It's the weekend and Frectify hopes to round it off, Italian style. In case you don’t know yet, we girls at Frectify do not settle for anything but the best, especially when it comes to fulfilling the desires of a growling tummy.
Traditionally, Italian cuisine is best known for their pasta, which many of us are no stranger to, but the dish that has been living in the shadow is – escargots.
Yes darlings, it is a dish of cooked snails. Slow and slimy they may be, but for your sake, Frectify braved through it and tried them anyway.
So this week, we bring you Saizeriya Ristorante E Caffe. If you firmly believe in what you see is what you get, well – don’t. The interior, dominated by vanilla walls and brown furniture, is not very aesthetically appealing and looks just like the restaurant to be missed.
But with our trained eyes, we scooped the place because of its “Frectify-friendly” price tags on the menu displayed at the entrance of the restaurant.
We don’t know about you, but Frectify likes to bask in the environment filled with endorphin-charged servers. The smiles and enthusiasm of the waiters at the cafe did help to make for a different dining experience.
Not only did the servers meet our expectations in being attentive and efficient, the well spaced-out eatery also ensured that there was enough privacy and breathing space between tables of patrons. That certainly put us in a better mood, which can only mean one thing – more food!
The Oven Baked Escargots (top left) are served six per dish, at a whopping $5.58. It is Saizeriya’s no.1 best-seller. The combination of Indonesian escargots and their very own special garlic butter batter was seasoned with a generous serving of garlic, making the aroma strong and hunger-inducing.
Each piece was tender and flavourful. However, the ‘garlicky’ taste over-powered the original escargot flavour. While it was still good, it was more for those with seasoning-inclined taste buds who might enjoy the dish a lot more than we did.
So, no.1 best-seller? Maybe, but not in our books.
The next dish was Doria with Meat Sauce (pic 1). It came in the form of minced beef with baked rice. At only $4.28, you would expect something in the size enough to feed the birds, but no, it was just right for the four of us to stuff our faces.
Creamy and buttery all at the same time, we expected to be overcome by a cream-induced nausea. But to our delight, the cream was well-balanced with the cheese mix, rich in taste but still light on the stomach.
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However, if you are dining alone (oh, you poor soul), Frectify suggests that you give this a miss because it would fill you even before you'd have a chance to try other dishes.
After two courses of heavy-tasting platters, Frectify had to have a lighter dish to prepare our vessels for more incoming ‘traffic’. We had their Special Mushroom Soup, which we innocently thought was like any other.
Thick with mushroom ‘pulps’, it was a refreshing variation. Priced at $2.98, it makes a good appetizer or an in-between dish.
Cheese Chicken Fillet (top right) was next on the table. Although it was highly recommended, it surely did not live up to it. The slab of meat looked greasy, and the accompanying wedges were simply dull and unappealing.
Frectify was expecting a tasty combination of cheese and chicken, but we were taken by surprise at the lack of ‘cheesiness’ in this dish. It was, overall, an 'okay' dish. So if you are not feeling fancy and adventurous, this might just be suitable for you.
Like every other good event which always ends with a bang, our virgin experience at Saizeriya sure did too - with oven baked green mussels (pic 2). Specially flown in from New Zealand, the mussels were fresh and soft, flavoured with generous serving of onions. This dish gave the taste of mussels a whole new meaning – simply awesome. Oh, and what’s more, it is only $5.58 for four pieces (wow!).
With our pants bursting at the seams, Frectify was well-fed and ready to embark on our the next hunt for worthy grubs. Ready for some red hot chilli peppers? Stay tuned, because that is next up!
Saizeriya Ristorante E Caffe is located at 177 River Valley Road, #02-22, Liang Court Shopping Centre S179030.Tel: +65 6337 9001.
