Galbiati Gourmet Deli (Rail Mall)

Hidden away in a corner at Rail Mall is this delightful little find. Quiet and unassuming, this is the perfect place to have simple Italian fare with your close friends. I tried the veal ravioli when I was there, but I must say I very much preferred the ones they serve at Graze @ Rochester. And I was a bit turned off by the price tag of $3 for a can of coke. I know I'm doing fine-dining but that's no reason to inflate the price by 100%! Would I go back again? Hmmm... maybe.

would agree with this phrase "Authentically Italian, Homemade & Fresh". ordered the Funghi Ripieni, Vongole, Goat Cheese, Bisque di Aragosta, Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia...they are all very nice...really mouth watering.

I finally dragged E. into this restaurant, just out of plain curiosity. The deli is not very intimidating in size. It's too bad I can't say the same about the price range. However, you do get your money's worth, for the portion size and quality of the food!

The decor is simple. Dark, earthy-toned furniture juxtaposed against minimalist white walls. It exudes a feeling of comfort and exclusivity one rarely gets from delis these days.

Seating can become a problem, as the place is easily packed at dinner time. We were ushered to ours which was right next to the counter. Actually, due to the size of the deli, you could say that about all the indoor seats! The waiter was patient, though he seemed nervous at times.

E. ordered the roast beef salad ($16) while I went for Salmone in Crosta ($17.50).

The roast beef was tender and done medium-rare, to our liking. It tasted great with the mushrooms and balsamic-mustard dressing! My puff pastry-wrapped salmon was a bit of a disappointment though. The pastry was not flaky or crisp as expected.. Instead, it hung limply on the rather dry salmon. Granted, the Russian potato salad that accompanied it was passable. Portions for both items were very filling.

Recently, we ventured here for some bread. E.'s eyes widened the instant I pointed out olive bread. Truth be told, this delicious and flavoursome loaf didn't disappoint. Priced at $5.40, it's soft and studded with black olives. Careful for the occasional pit or two though! Also, we picked up a packet of passionfruit and coconut marshmallows ($4.60). They were in the shape of flat discs, about smaller than your average palm in size each. I'm very partial to this flavour combination at the moment. It was pillowy without the artificial sickeningly sweet taste that most marshmallows have. I'd recommend this place for diners wishing to savour decent, honest Italian fare.

Date: 050410

My Boss (whom I shall refer to as “Boss”), Moses and I were on our way to the zoo. However, on empty stomachs, we reckoned that we can’t work on empty stomachs. Therefore, we decided to stop by the Rail Mall, where my Boss hung out quite often due to its geographical location between the North and South.

We went to Sweet Salty Spicy, a Thai restaurant related to Café Epicurious. However, we were disappointed by the fact that not only Café Epicurious was closed, Sweet Spicy Salty too. They were having some General Staff Meeting.

Therefore, we when to Galbiati Gourmet Deli instead as it was opened. This Italian Restaurant has decorated like a Deli. It adopted a rustic yet modern approach for its interior design. Dark, textured tables were used along side with contrasting white curvy chairs. Chalkboards filled with today’s specials, beverages and part of the menu dominated one side of the wall, flanked by displays of wine bottles.

The is a antipasto counter like those cake displays in cake shops manned by staff dressed in white long sleeves with black pants or shoes with an apron over it. And Chef Roberto of the restaurant would check the antipasto and entertain questions from the customers from time to time before retiring back into the kitchen again.

My Boss knowing the place more than Moses and I do, decided to ask the Chef for recommendation. After a short conversation, Chef Roberto recommended the Antipasto Misto and 3 plates of pasta as he tried to cater something for everyone.

First we had some complimentary bread. There were 3 kinds of bread, of which I enjoyed the walnut one the most. It was soft and aromatic, punctuated by crunchiness from the walnuts. The bread was slightly cold, but I still enjoy the bread, they are quite different from the usual bread I had. They probably baked these by themselves since it is a deli. It came with an Olive Oil Dip with Balsamic Vinegar in it.

