Tavolo (1)

On January 4, 2008, I went to an Italian restaurant in Boon Tat Street (in Singapore).

The restaurant had been recommended by a Japanese friend of mine who's a fantastic cook and whose judgement I usually trust. Moreover, the chef, Mr. Torii, is from Tokyo and, as some of you well know, Tokyo is home to some of the best Italian restaurants outside of Italy. The place is called Tavolo.

Unfortunately the food did not match my expectations. I would rate it average or less. The atmosphere is nice and as it is pricey -- by Singapore lunch-time standards-- it wasn't too crowded. I had the day's special: a coliflower soup, a salad and linguine (flat spagetti) with a tomato, bacon (a surrogate for pancetta?) and mushrooms sauce.

The first disappointment was that the pasta and the salad were served in the same plate... The second -- and the biggest -- was the pasta itself. It was overcooked and the sauce tasted a tad too sweet and was too oily. It looked -- and tasted -- like it was a leftover from the previous day. I may be wrong...

The dessert, a pear muffin, came in Lilliputian servings accompanied by a mint sauce that killed the pear flavor. I am not a dessert person, so I did not really care.

When I asked the waiter (a very nice person, with a great sense of humor -- maybe the best note of the day) to tell the chef that the linguine was overcooked, the chef seemed not to care... or maybe he did not feel comfortable speaking English.

If you have come this far down in reading, endure a few more lines... My girlfriend -- a fine connoisseur of Italian soul and food -- had warned me that I would be disappointed. Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a try.

The 1-billion-dollar question: Will I go there again? Yes, I will give the place a second chance, soon. And you will read it on this pages.