Long Awaited Meal in the Hole

Asia One categorized this restaurant under their "only slightly pretentious food" section and a related foodie in one of her earlier posts, also posed the question if this restaurant was worth the wait after futile attempts to get a reservation.

I have been long wanting to attempt my own reservations at Buko Nero so when J so kindly invited G and I to join her and N to try out this Italian restaurant nestled along Tanjong Pagar area, I jumped at the opportunity. Naturally, I also got the creative blogger to guest photograph. Due to forgetfulness on my part to bring a decent camera and the rules set by the chef that no food photography was allowed, all the photos taken were sadly without flash and taken with necessary discretion. So, sorry J that the photos came out looking less then perfect, to no fault of yours, though I must say your angles put mine to absolute shame.



N decided to go for the extremely reasonable prices set dinner (now at $38 +++ for 5 courses) and the rest of us decided to share a couple of starters and mains. We finally decided on the mozzarella and tomato crostino topped with parma ham, creamy porcini mushroom soup with truffle oil, homemade meat trio ravioli for the starter and the spaghetti with spicy prawn and crab meat, tenderloin wrapped in bacon with a red wine sauce and caramelized grapes and Fusilli pasta with braised beef cheek.

Out of the three starters sampled, I must say the all-round table favourite was the crostino. The saltiness of the parma ham complemented the cheese and juicy tomato well on the crusty miniature brioche. But the flavor that "wowed" us was the earthly truffle enmeshed within. If you know me, I am so not one for fungi and mushroom and what more truffles, its exactly that earthly smell and taste that puts me off. But somehow the truffles earthly flavour just went soo well with the cheesy and salty flavours with the burst of tomato juice before you hit the crusty base.
Oh, just the thought of another one-to-two month wait again for this just upsets me.

As for the mushroom soup, I was surprising disappointed by this starter. It was so well raved by most food blogs and reviews but I found this a tad too salty and happily traded it for the last crostino.

So my verdict is out... The food is rustic, simple and totally unpretentious. Natural and simple flavours are featured from this small kitchen, displaying the chef's talent. Probably the only pretentious thing about this place is the faux impression it gives that it is pretentious and "ah-tas" because you have to wait like a month or so to get a seat.

Buko Nero
126 Tanjong Pagar Road
Singapore 088534
Tel: 63246225