Trattoria Lafiandra

Trattoria Lafiandra

71 Bras Basah Rd  Singapore 189555

6884 4035

------

Food 7.5/10

Ambience 6/10

Audience 6/10

Service 6.5/10

------
Listening to Moumoon's うつくしい人 (utsukushii hito) as I write this post :)

Trattoria Lafiandra is situated at the Singapore Art Museum,  just next to Bras Basah MRT station. Yet again, this was another Restaurant Week Escapade that was decided hurriedly since a visiting foreign customer indicated his interest to try :)

The decor definitely wasn't shabby (which I was hopefully able to convey via this pic), but the low score (6/10) is due to the (lack of) ventilation, thus allowing the aromas to escape from the kitchen and creep into the dining area. With all the different foods being prepared there, it really hindered my sense of smell and that's not welcome :(
It was also a little too boisterous for fine dining, but this is hardly something the restaurant can control so I'm not gonna grumble about it.

We were first served with some bread, pretty decent and nothing to be disappointed with. It's kinda like Italian pizza crust, just so that friends reading this review may understand it easily. Interesting, since I do not usually go for crunchy food before my appetizer...I'm more of a fluffy good ol' piece of bread person :)

 
Pardon my poor photography skills (it's not quite polite to be getting all into position in front of a customer to take pics during the meal...). Bruschetta with some ham.

The bread was finely toasted and the tomatoes weren't overly moist, while adding a tender fluidity to the monotonous bread.
Only thing I didn't quite understand was the purpose of the ham. The bruschetta was good the way it was and adding ham to the dish was a generous gesture of the chef but unfortunately, nothing much beyond that.

 Lafiandra really offers a decent portion, even for Restaurant Week, as exemplified by the Appetizer Sampler. Usually, no one complains when we get more, but I'm not quite the usual person. There's too much parma ham to go with the rockmelon so they could either reduce the ham or give more rockmelon :D I still enjoyed it anyway.
The calamari, despite my customer's praises, was poor. Some parts were overcooked and others, uncooked. You know how you're enjoying a really comfy ride in a posh car along the coastal line, and then you hit this series of bumps that turns it into a hell ride? That's how it felt for me. But the hardest hit had to come with the presentation of this dish.
No, I am no artsy-fartsy guy who's gonna slam it for artistic reasons, rather, I would have much preferred this dish to be served separately (or in compartments) so that the sauces wouldn't cross over and corrupt the individual tastes. As we say in Spanish, Fatal.

Lafiandra served us plenty of food, so be patient while I go through it.
Pumpkin soup was up next, which can be best summarized with one word - "Sweet". In fact, too sweet for me and unhelped by the cake crumbs. But fret not! A fantastic way to overcome this comes in the form of...a fine sprinkling of black pepper! My customer asked, "How does pepper help the taste?" To which, I replied, "It helps the aroma, and hence the food experience." Arrogant me.

Beware though. There was a considerable lag between the soup and the main course, hence the low score for service (serving speed is a very important factor!

I didn't mind it too much, for my grilled sea bass was very very well done. The meat was tender and juicy, with a nice smoky aroma to tickle the nostrils, and the drop or two of lemon juice does help to refresh your taste/smell organs tremendously. Just do the honor yourself when it comes served with the lemon, will ya?

Hold on just yet, cos I haven't gotten to the skin. Grilled to perfection, the fats underneath the skin envelopes your tongue and spreads out like a gentle wave of richness to go along with the meat. Buonissimo!

Sides were decent and complemented the main without stealing the limelight, especially after sucking up the oils from the fillet. Truly a dish to be enjoyed (fish fats are good!) 

My boss had the Crabmeat and Crayfish Aglio Olio and unfortunately, he did not tell me how good it was (i.e. how did the tastes intertwine, battle it out and reconcile) but one thing he did tell unspokenly was the speed with which he finished the dish, as well as the numerous nods he made during this ritual. If only it were with friends...I coulda asked for a teeny weeny bite :(

Switching the camera view to my colleague's Ribeye. He's a man of few words, dug in quietly like a disciplined soldier and went on with the job as efficiently as always...but there was a notable difference - he was grinning. I guess it meant that he like it ;)

And here's my Panna Cotta. If it sounds foreign to you, fret not. You're not alone. In English, it's kinda like Milk-Pudding-With-Berry-Sauce. But it's Italian ;)
As I'll continue to remind you in future posts, I do not have a thing for sweet stuff. So I'm gonna suck at describing it but perhaps a best gage is if I lapped it up in ecstasy. Did I? Nah...it was too sweet for me nonetheless :P
Please do try it for yourself or come along with me to help me taste the sweet stuff in future :)

As for the rest, they had the Tartufo Ice Cream. In other more familiar words, Truffle Ice Cream. So why truffle huh? Don't you think it resembles a chocolate truffle? With the additional strawberry and some chocolate sauce, yes, but it's filled with 2 different kinds of ice cream goodness on the inside, while being covered in more chocolatey goodness on the outside!
This reminds me of Powerpuff Girls, made of all the nicest things in the world.
My dining companions ignored me for 5 minutes as they were happily enjoying this.

And finally, the Limoncello, a lemon liquer produced in Italy, which was on the house. If you're not impressed by anything in this review, or this blog per se, please just bring this away with you after reading - the owner of Lafiandra is really pretty generous. Oh, and please do not try this in small sips. Take it in a gulp!

This ends my little foodcation at Trattoria Lafiandra.
Plenty of room for improvement. Mains were a lot better than the appetizers and the soup, so if I're to return, it'll be for the mains.
We actually opened a bottle of house white, but it didn't go well with the food so I kinda forgot about it (I don't like to remember un-nice things).
They also serve pizza here so anytime you're popping by the museum and you're looking for a decent eatery nearby, Lafiandra is a consideration ;)
Just don't mind the kitchen aromas. I left smelling like a steak, and smiling like a cow.