[Media Invite] Vita Italiana Restaurant @ 38 Mosque Street Chinatown

The name Vita Italiana may be familiar to some, but did you know that a new owner had taken over this place since May 2016, revamped its concept to an osteria-style with no menu and serving up rustic Italian home-fare just as mamma (or papa) would've made it. Owner/Chef Carmine is both a gregarious and humorous host, who's equally adept at utilizing both imported ingredients from his hometown in Abruzzo, Italy as well as from locally sourced produced from our wet markets.

To get there, the walk from the bus stop opposite of Hong Lim Complex took me about 10 minutes. Parking lots near the restaurant are limited and if you're lucky enough to secure one, do remember to put up the parking coupons (when appicable) as I've seen the parking 'uncle' coming around to check. Allow about 1.5 hours of dining time if you're doing 5 courses or more.

restaurant facade

coming round from the side

concept and pricing info

What's this concept of 'no menu' osteria style?
To put it simply, Chef decides on what to cook for you. For diners, the only thing that they need to do is to put their trust in Chef Carmine's good hands and able team.


Reservation is encouraged as the restaurant is a small and cosy place, much like a friend's home. Arrive at the restaurant and be greeted by the friendly restaurant manager, Giorgia. We learnt that she's from the northern part of Italy.

cosy space

Be seated, and Chef Carmine will be out to greet the guests. Chef would then enquire if you have any dietary requirements. Vegan? Not a problem. Has allergy to seafood? Sure, that can be replaced with other meats.

Osteria-style No Menu Course Options (aka Set Your Budget)
Diners can opt to choose how many courses they would like to eat. The very basic quick lunch set will simply be a two-course meal of either a soup/salad and a pasta for just $12++.

If you are not in a hurry, then a 3-course lunch meal can be enjoyed for just $28++ while 5-course is reasonably priced at $38++.

For dinner, diners have the option to have 9 course Chef's table meal for $68++ and 13 course for $98++.

From our experience, if you are in a group of 4-pax, you could do the 7 to 9 course meal. Desserts are included in the 9-course meal onwards.

For beer/wine lovers, do try the beer/wine pairing by topping up $38++ for 5 glasses of beer from the Collesi Birra Artigianale collection. We tried the Ambrata, Triplo Malto and Nera and they were all very good. You can arrange with Giorgia if you'd like to pair with beer or wine for the same price, or interchange the option.

Collesi - Italian Artisan Beer

award winning beer

The Experience

pouring of Italian craft beer

Liked how the staff genuinely wants you to experience the hospitality of Italians and the homely fares of Italian cuisine.

Ambrata

Started the night with Collesi Birra Ambrata with its slightly deep amber hues, honeyed malt and caramel profile with slight fruitty hoppy taste. Slight sweetness and smooth.

The antipasti platter was brought out shortly after. The serving sizes are of tapas portions and good for our party of 4-pax. The appetiser platter had so many things in it! There were two types of breads, a good mound of greens with tomatoes and olives (unpitted), cured meats (salame di Sant'Olcese), and two types of cheeses (buffalo mozzarella and taleggio).

Antipasti (2 courses)

Potato Foccacia

Salame Di Sant'Olcese

Buffalo Mozzarella

Taleggio

The most interesting was the thick cut salame and the squares of taleggio cheese. Interesting as this was my first time tasting this kind of cured meat and cheese. The meat was cut thickly in strip form. Very meaty, and somewhat juicy. Not too salty. The semi-soft Taleggio cheese has a nice strong flavour that's quite likeable. So good with the breads and salad. Goes well with the beer.

For the third and fourth courses, Chef cooked us seafood. The Prawn and Scallop with Saffron sauce and the Grilled Salmon on Pomelo with white sauce. Looked dainty and pretty. The flavours were rather subtle for the prawn and scallop.

Third Course - Prawn and Scallop in Saffron cream

Fourth Course - Grilled Salmon on pomelo with white sauce

The salmon was well-cooked and pomelo gave it just a slight tang of citrussy-bitter flavour. The white vinegar sauce was good with the fish.

Fifth Course - Lamb

Next up, we got a lamb dish. Grilled lamb rack with beans and bok choy and decorated with stalk of wilted chili. The lamb was tender with a slight chew and not gamey. The seasoning for the lamb was rather mild. The grilled chili was quite nice to eat with its slight smokey flavour.

For the meats, it was paired with Triplo Malto. The Ambrata works as well as that beer is an all-rounder that can be paired with anything. Liked the Triplo too and it has a slightly higher alcohol content as compared to Ambrata. Both were refreshing.

