Greenwood Ave at Hillcrest Park is located just behind Raffles Girl's Primary School and National Junior College. It is a quaint and serene enclosure filled with restaurants that now occupy the premises which used to be shophouses. A close comparison with Greenwood Ave would be something like Frankel Ave. Along this stretch of former shophouses, there are many restaurants serving different cuisines. There are Punggol Choon Seng Seafood, Raku, Shiro, Sebastien's, Pepperoni, Estivo Gelateria, Chat Masala, Lana Cake shop, Fish Market, a Swiss Butchery and of cos, Covo.

The signs of Covo are not very apparent (it is located between Chat Masala and Choon Seng Seafood). But the alfresco area of Covo's is the thing that sets the bistro apart from the other residents. Nice looking lounges and chairs are set up just outside the restaurant, 2 antique fans spinning from the walkway ceiling, candle lit ornaments decorate the tables.

I actually didn't know how to make out of the food that is being served here. The style is actually fusion based, having seafood as the main theme. They also serve tapas and margeritas. So you can say I am a little confused about what this restaurant is about. But 1 thing I am sure of is that they make hell of a good seafood.

It was a Monday evening. When we arrived near to 7, we were their first customers for dinner. Shortly and surely, 4 more tables were filled. The interior looked a little crampy and the walkways between tables were quite narrow. There was a little area which was sectionised from the rest of the restaurant. Here, you can have a table for 4 where a pond filled with koi swim below you. A smoker's paradise too. The white walls had some crayon drawings, probably drawn by the staff. But at some corners you can find some signatures from artistic patrons (spotted a drawing of an F1 car somewhere).

Being a bistro, I will say that Covo have quite a good menu for food although there is only one choice for soup and salad. There is however a good range for fish. Another point I want to make is that they also serve very good crustaceans. We had a big bowl of green lip mussels and clams that were cooked in white wine ($38). I tell you, the freshness of the shellfish and the chilli padi and rosemary used totally brought out the goodness of the dish. The mussels were big and succulent. The thing about mussels is this. Some people complain about shrivelled and small mussels. These are the male ones. The plump ones with orange colour on the sides, they are the female ones. God is fair on this. Good restaurants will normally stock in much more female than male mussels (talk about equality here). And I can safely say Covo is one of them.

For mains, we got the black cod papillote and the half sakura chicken with foie gras. Papillote is a method of cooking in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then baked. Having the parcel allows moisture to be retained in order to steam fish. The black cod ($36) came in a good size and was papilloted with light shoyu sauce with mushrooms. First taste of fusion here. This dish is really oo mama mia. The oven baked sakura chicken ($28) came with garden greens and 2 slivers of pan fried foie gras. The sakura chicken has lesser fats than the usual breed chicken and the meat is really tender, even the breast meat. The poultry had a hint of ginger and soya in the taste, tasting a little bit like soya chicken. The 2 slivers of foie gras are average in size and tasted fantastic. Another dose of fusion here. There was a promotion going on from Mon to Thurs. If you order a main, you are able to get fresh tasmanian oysters at $1 each. We had half a dozen of that.

What is good food without a good bottle of wine? We realised that Covo had just changed their wine supplier when the manager brought out bottles of wines for us to choose rather bringing out the wine menu. The Bordeaux beaujolais savignon blanc ($75) had a light finish on the palate that went very well with the white meat and fish. After finishing our dinner we asked to move outside to chill out on their lounge sofas, watch the world go by and catch the stars in the the sky.