The solid and incredibly-affordable Northern Italian grub will very well please the CBD crowd on weekdays and families on weekends
No doubt Singapore is blessed with great Italian restaurants, but few does amazing plates at affordable prices quite like Bottura, a new casual dining spot recently opened at the revamped northern wing of Suntec City Mall.
If the name of the restaurant sounds familiar, that’s because there is, indeed, some association with celebrity chef Massimo Bottura, the man behind three-Michelin-star restaurant Osteria Francescana. In fact, owner Luca Bottura is the cousin of the famous Italian restauranteur – and boy, that’s a lot of pressure upholding the legendary family name.
But this humble 144-seat establishment doesn’t disappoint. The rustic, Italian comfort food on the menu of over 100 items recalls Luca’s Northern Italian heritage, with a cold cuts platter from Emilia Romagna served with tigelle bread, beautiful handmade pasta, flavoursome grandma-style pizzas, a small array of piadina, and wonderful house-made gelato – all priced below $25 (save for the extra large 2-feet pizza to share, at $30). Love what you ate? There’s a retail section stocked with dry foods and vinos imported from Italy so you can recreate the experience at home.
[URIS id=65686]
On our visit, we tried the tagliere di affettati e formaggi misti con tigelle e marmellate, which comes with freshly cut, paper-thin slices of salty cold cuts and cheese, as well as a piadina stuffed with parma ham, house-made stracchino cheese and rocket. These delightful treats were followed to the table by Bottura’s generally impeccable pastas, all of which are made from scratch in the kitchen. Our favourites are the melting four-cheese gnocchi and the bright polenta lasagna with traditional ragù and béchamel sauce. The Marinara is heavily-slathered with tomato, garlic and oregano; while the rockmelon, parma ham and mozzella pizza will be a hit with those who love the traditional Italian antipasti.
The simple desserts, which consists of classics like tiramisu, crem caramel, panna cotta and many flavours of gelato, are welcoming counterpoints to the general richness of the dishes. Drinks are equally affordable – a glass of Italian wine costs only $8.50 all day. If you’re there for the first time and can’t decide what to order, go for the degustation menu that is customised according to your preferences and budget.
Bottura, #02-472/473/474 Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Avenue, Singapore, 038983, p 6238 7527. Open daily 10am-10pm.