This swish CBD restaurant serves up exquisite Italian plates, stellar cocktails, and fine wine, sans crazy high prices
The CBD’s been welcoming quite a number of new kids on the block of late, and Osteria Art is the latest addition to this growing list of hot new restaurants in town. But you know, each time we see a new establishment pop up, we cross our fingers and hope to the food gods that the plates aren’t anywhere near exorbitant. We stopped by this Italian dining spot and heaved a sigh of relief.
Brought to you by restaurateur extraordinaire Beppe De Vito (the man behind familiar names like &SONS, il Lido, and Southbridge), the place looks super posh – red leather seats, handmade jewel-like brass sconces, a cherry-wood bar, designer copper lamps – but the food and drinks on offer are surprisingly affordable for such a swanky restaurant.
Antipasti like the tuna tartare with truffle and egg mimosa ($23) and porcini mushroom flan with truffle leek veloute ($22) were absolutely delish and mains such as the black cod caciucco with scampi ($32) and suckling pig porchetta ($98, good for two) were impressive. But what really left our taste buds begging for more was dessert of olive oil cake with Amalfi lemon sorbet ($12). Comforting, light, uncomplicated – the traditional Italian treat was pure perfection on a plate.
Don’t leave after dessert, though. Head on over to the bar for some post-dinner cocktails (very few are priced above $20), bar food, and fine wine (Osteria Art has over 500 labels for you to choose from when it comes to the latter). Try the prosecco-based Challenge ($12) – a mix of moscato, peach, and elderflower – if you like your poison sweet, or go for the Barchetta ($12) for a refreshing sage, thyme, and bay leaf-infused gin mix with Contratto Vermouth Bianco, cucumber, lemon, and soda. Got room for more food? We recommend the bite-sized wonders of truffle and burrata panini ($18) and crab and smoked scamorza sliders ($15).
Osteria Art, #01-01, 55 Market Street, Singapore 048941, p. 6877 6933. Open Mon-Fri 12pm-2:30pm, 6pm-10:30pm, Sat 6pm-10:30pm.