The moment I stepped into the Italian restaurant, I immediately felt relaxed. The lighting was dim, there were potted plants, and chalkboard signs everywhere. The staff was friendly and attentive, letting us take our time to order our dishes. There was even a live pianist playing songs such as "Reflection"from the Disney movie "Mulan", and "My Favourite Things" from "The Sound of Music". 
While we were choosing what to eat, one of the waiters approached our table with a little chalk board, and introduced us to that night's specialties, including a despcription of what it was and how it was prepared. Finally, we decided on calamari and rocket salad as our appetisers, and I chose the fettucine alfredo with tiger prawns tossed in butter and parmesan cheese as my main course.
As I took my first bite into the calamari, I was delighted by the crispiness on the outside and chewiness of the squid ring, and it was highly addictive. The fettucine alfredo was very rich and I simply adored the combination of butter and cheese, the tiger prawns a great compliment. It is best eaten warm, when it is first served. Don't hesitate to take your first mouthful! Lastly, although we were already filled, we opted for a chocolate fondant. As we had expected, the chocolate lava cake was marvellous, with a side serving of vanilla ice cream and berries. 
The only complaint I have however, is the price. The food was rather expensive, but I felt it was worth it. The problem was that each of us ordered an iced water, but was served a bottle of mineral water each instead, which costs more than a dollar. We were told they did not serve tap water, but we did not make much of a fuss out of it as it was merely just water and did not add much to the bill.
Overall, I truly enjoyed my meal at Rubato, and would highly recommend this place to Italian food lovers. Will definitely be revisiting! :)

Visited this cosy Italian trattoria with my girl friends few weekends

back, and I'm glad to say we all had a wonderful time!

We opted to sit outdoors, which was decked in a romantic garden theme.

We were lucky that evening as tropical Singapore decided to blow some

cool breezes our way. Served with friendly and knowledgable waiters,

we went with the highly recommended Charcoal Grilled Squid as a

starter, Squid Ink Pasta, Veal Ravioli, Bismark Pizza as our main

course, and Chocolate Fondant (apparently award-winning and very

popular amongst the regulars there) and Creme Caramel for dessert. And

of course, such a dinner cannot be without wine, we had Prosecco (also

suggested by the waiter since our knowledge of wine was rather

limited) to compliment our food.

I must say, our taste palettes were greatly satisfied right from our

very first bite to our very last. The Charcoal Grilled Squid was very

fresh, had subtle seasoning with just the right chewy texture. My

personal favorite was the veal ravioli (I love cheesy stuffs). These

Italian dumplings were made to perfection and were very flavorful,

with the truffle and porcini sauce blending immensely well with the

ravioli. The pizza, which was baked in their traditional wood-fired

oven, was heavenly too! It's the tastiest I've ever had, way better

than most other Italian restaurants like Etna. I'm actually still

quite amazed that such good pizzas exists in our little island.

By this time, my girl friends and I were already stuffed full- the

pizza was huge, but we couldn't leave without having a taste of their

highly acclaimed desserts. I'm glad we hung on, as the desserts were

better than imagined, especially the Chocolate Fondont. The delicious

chocolate lava oozing out went perfectly well with their rich vanilla

ice cream (it's really good, wonder which brand that was, would love

to buy a whole tub of it).

All in all, we had a marvelous time at rubato. Ever since, I've been

back to the restaurant a couple more times. I truly love the food

there (heard that their chef has cooked for our president before!),

ambience was awesome (think: a quaint cosy place away from bustle and

hustle of city life), and service with a personal touch (as mentioned

in previous posts, the boss is real enthusiastic about what he does).

Thumbs up to the team at Rubato! Will be back again!

Read the full review at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com

I think, this is the north's answer to the west's Valentino's (it's probably not as authentic as Valentino's, which is run by actual Italians, but Rubato's probably the best the north has for Italian food).

If you're dining over the weekends or during the peak meal hours, be sure to make reservations to avoid disappointment, because the restaurant's so small. Also, a word of caution to those driving there, parking is a pain, so be sure to go early to avoid the crowd. Or car-pool.

A weird thing we noticed about the menu though, is that the mains cost about the same as the starters, as well as the desserts! So the mains are comparatively cheap but the starters and desserts are seemingly expensive. I suppose, if you order only mains, it'll be considered a cheap meal. But if you order starters and dessert, then it'll be considered an expensive meal.

We had:

1) Carpaccio di Manzo con Olio Extravergine di Oliva ($20.80) - beef carpaccio drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, rocket salad, parmesan shavings: admittedly generic, but still one of the better ones we've eaten. There was a clarity of flavours that was so refreshing

2) Capesante Avvolto in Prosciutto di Parma con Una Salsa Grappa ($22.80): sea scallops wrapped in Parma ham drizzled with Grappa sauce, and interspersed with dollops of salsa - LOVED this

3) Oven-Baked Chicken ($20.80) with rosemary: possibly the only downer of the meal, especially in light of the outstanding other dishes. The mashed potatoes were tasteless and the chicken thigh was miserably teensy. That said, the chicken was seasoned well and reasonably juicy and moist

4) Risotto alla Polpa di Granchio, Paprica dolce e Pomodorini ($22.80): risotto with crabmeat, sweet paprika and cherry tomatoes was commendable. It was a big portion, but it wasn't cloying one bit. The textures of the crabmeat seemed of the frozen variety but the flavours seemed fresh. Also, there were bits of shell in the crabmeat.