Cheers with Triplo Malto

Sixth Course - Pork Ribs with Fregula in brown sauce

Fregula is one of the more 'unusual' pasta that we seldom see nor order when we have Italian food in Singapore. Served with pork ribs, the fregula made semolina dough, offers a slightly 'popping' texture similar to barley. Grab a spoonful of that pasta and it was quite an enjoyable texture and flavour. The pork ribs were well-cooked and fork tender with slightly burnt edges.

As the flavours gets stronger, we then progressed to Nera, a dark beer similar to stout. This beer had won the World Beer Awards - Imperial Stout Gold Medal 2015.

Nera

If you're wondering if there's carbs in the course-meal, then answer is yes. Usually, there will be one pasta course. For that day, we got carbonara done in legit Italian style which is without cream!

Seventh Course - Carbonara

By now, we were all pretty stuffed from all the food and drinks! But, the carbonara was seriously good. Glad to taste it in tapas portion, so that's more manageable. Cooked simply with pancetta/bacon and egg with thin strands of pasta noodles. What a treat!

yummy carbonara

For finale, we ended with 3-course desserts. All are made in-house and we got tiramisu, panna cotta and vanilla ice-cream. The tiramisu here is a version without any liqour. Loved all the desserts, especially the panna cotta.

Desserts - Tiramisu, Panna Cotta and vanilla gelato

And, the unofficial dessert? The limoncello, a digestif aperitif. Sweet, strong and tangy. To be sipped slowly.

limoncello

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and we learnt something new about Italian cuisine. Reasonably priced and diners would get to chat with Italian natives about life in another country, food preferences, history, culture etc.

Special thanks to Vita Italiana Restaurant and Chef Carmine for your hospitality, and Giorgia for taking care of our table. Thank you Ivan and Chope SG for the invite.

Vita Italiana Restaurant

Address: 38 Mosque St. Singapore 059516
Website: www.vita-italiana.sg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VitaItalianaRestaurant/

Contact: 6220 0093
Reservation: http://www.chope.co/singapore-restaurants/restaurant/vita-italiana-restaurant
Business Hours: Mon-Sun: 12-2:30pm, 6-10:30pm

Nearest bus stop: Opposite Hong Lim Complex
Nearest MRT: Chinatown

[Media Invite] The RawR Kitchen @ The Splendour Bukit Batok Crescent

The RawR Kitchen is a cosy little bistro in the day serving homely comfort Italian-styled food. It is also a local micro brewery that has been recently awarded Silver in the 2016 Southeast Asia Beer Award for its Weizen (wheat beer). Another favourite of mine, Hitachino was also awarded for its Pilsner and Stout.

But where in the world is this bistro brewery located? Address states 31 Bukit Batok Crescent, The Splendour. The only places in Bukit Batok that I know of would be Bukit Batok MRT and bus interchange, Little Guilin and Keming Primary School.

The Splendour is actually an industrial area, so unless you're staying or working nearby, then likely this will be the first time getting to know its name. A quick search on Google, and you'll see that the landmark to The Splendour would be Unity Center. It was not difficult to get to Bukit Batok Crescent but locating The Splendour was a tad tricky for first timers. Once you turn in to The Splendour, go down and turn left and you'll see a Japanese restaurant called Kotoshi Ryori. RawR is located at level 2 above Kotoshi Ryori.

Bus #189 from Clementi MRT station towards Bukit Batok would bring you to Bukit Batok Crescent Midview Building bus stop. From there, it is walkable to The Splendour. The RawR Kitchen (#02-01) is accessible via the lift at the right side of Kotoshi.

entrance

cosy bistro

drink beer, fresh brewed craft

But what is craft beer? The loose definition of craft beer; beer made in a traditional or non-mechanized way by a small, independant brewery. Simply put, craft beers are beer not brewed by 'mega-brewery' or the big boys. Then, what is a microbrewery? A small independant breweries that produces less than 1,800,000 liters (or 15,000 beer barrels) annually.

Ok, 'nuff talk. Getting thirsty and hungry! Let's see what RawR has to offer.The prices of craft beer here are all day Happy Hour pricing. Nothing more than $11++.

coffee, or ontap?

