Sunday, January 10, 2010

La Nonna, Holland Village

Prosciutto e Rucola pizza

La Nonna stands for "grandmother" in Italian, so the food served at the La Nonna restaurant was meant to be evocative of Italian home cooking...hmmm....visions of a sunny Mediterranean kitchen with a weather-beaten but hardy old Italian granny presiding over a pot full of vine-ripened tomatoes and olive oil come to mind....

La Nonna restaurant comes under the Senso group, which operates the Italian restaurant Senso and also the Spizza group of restaurants - one of the first to bring in thin crust pizzas. Having had good experiences in the past at both Senso and Spizza, I was really looking forward to the experience at La Nonna. Plus, they were having a fantastic promotion with 50% off food every Monday to Wednesday lunch.

La Nonna signature pizza
Of course I ordered the pizzas - how could I not? The Prosciutto e Rucola (SGD18 before discount, with parma ham, parmesan cheese and rocket salad) was suitably thin and crusty with generous slivers of parma ham - adequate, but not outstanding. But the La Nonna signature pizza (SGD18 before discount, with asparagus, egg, truffles, parmesan cheesse) that I had on another occasion was fantastic. I loved the runny yolk which melded perfectly with the aromatic truffles (they didn't skint on this despite the hefty discount either). It was so good that my colleague L who hardly eats much had three slices of the pizza without any prompting.
Bistecca: ribeye steak in red wine sauce
The mains fared less well though, my Bistecca ribeye steak (SGD26 before discount) was large but had a significant amount of gristle and fat in it, and came out well-done despite me asking for it to be medium rare. Nevertheless, the meat must have been quite a premium cut as it had lots of flavour and character (definitely not from frozen) and the red wine sauce that accompanied it was rich and tasty.
If you are looking for an affordable place with fairly good food, La Nonna amply fits the bill. Sitting in that sun-lit dining room with a solid wooden table and colourful pictures on the wall and munching on my pizzas, I almost felt like I was back in Italy (where E and I had a very happy and food-filled honeymoon). Here's to La Dolce Vita!
La Nonna
26 Lorong Mambong, Holland Village
76 Namly Place

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