Pontini

We went to Pontini - for an Italian change - this week for Family dinner. I was quite excited because I had heard much about chef Michele Pavanello, two pretty glowing reviews from reputable sources about Pontini when he was the chef there. Now I was keen to see how he was back to claim his kitchen again after his au contraire 'not-so-raved' about stint at Il Lido.

The menu prepared for the World Gourmet Summit was available but we didn't find anything appealing so we stuck to the Ala-carte menu and some of the main-stay recommendations we read up on before coming.

Mom chose the anti-pasti platter from the buffet selection - parma ham, smoked salmon, duck and garnishing lettuce veggie. While dad, G and I chose a beef carpaccio with a generous serving of cheese and arugula, or rucola, salad. The cold cuts were fresh and quite flavoursome. But I found the carpaccio too salty, and myself wasting away plenty of San Pellegrino. I would later come to realize that that was actually really good standard carpaccio considering what I was able to have over the weekend at The Turquoise Room

For our main course, the men safely chose a popular signature - the homemade squid ink tagliolini with crab meat. Grandma had a pork tenderloin ordered for her, mom, the braised veal cheek and me, being the most greedy, ordered the entree-portioned home-made veal ravioli served with truffle emulsion and the grilled lamb rack with sauteed honey mushrooms. The consistent theme revolving around Chef Pavanello's food was - simple and au naturel. The ingredients were simple, but only the premium and freshest cuts would do. The plate-ing and garnishing were unpretentious, but served the purpose to emphasize the main flavours executed to perfection.

The pork tenderloin - good, soft and juicy. The braised veal cheek - oh, one of the best braised veal cheeks I have ever tasted - the flavours so subtle and satisfying. The ravioli was rich, creamy and chockfull of meaty goodness. The grilled lamb - up to expectation with the boring companions of mash potatoes and mushroom, which tasted pretty standard and remained, as I suppose, an appropriate accompaniment befitting to the Chef's theme.

My only nemesis was the squid ink pasta. All the purported notion of wholesome goodness in "home-made" could not overcome the incurable paranoia of eating black-coloured food, I was rather apprehensive about trying the radio-active looking squid-ink pasta. G and Dad claimed it was good but sure enough, it tasted absolutely artificial and plastic to me. I'll stick to good old flour and eggs anyday!

The dessert took rather long to arrive, but fanciful creations are always worth the wait. The traditional tiramisu was served as expected in a cup and had a heart-stopping serving of cocoa, cheese and coffee. My hazelnut creme brulee with raspberry sorbet was light and a pleasant nutty sweet ending to my meal. Dad and mum shared the nougat parfait in warm bitter chocolate soup. It sounds terribly sinful, but surprisingly, the parfait was light and fluffy and the chocolate soup looked more like an foamy broth. It all went down well leaving us with a rather novel twist of an ending to what I would probably classify as an authentic but still rings through as more of a traditional Italian meal.

Pontini

Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel

392 Havelock Road Tel: 6233-1133