Not to worry if you're a teetotaller, there's still coffee. But, for the drinkers, there's enough choices to warrant repeat visits. Or, just get their craft beer buffet on weekends. For $35 nett, you'll get to drink as much as you want, as many flavours (up to 11 taps, depending on availability) within 2 hours time limit. But a word of caution, and yes, if you drink then don't drive.

light sampler (left to right) cider, wheat beer and root beer

brown sampler (left to right) brown ale, english bitter and pilsner

dark sampler (right to left) IPA, dunkel, stout

Was privileged to be able to sample 9 types of beer ontap, but it was hard to focus once you've found your favourite.

Let's see what kind of beer that I've drunk and liked. There's Kölsch (RedDot), White Ale (Hitachino Nest), Tokyo Blonde (Far Yeast), Chimay Rouge (Trappist), Asahi, Sapporo, Kronenbourg Blanc, Satan Gold and ciders. Usually Belgian and Japanese stuffs.

Guess which is my favourite from RawR?
The Root Beer. Yeah, where the beer is finally restored back to its origin. Did you know that the tradition of brewing root beer was thought to have evolved from small beer, where fermented drinks with low alcohol content were thought to be healthier as water contamination was rampant then.

RawR Root Beer ABV 3%

I think it wasn't a good idea to drink the award-winning Wheat Beer after the Root Beer. Nevertheless, the Wheat Beer has a light golden colour, fresh yeasty taste and overall balanced flavour.

The other drink that I thought was quite interesting, was the Dunkel with its pronounced roastiness. The Stout was very coffee-like, smooth and at times hinging on a bit of saltiness especially when drunk after food.

Yes, the drinks are all laid out on the table but what about the food at RawR? With all the drinks, am ready for something hearty and hearty is what RawR does well.

Carbonara Spaghetti @$13++

A generous plate of noodles cooked with lots of bacon, onions, garlic, then added with small dose of cream and topped with a raw egg sprinkled with lots of black pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Hmm, the prawns...not too sure why there are prawns in the carbonara but I'll eat it with thanks.

pretty, isn't it?

The carbonara is just the cure for the hungries. Slurp up the noodles easily, and each bite surely has some bacon bits and onions in it. Yummy.

But, the best is yet to come.

The Bolognese Spaghetti was really photogenic even in its simple form. Pasta, meat sauce and grated cheese. However, the meat sauce was really a labour of love. Cooked and stirred over 6 hours before we, as diners, finally got to eat it. And this effort, was conveyed through the taste. My first mouthful was so good that I kept wanting more of that. Was also thinking if they have nachos chips to scoop up those minced meat...wonder if they'd ever do a spicy version of this...

Bolognese Spaghetti @$11++

You might have known by now that RawR serves up some mean Molten Wings. Dangerously high in spice level that its printed red on the menu. Would I be eating some? No, thank you. Lucky us, we got the Salted Egg Yolk Wings instead.

Salted Egg Yolk Wings @$7++ (3 wings)

These sets of wings were so juicy, so tasty! The size of the wings were reasonable. The salted egg yolk sauce wasn't overpowering and one could still taste the marinade of the wings. Very good to go with the beers.


Hop on down on weekends (Fri, Sat and Sun), and you could drink like a fish with their Craft Beer Buffet priced at $35 nett per pax for 2 hours. How many glasses of beers have you tried drinking in two hours? And on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, do keep a lookout for the deep fried pork belly that's not available on weekdays.

the pull of craft beers ontap

craft beer buffet

Overall, RawR Kitchen is a good place to visit for locally fresh brewed craft beers and hearty, good food.
Root beer will taste the same, but yet, never be the same again thereafter.

Thank you RawR Kitchen for hosting the dinner, and Hence for the invite.

CATO Restaurant Bar Lounge @ 237 South Bridge Road Chinatown

The CATO name had recently popped up all over my instagram feeds. Ivan mentioned that he wanted to revisit the place and thus, decided to tag along. Even more so since he mentioned that they have good craft beers. Keke.

Located just opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, this was a rather unusual place to have a bar/lounge. The contrast between the external and internal vibe are apparent, and for us cafe hoppers on our 6th place for the day, the indoor airconditioning was a welcome respite from the heat wave outside.

Coincidentally, someone in the group mentioned about wanting to find a Halloween themed place to visit. Lo and behold, we walked right into one. Unintentionally, of course. No reservations, but upstairs is available, we were told. Carefully, we walked up the stairs to the empty and dark space. The Halloween party has not started since it was just before 730pm.

CATO @ Level 2 - The Bar Lounge area

They've done a pretty good job in the decorating the place for 31 October. Since there were no other patrons during that time, went about exploring the Level 2 area.

newspaper clippings of horrid tales, and that jar...

