Saizeriya Ristorante E Caffe (City Square Mall)

Cheap & delicious, plenty of choices. Free flow, comfortable place to stay long and chit chat. No service charge and inclusive GST. Well worth every cent.

Saizeriya has cheaper food, better service & more room to accomodate large groups. We ordered food from most categories on the menu since we were hungry, haha. I liked their baked rice with shrimps. The serving size was average but it was yummy comfort food. My friends ordered chicken wings, pasta, garlic bread, mushroom soup, etc!

It's really noisy, because it's a family restaurant. Also, they only serve you if you press the buzzer. You pour your own H2O and certain drinks.

Saizeriya to me, feels confused. Their menu reads like a strange mish-mash of Italian, Japanese and European / American influence, and they have a fascination for cheese, and the words "Oven Grill". 

However, they do their food well. I especially like their Chicken Meat Gratin, Chicken Wings Saizeriya Style, Sausages and Truffle Ice-Cream. While these dishes look simple, they pack a full flavor.

Furthermore, Saizeriya has the lowest prices of any Italian food I've seen... Pasta / Escargots for only $5!! 

While their ambience is lacking, their service is not... Tables are cleared promptly, and your orders are served quickly. They have a little button on the table, when pressed, your table number will be flashed on a LED Display to call the servers.

If only they could open more outlets island-wide...

I went back last Saturday to get some take-away with my sister for dinner. The food is still as nice as the 1st time I went (see below for review) but the service was already.. lacking.

Today I went back for dinner with my mum. There's quite a crowd in there, but they seemed to be handling well enough... except my table. After we placed our orders and got our salad, the waiter didn't give us our plates and utensils that other tables had. To skip the trouble, I went to take these by myself.

Food was damn good as usual (doria was awesome, not as creamy alr), bills is good.. but it's like we owe the service crews a living. They don't smile at all.. except when joking with the other crews. (Seriously, does a smile kills??)

Perhaps every other places in Singapore is having this type of service alr.. but I don't mind returning again for Saizeriya because the food's cheap + good and there's no service charge (and GST is included in the menu).

But really, slight improvement in the service would be good. :)

On a budget? This place is definitely for you! Aglio olio for $3.90!

Had escargots, squid ink pasta and some pasta with clams. No other place I know of serving these dishes at such low prices!

Extremely good value for money and service is rather decent at that. Can see the staff trying their best but probably overwhelmed by the crowd.

Much delayed review but when I saw this 'restaurant' had a 100% rating on HGW - I was honestly very shocked!

Tried out the place for lunch a few months back... and vowed never to return. The food was baaaad.

I had a hamburger set... and it really looked kind of dubious. And it tasted... artificial. Very weird sticky brown gravy. The corn kernels were looking kind of sad - like what you would find in frozen TV dinners. In fact, it reminded me of those mock up food samples you see outside Japanese restaurants [and I imagined this is how they would taste like if you try biting into them...]

My friend had some soup which tasted really bland/odd, too.

We did share half dozen escargots which were okay... though very tiny and very oily.

Service was lacking in professionalism, as well. There were only 2-3 other tables occupied while we were there but it took a while to get service. And after they served the steak to my friend, a waiter suddenly ran back to our table, hovered around, gave a weird look, then ran away to discuss with his colleagues... we eventually figured that they had ended up serving the wrong steak to the wrong table [my friend had asked for medium well - this came bloody; at the same time, another table got their steak as well]. Not that anyone bothered with service recovery...

Cheap that they might be... I won't be returning to try their mystery meats in mystery sauces!

...a long lunch meeting!

Why? Because at lunch time, the Free-Flow Drinks at the Bar is only at $1.50!

I suggested this place due to the reviews here on their Liang Court Branch.  Well known for CHEAP Italian food, I just needed to know HOW cheap and for the price, the STANDARD of food served. Service, if any, wld be a bonus to me! ; )

Thus, I pleaded my biz associates to try this place w me. We shared the view that GOOD food DON'T come cheap (but cheap food can be good ie Steam TouFu with good grade soya sauce & sesame seed oil), thus, we agreed that should the food be bad, we shall not complain, take it as a learning experience..move on and just enjoyed the free-flow of drinks ; ) Afterall, we were supposedly there for a meeting.

Our Experience....

We fell right into their "marketing trap" once we opened the menu. It's "WOW, so cheap! Everything must try!...Not nice never mind...."

And yes, we tried almost every range on the menu....

THE FOOD

1) Red Wine - 1 Carafe (works out to only $3/ small glass) Not my idea to order wine coz wine this cheap is more suitable for cooking. Wine was acceptable to my biz associates, as for me, I cannot complain, I didn't finish either ; )

2) 2 Salad - On the menu pic, one could see Romaine Lettuce, Green & Purple Frizze & even Rucola. What was serve: Local round / Iceberge Lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber.  We ordered 2 salads, one with Tuna, the other with fresh mushrooms. Both were decent, the veg were crisp fresh.

3) Chicken Wings (Mid Joint) - Decent

4) Italian Sausages - Decent Hot-Dog quality

5) 2 Set Lunches - Err...cannot complain

6) 3 Escargots! - Surprisingly good! So much better than the French Stall!

7) Garlic Foccacia - Decent

8) Veg Pizza - Should just name it Sweet Corn Pizza to give diners a better idea.

9) Pasta w Bacons - Cannot complain

10) Squid Ink Pasta - Cannot complain

11) Tiramisu - Surprisingly decent! Please don't expect liqueur taste at this price.

12) Chocolate Cake - Surprisingly good! Not too sweet, with enough chocolate

content for the price.

13) Panna Cotta - Decent

14) Gelato - Decent

15) Good assortment of hot & cold drinks but the Juices...err...Cannot Complain. Go for their hot beverages. Since we were having a meeting, we had ample rounds of Tea & Coffee

THE SERVICE

Other then making our orders and asking some questions, we mostly "Self Serve". Given the large space, the staff strength was insufficient.  But we were served by a very friendly Mynmar Male Staff (Asst Mgr, I think).  His service was excellent though he seemed to be the only one that could take orders (thus very bz). He was smiling happily most of the time and enjoying his work there.

Conclusion

A nice place to visit again, especially for a meeting. A return visit will see me ordering just Garlic Foccacia, Escargots & the Chocolate Cake as dessert.  I will remember the lunch-time promo of $1.50 free-flow of drinks. Good old Earl Grey for me anytime! ; )