Next came our drinks, the waitress tried her best to balance the tray of beverages on her hand as she poured the coke into a glass for Moses before serving my Boss his cup of coffee and me a Tea Press(?) filled with tea together with a cup, this was my first time being served this way, kind of interesting for me. The tea was sweet-smelling and pleasant.

Our Antipasto Platter ($25.00-$34.00) came next. It has all kinds of antipasto on it, so as to relieve the headache of what antipasto to choose.

Here are what was on the plate:
Insalata di Fagioli (Bean Salad)
Flan topped with Capsicum
Slices of Parma served with Rock Melon
Artichoke topped with Capsicum
Grilled Egg Plant
Funghi Trifolati (Sautéed Mushrooms)
Kalamata Olives
Grilled Asparagus
Smoked Salmon with Russian Salad

Generally, this is a platter where you get all kinds of flavours and textures. I shall just mention the ones that left an impression on me.

The Smoked Salmon with Russian Salad, I enjoyed the Russian Salad, it is creamy and chunky with potatoes, carrots and green peas. Overall a sweet, zesty and creamy complement to the raw and fresh salmon slices.

The Flan was an item I like here, the custard has a rich hint of cheese that crumbles and melts into your mouth when you savour it. My only complaint is that the capsicum on top of the flan seems to have made the flan slightly moister due to the heavy olive oil dosage.

Grilled Zuchinni topped with Sautéed Mushrooms, this was my first time eating egg plant, there general trend with the vegetable antipasto is the heavy dosage of olive oil. The egg plant antipasto was relatively soft and it has a kind of herb-like and smoky (probably due to the grill) flavour.

The Parma Ham is on the salty side, it is very delicate and smooth. The Rock Melon offset the saltiness, allowing one to enjoy the nice texture of the Parma ham and enjoy the sweetness of the honey dew.


Next came the pastas:
There were three kinds of different pastas that Chef Roberto has made. One thing in common among all the pasta is that the pasta was good, not overcooked, and just nice.

The first pasta was a black Tagliatelle pasta in a tomato based sauce, the Squid Ink Pasta with Crabmeat Sauce, probably made with fresh tomatoes and cream. Parsley was sprinkled over it as garnish and within this heap of black pasta are generous chunks of crab meat. The sauce carries a taste that I normally relate to lobster, however it was not too heavy to be pungent but rather come across as something interesting to me because I am not put off by the taste, and the fresh tomato and crab meat drew me back to have a few more mouthfuls. My Boss and Moses enjoyed this pasta the most.

The second pasta was an Aglio Olio style of pasta, the Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Mushrooms. My Boss and Moses commented that it was more conventional as it has a taste similar to Chinese noodles like EE-Fu noodles for example. The pasta was topped with generous slices of mushrooms, bits of fresh tomatoes and chopped chilli. It is quite fragrant thanks to the olive oil and has a bit of spiciness due to the chilli. My Boss enjoyed this pasta the least. I like this kind of pasta, so I am alright with it, the best pasta I had was an Aglio Olio at Basil Alcove long time ago, ever since I just enjoy this simple pasta of garlic and oil with a kick of spiciness.

The third pasta was a tomato based pasta, Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce. The sauce is more fluid and it made use of both fresh tomatoes and chilli to build its flavour. The penne pasta was good as mentioned earlier. The sauce is quite spicy. Moses commented that it seemed to cater to the local taste. Chopped garlic, tomatoes and chilli can be spotted in this pasta. I am not into spicy stuff, but I quite like it though I still like the simple Aglio Olio because I just love Aglio Olio style pastas.

If there is no ranking, I can confidently say the three pastas are indeed different. Each of them carried a unique taste and texture, one was creamy and chunky, one was light and herbal, and one was spicy yet fluid. I broke the experience I had with usual pastas which in some cases tasted very similar to each other, despite being a different item. This had been a refreshing experience with pastas.

