Tag Archives: senso

Forgettable Set Lunch @ La Villa on 16Jul2013

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beef carpaccio with ricola salad & shaved parmesan

beef carpaccio with ricola salad & shaved parmesan

1 of the co-founders of Fundonate (a social networking charity efundraising site we started last year=see Fundonate- Share, Give & Receive) called for a lunch meeting on 16.7.2013. he decided on La Villa. La Villa is owned by Senso group (see Relaxed Dining @ Senso) and is located at the old River Valley Primary School at River Valley Road. 🙂

La Villa S$30pax set lunch menu

La Villa S$30pax set lunch menu

i had amex palate discounts but it was only 20% off ala carte orders for 5pax so we opted for the S$30pax set lunch instead.

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the ambience was great, slightly rustic with the timber trussed ceiling, spacious & bright. 🙂 not so many diners though, like many decent average restaurants in Singapore!

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for the choice of starters, the beef carpaccio with ricola salad, rockets & shaved parmesan was good. the preparation was similar to Senso, basically relying on the sweet original taste of beef (my preference would be a dash of balsamic cream, olive oil & sea salt). 🙂

the wild mushroom soup of the day & the mesclun salad with tuna flakes were quite ok too.

rigatoni with seafood

rigatoni with seafood

chicken wrapped with bacon

chicken wrapped with bacon

for choice of main course, none of us took the hawaiian pizza. the rigatoni seafood looked pathetic really, though the taste was ok (like not horrible), it was a just average, “nothing” dish & a pathetic serving in terms of quantity & ingredients. the chicken wrapped with ham looked better & tasted ok by my friends’ account. i would say confidently that i do a better pasta by miles, and a better chicken too!

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for desserts, i had a berry cheesecake.it was a good cheese cake..the tiramisu looked right & my friends said it was ok but not much liquer flavour..the mango mille feuille tower looked & tasted ok too it seemed.

overall while we had a good meeting & discussion, food-wise it was entirely a forgettable one. at S$30pax for 3-course+coffee, couldn’t really say it was expensive. but now that i am at an age where i need to be selective on the calories i consume, this would not fall within the worthwhile calories category..haha. 🙂 won’t be back, especially when there are so many good lunch deals in Singapore!

c.h.e.f andy

Relaxed Dining @ Senso on 13Jul2013

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burrata cheese with St Daniele prosciutto – S$26

i am thinking of stopping my amex palate privileges which offer 1pax off discounts for ala carte orders at a number of outlets i mostly not motivated to frequent. anyway before the card expires, might as well use it. 🙂 we decided to go to Senso. it is a restaurant i used to go for business lunches when i was working in that area years ago, but have not visited for many years.

ala carte prices at this kind of restaurants are usually on the high side unless you are doing business entertainment, so i was not attracted to frequent. with palate privileges 50% off for 2pax, it would still be more costly than set lunches, but since we were doing dinner, we thought we would revisit the place. 🙂

Senso is located at a Club Street conservation terrace so it has great relaxed ambience with an enclosed outdoor courtyard. still we opted for air-con indoor seating. 🙂 you could see that the waiting staff were well-trained & efficient.

bread basket

bread basket

warm bread basket was good. you could ask for butter. i just do the usual olive oil & balsamic.

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my wife ordered a prosecco & a red.

amuse bouche

amuse bouche

we had an amuse bouche, a lime cured tuna with avocado puree – good not great. 🙂

wagyu cappacio with rockets & parmesan

wagyu carpaccio with rockets & parmesan – S$28

we ordered a wagyu carpaccio with rockets & shaved parmesan (above photo) & a burrata cheese with Saint Daniele prosciutto (top photo). the carpaccio was served the natural sweetness way w/o any seasoning. it was sweet but we kind of preferred those with dash of balsamic cream, olive oil & sea salt. i liked the burrata (though so far i think Valentino’s the best & Capri’s also better than this, but they cost a lot more!) and also the Saint Daniel prosciutto. 🙂

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we had a pasta & a main to share. we ordered the lobster taglierini (S$34).  they split for us so the photo above was a 1/2 portion. 🙂 this was good, though we forgot to order the squid ink version which was usually more flavourful and the waiter did not ask us for the choice.

pan-fried venison rare -

pan-fried venison rare – S$48

we had wanted to order the veal rack (we had a very good one at spizzico) but this was breaded & pan-fried so we gave up the idea. the waiter recommended venison medallion (tenderloin) rare. this was a superb choice – very tasty & tender & the dauphine pommes (crisp potato puffs) were excellent! 🙂

we were both not dessert persons. excluding the wine, the bill was S$68++ for 2 appetizers & 2 mains after 50% discount, which explains why i had not been there like forever w/o the discounts. it was still more ex than set lunches but this was dinner & this price was quite fine really (there was no discount for wine which added another 50% to the total bill).

c.h.e.f andy