Its good to have food blogger friends. No I'm not talking about free food (enough of that already), but when I need a quick recommendation on places to go, I can always count on their words and experiences! A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a Italian restaurant to treat my mom, a text message to Kaelyn then introduced me to L'ancora!
Situated in a shophouse, L'ancora is one of the many restaurants that I will love to explore along Bukit Timah Road (rawr to the lengthy bus rides from my house). Without much formality, settings was relaxed and home-like with the usage of wooden furnishings and brick walls. Service crew seemed to be slightly short-handed, but not to difficult to get their attention on a semi-filled Sunday night dinner.
Complimentary Bread
Arriving in two types, the loaf slices was warm but a tad too rubbery for my liking, though I really liked the thin crackers for its crunchy texture and herb flavourings.
Crabmeat with Spinach Pasta ($24), Carnaroli Rice With Prawns and Asparagus ($24)
Served in a sweet beetroot pesto sauce, the fresh chunks of crabmeat was a joy to eat for lazy ones like me. I always find flavoured pasta more gimmicky than enhancing overall taste, though it was really well done to an al-dente texture.
Initially, mom and I thought that the cheese within the rice was too overwhelming, but a dash of salt balanced the flavours surprisingly well and made the creamy dish alot more enjoyable. The chopped prawns and asparagus meant that we could easily blend them in with each mouthful of the coarse, hardened rice. Polished it clean after all!
L'ancora Pizza ($20), Baby Octopus with Squid Ink Linguine (Half Portion)
Pizza with parma ham? Plenty. Pizza with beef carpaccio? That's something different! Thin slices of salted raw beef with plenty of refreshing rocket salad and juicy baby tomatoes, on top of a nicely browned thin crust that had a resounding crunch and cheese shreds at every bite. Excellent!
Now this was what I really had in mind prior to visiting! Unfortunately, a miscommunication (not that word again) with the new staff resulted in her saying that the squid ink linguine has been sold out, thus I had to replaced it with the crabmeat pasta above. A casual chat with the manager afterwards revealed otherwise, and he kindly offered me a half portion so that I wouldn't go home disappointed!
Alas, this still wasn't quite what I was looking for. They added quite an amount of vinegar to the pasta, masking the squid ink taste with a strong, sourish flavour. The slightly diluted sauce also didn't give the sticky texture of squid ink. Yes it was rather unique and still tasty in its own way, but still some distance away from my memories of a perfect squid ink pasta!
Tiramisu ($10), Cappuccino ($5)
My other craving in a Italian meal! I really liked how it was moist and creamy, though I'm not sure if they were trying to be kids-friendly, as it was slightly lacking in that light alcohol rush. Still, I'm satisfied already!
Mom loves to pair her desserts with a nice hot cup of cappuccino, her way to round off a good meal!
Bill for two was $91.30 with service charge only. Filled to the brim that we even had to takeaway half of our pizza, L'ancora is a really nice place to have some comforting Italian food without being overconscious of how you dress or look. Still hunting for that dreamy squid ink pasta!
L'ancora
789 Bukit Timah Road, Before 6th Avenue
Tel: 6467 3778
Taken with Nikon D70
4 comments:
Pity - that you didn't like the squid ink pasta. When I tried it, it wasn't even on the menu! Things may have changed since though.
Glenn: haha, but i do remember your squid ink tagliolini at Otto looking darn good. On my to-try list!
Yay glad you like this place! =) The spinach pasta looks good~ Coloured food are my kind of thing haha but I agree that they are more gimmicky than flavour enhancing.
Kaelyn: Thanks to you that I made my way there! =) Eyeing Pasta Inc next!
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