The food is hovers around decent to good and the place is rather pleasant with a backdrop of Bukit Timah Hill and a railway bridge in sight. The area reminds me of a scene I saw in Japan with low rise buildings and mountains forming its backdrop. Just that this is a mini version of it.

All in all, quite an experience for me and a very costly one, the total cost was $177+ for 3 people. To be fair, the quality, the ingredients and the reasonable portions did justified the price tag though. It is affordability that I am talking about here, not everyone could afford it.

However, they do offer set lunches at $18++.

http://the4moose.blogspot.com/2010/04/galbiati-gourmet-deli-rail-mall.html

I love Italian food and I love this place. Been frequenting Galbiati for years so this review came long overdue.

There isn't a lot of places that offers affordable "homemade" Italian fares out there but Galbiati answers the dilemma.

We love their salmon and spinach, lamb shank, pizzas, & pastas. The lastest find was their live crab linguini which is only available on weekends in limited portions. One whole crab comes with it which is sooo fresh and the pasta sauce is very appetizing. It comes in portion for two so I would say the price at S$52 is pretty reasonable. Live crab leh! If you are not going there over the weekends, you can call them to reserve one for you too!

After the hearty main course, remember to try their desserts too and takeaway some for your friends and family!

The atmosphere and setting is like a market, which makes sense because this place used to be exclusively for take out.  The owner is quite friendly, on a Saturday night he even came outside just to see how our meal was.  He's an Italian guy and makes proper italian food... 
The pizza came first, just a slice of margherita for $10 but was quite big and great for a starter.  Was exactly like the pizza I had in rome from the massive cast iron sheets there, not oily, but very crispy wth great sauce.  
We also order the risotto with sausage and the salmon with puff pasty main.  The risotto was amazing, you could taste the saffron with the creamy and well seasoned rice, good sausage too.  The salmon came with a spinach salad and potato salad, it was very light.  The flavor was quite light for the salmon but you could taste how fresh it was even if it wasn't heavily seasoned.  
Water glasses were filled frequently and we didn't have to wait very long to order at all.  There was a mix up with our salmon order but was corrected and came out fine.
Got tiramisu for take away, quite nice!

Galbiati gourmet deli is a small italian deli that serve home-made italian food. You can have ur meals here or simply jus take-away some home-made food here such as couscous salad, potato salad, grilled vegetables, olives...etc.

I had the antipasto salad, served together with 2 slices of wholemeal bread. The bread is lightly toasted, served with olive oil dip. The antipasto salad consist of Grilled zucchini, eggplant, asparagus, mushrooms, antichoke, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata oilves, chick-peas, azuki red beans, broad beans with rocket leaves- drizzled with vinegrette.

I like the grilled asparagus and zucchini. They were soft but not mushy, well-marinated and grilled. The eggplants were a little too hard. The texture of the beans were soft, just as i would expect. I dislike beans that were under-cooked, giving a ''raw taste''.

The service is friendly. This is a place to enjoy some quiet moments, it was relaxing.

My previous review of this place was for the desserts. But I've actually never eaten the food here before.

I had the minestrone soup, which was good but nothing too crazy about: it was a good effort, but I probably won't have it again.

The pizza is really good: at $10 a slice they're not cheap but since the slices are quite large (square slabs approximately 15 by 20cm) they are pretty good value for money. I especially loved the Neapolitan pizza: anchovies and capers just make my day, especially with a Pinot Grigio to wash it down. Parma ham and ruccola pizza was very good. A friend also had a black squid ink pasta, which was commendable: the pasta was a little on the dry side, but the accompanying sauce was nice.

One thing to note is the wine list: you don't get the restaurant owner trying to sell you wine that is from his own vineyard, like at Donna Carmela (which I wasn't very impressed by). Galbiati's wine list is thoughtful and considered, which is quite rare in Singapore.

Desserts are superlative, as usual. You can also buy ciabatta and foccacia bread to bring home. I particularly like their olive-studded ciabatta.

