my hubby's dish more...

Carbonara

Overall, I enjoyed the dinner. I'm not sure if the Burrata totally skewed my impression of this place to a highly positive bias. That may well be, because now as I'm writing, I remember I didn't enjoy the Carbonara. But it's a nice cosy place for that special occasion. In fact, we were almost the only Singaporeans in that restaurant. Almost all other guests were Caucasians! Guess that speaks volumes about its authenticity.

Ristorante da Valentino

200 Turf Club Road, #01-19
Singapore 287994
Tel: 6462 0555
Email: ristvale(@)singnet.com.sg
SMS - 9463 8033