Place to get sugar high !

jason.bonvivant | Aug 9 2009

I finally got the chance to give this place a try. At the entrance of the restaurant there is a long dessert fridge displaying a large selection of various cakes, tarts and pies. According to my sources, this place is well known of its dessert, especially the traditional french desserts. French desserts in an Italian restaurant? hummm .... Anyhow, the atmosphere was bright and decor was clean and modern. One thing I noticed right away was the percentage of female diners at this place (at least during lunch hours), almost 95% were females! I guess the desserts are doing the trick. Alright, back to the food, set lunches were being offered with starters and desserts in buffet style. The less expensive set consisted of various pasta and pizza selections while the slightly more expensive set consisted of main dishes such steak and etc.

While my friends and I were going through the set lunch menu, the basket of breads were served along with the various sauces (but no butter). The breads were warm which was good and there were many varieties as well. I have been having problem sleeping these past few nights so I ordered a cup of Cappuccino hoping it would help me wake up a bit. Unfortunately, I did not think it had much effect because it was not strong enough and I remained sleepy throughout the rest of the day.

(1) Starters
There were a large selection of starter items, ranged from various cold cuts, parma ham, salad to cold pasta. The thinly sliced parma ham was pretty good and got restocked very frequently. The rest of the items were so-so, nothing surprising there.

(2) Gnocchi di patate al Cacao, taleggio e Verza
(hand made chocolate gnocchi in taleggio cheese sauce) When I ordered this pasta, I had no idea how it is going to look like or how it is going to taste like. I was looking for something new to try. According to wikipedia, "the word gnocchi means 'lumps'... [and] ... it has been a traditional Italian pasta type of probably Middle Eastern origin." There is no better word to describe it other than lumps! (or maybe little bread crumbs like pasta). Due to the color of the gnocchi being served (ie: Chocolate), my friend said it looked like "you know what" ... @_@ ... but I tried to ignore that comment because I still want give it a try and have a honest opinion about it. It was indeed interesting, texture wise it was literally like lumps of flour / pasta but taste wise, I did not taste any traces of chocolate at all. Maybe the reference to chocolate is simply the color of it. The taleggio cheese sauce was fair but slightly too creamy. The combination of gnocchi and creamy cheese sauce made it a very filling dish.

(3) Spaghetti neri Gamberi e Porri
(Prawn and leek spaghetti) First thing I asked myself when this dish was served was whether traditional spaghetti should be that thick. Maybe it was a special type or variation of common spaghetti. I checked Wikipedia / web once again and it seems there are no standard thickness for spaghetti as long as the basic nature if it being long and round remain. The long, round and very thick spaghetti being served was ... al dente? Nah ... I don't think so; maybe it was just overly chewy and a bit undercooked. I was not sure because the such thick spaghetti was something I never tired before. The sauce was light but rich in flavor but the prawns seemed to be frozen shrimps. According to my friend who had this dish, it was a rather filling due the thickness of the spaghetti.

(4) Spaghetto al promodoro Fresco ed Olive nere
(Spaghetti in black olive and fresh tomato sauce) The same type of spaghetti was used for this pasta. I did not get to try but according to my friend, it lacked some flavors to it and the pasta was a bit too chewy. Also, my friend tasted the flour in the pasta which is a definite sign of pasta being undercooked! Thumbs down !

(5) Dessert
The dessert was of buffet style as well and there was a wide selection of it. However, maybe due to the traditional French style desserts being offered here, most of the tarts and cakes offered were so sweet and so rich. I am a fan of sweet things but I still found most items to be very sweet. Good that there were fruits for me to balance the sweetness. I hate to let any food (or dessert in this case) to go to waste, but I just could not finish all of them or even one single mini tarts. Finishing the whole plate of desserts would definitely exceed my sugar quota for the rest of the WEEK ! (to quote from my friend, "if I finish the whole plate, I would've be sugar high for the rest of the afternoon!")

Likes:
* Clean and modern Decor

Dislikes:
* Undercooked spaghetti (the thickest spaghetti I have ever seen so far)
* Amazingly sweet desserts (especially tarts and pies) - if you are looking to get "sugar high", please forget about your Coke and give the desserts here a try

Original Blog with Pics: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/07/gvsto.html
- Food 5
- Service 6
- Ambiance 5
- Price 3
Surprisingly OK

Peech | Jun 19 2009

I started with the panzanella al pofumo con burrata di bufala. This bread salad turned out to be a little different from my expectations, but it was OK. Shredded pieces of bread was mixed with chopped cucumber, tomato, red onions and topped with burrata cheese. Plenty of basil sauce to provide flavor.

I chose the signature dish of spaghettoni al nero di seppia con calamari e agrumi as my second course. The thick noodles frankly were a little too al dente for me, becoming a little harder to chew due to its size. But the taste was absolutely delicious. The squid ink along with tiny rings of calamari provided flavors of the sea, enhanced by garlic. Chopped cherry tomatoes added a bit of acidity, and the final touch was the thin strips of lemon zest that gave the dish the added kick. I thought everything worked very well together.

The panna rappresa al limone con fragole fresche e menta was the perfect dessert to end this meal. The lemon-flavored clotted cream had the right acidity, and the strawberries balanced that very nicely. I could have had two of these...

The very friendly manager - who had been checking up on us all evening - kindly offered us a glass of Barolo Chinato.

original blogpost w notes on wine: http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2009/06/other-twin.html
- Food 7
- Service 7
- Ambiance 6
- Price 4
Hit and Miss

888foodie | May 16 2009

I had the set lunch, which is only priced at a max of $200...the antipasti and salad buffet had some excellent and tasty choices, and the desserts were great, but the mains were just OK, nothing great. They say the pasta is handmade, and while it was tasty the texture was too heavy.
- Food 5
- Service 5
- Ambiance 6
- Price 3