If chilli crab needs chilli to be yummy, what does eggplant parmigiana needs? Egg plant? Parmesan? While I know taste is subjective, Galbiati's version certainly did nothing for me. Firstly, there was too much tomato sauce instead of cheese. Secondly, there was too much tomato sauce instead of eggplant. Thirdly, there was too much tomato ketchup instead of tomato sauce made from tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. Period.

The end product became a watery version of something which can be both hearty and satisfying. Granted, it's really difficult to find an authentic version of this dish in our sunny island of Singapore. Most Italian restaurants on our sunny island used mozarella instead of parmesan and tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes. If I were to have my way, I will really like my parmigiana to have pan-fried eggplant slices with layers of buffalo mozarella, tomato paste and loads of parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. It's not authentic I know but that's what I'll like.

Had great potato gratin at La Petite Cuisine the other day so it spurred me to try Galbiati's. While sauce was really creamy but it was too heavy especially coupled with thickly sliced potatoes. Very hard to stomach and digest. Give me LPC's anytime.

Sigh, I guess tomato ketchup has ruined my meal again. The only saving grace for our dinner were the meringues. Little, cute and sweet nibbles to round off the meal :P I still love Galbiati's cakes so I think I shall stick with their decadent cakes and skip those savory stuff in future.

saturday night, 2100 hours

not very crowded, think it was rather late.
the moment we stepped in, i got the image of stepping into greenwood fish market and da paolo combined. chic, clean, cozy. nice.. (okay... greenwood may not be the best example when quoting clean, but hey! cozy ain't it?)

as we were ushered in, a chef was doing something behind the counter, he looked up and gave us a great smile and welcomed us. i definitely did feel welcomed. and i believe the chef was roberto galbiati himself, impressive~

we ordered:
parma ham with rock melon $18
presentation quite sad... slices of melon on the bottom, ham simply flopped on top, but it wasn't half bad, slightlyyyyyyyyyyyy tough to chew. and of ALL the melon slices, i had to 'sway sway' bite down on the one that was... overly ripen perhaps? tasted like something gone bad.

ma lady ordered:
risotto $20 (eh... not sure which one, but think they only had like 3 choices and only one is $20)
excellenttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt... i loved it! okay.. technically, it is her order.. but i can't help stealing a few spoonful throughtout the evening. shiok!
rice was perfect, not too dry nor hard. i don't know how to explain it in words, go try... seriously. try. go. now.

i had:
spinach tagliatelle with chicken $18
pasta very soft, cream too bland, mushroom great, chicken (has 2 personal paragraph dedicated to it later on), but i gave up eating halfway.

THE CHICKEN:
picture this, you're having a BBQ, you're grilling chicken meat, it drops into the charcoal without your knowing, after 3 minutes, someone goes and pick it up from the charcoal, cleans it and places it on your plate. now... what do you think you'll get...

the chicken i had was something similar to chewing superball (you know, as a kid you would buy these small rubber balls from the machine, drop the coin in, twist the knob, the rubber ball drops out? it bounces crazy! i know it's crude to use this as an example, but that's all i can think of)
it was hard to chew and i really had to spend quality time with the piece of chicken that was hanging around in my mouth. ma lady thought i was joking until she tried a piece for herself... she couldn't stop laughing, i gave up trying... and the weirdest thing about it, is that i know that the chicken wasn't grilled!! so how in the world did it get that stiff...?

the wait staff didn't seem to notice that my plate of pasta was quite full, he simply cleared it.

We got take-away desserts:
- tiramisu
- creme brulee
- panna cotta
- meringue biscoti
we ate them at home over 2 days in order to not stuff ourselves
tiramisu was good
creme brulee not bad, rather thick
panna cotta.. erm.. not that great...
meringue biscoti... fail... doesn't melt in the mouth! had to chew! like eating the chicken, TOUGH.

BUT, i will return! for the risotto!