There were a few other installations near where we sat that upped the spook factor. Of course, the only real goosebump inducing ones would be the much talked about CCTV footage of this place that has been circulating over the internet. Am not going to see the video (yes, am a scaredy cat) and no, we still had our drinks and snacks before we left.

Contrary to earlier expectations, the selection of craft beer at CATO is still somewhat limited with only 11 choices. Decided on Belgium ones. The guys ordered something from the tapas menu to munch. For teetotellers, there's ginger ale, sparkling water and juices.

Modern Times Blackhouse Coffee Stout (USA) 5.8% ABV @$16++

Tried a sip of the coffee stout and it was bitter and strong, as expected. Ugh, not my kind of drink though.

St Bernardus Abbot 12 (Belgium) 10% ABV @$18++

Hmm, not sure why but beer brewed by Trappist monastery is always delicious. This one is still a pretty dark beer, fruity aroma with bitter finish and very dry. The kick will only come after the bottle has been drunk up.

The snacks from the tapas menu provided the accompaniment to the drinks. The online menu can be found here.

Beer Beef Chili and Cheese Fries @$12++

Crispy Squid in Thai Style Glazed @$12++

Lamb Skewers with Onions served with chili and peanut gravy @$16++

The crispy squid was seriously crispy, and done well. Tasty, with a hint of Thai seasoning and was that sweetness that appeared after the salt dip? Interesting and paired well with the drinks. The lamb skewers were good too. Tender lamb, and sauce that complements the meat. Not gamey at all. Nice.

The beef chili fries had a somewhat more muted flavour than expected. Perhaps, I have not tasted enough of beef chili fries for a fair comparison.

As we were finishing our beer, the DJ arrived and started spinning some tracks. The mood turned party-ish hip, and steady streams of party-goers decked out in their Halloween best started appearing at Level 2. There was a butterfly (or, I thought she wanted to be a fairy?), a samsui woman, and the usual suspects of ghouls.

All in all, this was an interesting place with an equally interesting tale.

However, am not sure why there are still places that has alcoholic drinks for on-site consumption but yet, does not provide free drinking water to its customers.

Nickeldime Drafthouse @ Novena

"Let's see what they have, over there." Friend suggested after a heavy dinner at Hong Kong Street. Looked over and saw the word "B E E R". Grinned at my friend and said, "Let's have a drink."

That was how we got acquainted with Nickeldime, with bright neon lights and all.

went towards the lights

da bao beer?

The 15 beers on tap are flashed on-screen. Or, just let Frank know whether you'd like 'em sour, salty, or sweet. I mentioned sweet, so he recommended Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar. Tasted nutty, slight sweetish hints of hazelnut with an almost lingering bitter aftertaste.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Subsequent visit, we went for Sapporo draft. Nothing beats ice cold beer on a warm night. Frank is seriously friendly, and he introduced a couple of Japanese craft beers to try.

Sapporo 1-for-1 during Happy Hour (before 7pm)

My personal favourite was this bottle of Far Yeast Tokyo Blonde. This is a lager/pilsner beer and very drinkable. Tasted pretty yeasty, slightly citrussy, a bit floral with hints of sweetness and dry. Yums.

Nippon Craft Beer - Far Yeast Tokyo Blonde

Next up, from the same brewery we tried the Kagua Blanc. Hmm, this guy was a bit more lemoney. Very much lime-wheat kind of drink. Refreshing.

Nippon Craft Beer - Kagua Blanc

 Interestingly, there's a Kagua Rouge. A pair of craft beer. Crafty.

Nippon Craft Beer - Kagua Rouge

With a deep colour similar to Tokyo Blonde, but Kagua Rouge had a very distinctive aroma to it.  And its perfume-like aroma was something that's light, and somewhat sweet. Said to pair well with food, but we've yet to try. Was always after dinner nearby, so no more space for food.

And for the daring, you may want to try the sour beer. Salty and pungent sounds more apt. Really. Sour beer is said to be up-and-coming 'in' thing to drink, but one sip for me is enough. Thanks, but no thanks. An acquired taste, but hey, it sure was interesting.

only know this as 'sour beer' but am pretty sure it has its proper name. Definitely not a Japanese beer

In just a few weeks' time, sometime in August, be sure to visit Nickeldime for its new addition to the bar. Cheers!

Nickeldime Drafthouse

Address: 273 Thomson Rd, #01-06 Novena Gardens, Singapore 307644
Contact: 6256 0261
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/nickeldimesg
Website: http://www.nickeldimedrafthouse.com/