i went to cova for lunch one day and i left pretty impressed. even though its a pastry shop, it definitely serves very good real food. i had the pasta in white wine sauce, the salmon quiche and the veal ravioli. all three turned out to be delicious. i was quite impressed.

if you're interested, you can check out the full review at my site: http://tastingheaven.blogspot.com/ and please leave a comment

Went down to Cafe Nova with my friend who just came back from Aussie for a 5 week holiday.

As expected the place was Posh, pretty and English.
Couples, Tai tais of all nationality.

The display of tarts, pastry and all were lovely.
Almost too cute and sweet to be eaten.

My friend's beau settled for a salad.
While my friend and I got ourselves some tarts. At 4 for $9. Its a little pricey. But you are paying more for the lifestyle than the food. I guess?
I got the white chocolate raspberry tart and a hazelnut tart. I loved how the raspberry was nicely tucked in the middle of the tart
and the sweetness of the chocolate complimented the sourness or the raspberry well.

She got a pistachio nut tart and a coffee bean puff?(I think =P )
My friend being a pistachio fan was happy that the whole tart was just swimming in pistachio nuts.

As for beverages, my friend got a cuppacino, her bf got a macchiato latte,and I got a pot of tea (Whutering heights), which was light and sweet. My friends liked the coffee and going by how fast they drank it up (Maybe its just a hot day), I would think it was nice!

Not only were the pastries beautiful, they were delicious too.
Not too sweet nor pretentious.

Service was a delight too!

There were many tai tais strolling in and out and even a caucasian pair that made it a point to make a grand entrance saying hi to everyone(hollywood style)the place was still a nice and condusive place to have our conversation.

A nice little place to have tea, catch up or simply to people watch and imagine whats it like leading the high life =)

I've been to this place three times.

The first time, we ordered a Fromaggi pizza. The mixture of cheeses and thin crust was delicious.

We also ordered the Duck Ragout Parpadelle with truffle oil and the veal ravioli. The pasta were great. The flavours were superb - our italian friend was impressed. We also had some of the best coffees that night.

This was a fantastic experience. We didn't follow on with dessert that night.

Given our great experience, we went back the next day for brunch. My partner had the ham and cheese panini whilst I had the Milano. The ham and cheese was boring...salad wise it was measely. The Milano was delicious however. It had the right amount of salami and kick to it. The salad that accompanied it was just as measely though. We had also asked for an egg to go with it but was declined by the chef. This was not great for us. We expected to get what we wanted given the price/location. The paninis were about $15 each. A little pricey for what we got. The paninis overall were a little disappointing. We ordered coffee again but it wasn't as good as the previous try. Must have been a lesser trained barista.

On our last visit, I was craving the yummy pastas. We ordered an entree of soups and mesclun salad. The were mediocre. The pastas however were still great. This time, we ordered the risotto, squid ink pasta and again the duck parpadelle. The squid ink pasta was quite a surprise hit with all of us.

Coffees all round and it was better again.

This time, we also had dessert. Sacher torte, bigne (pistachio), and an assortment of tarts. DISAPPOINTING! The desserts were dry and boring to say the least.

Overall, the pastas are a highlight at Cova. Coffees will depend on the barista for the day. Desserts - you could spend your dollar on it somewhere else.

For the prices, the pasta servings were a little small but I guess it is Paragon.

Ambience wise - the open concept makes the place a little casual for the prices. Service is slightly above average. It was polite but still lacked any personality.

Cova, which opened in 1817 beside the famous “La Scala” theatre, was founded by Antonio Cova, a soldier of Napoleon who first ‘campaigned’ as a pastry chef in the Galleria De Cristoforis.

Over the past 190 off years, Cova has built up a name for its authentic Italian culture , offering an espresso coffee or a tea savoured in the comfort of a neo-classical lounge in the mainstay of high-society life.

Outside of Italy, Cova can only be found in Japan and Hong Kong, so land ahoy! For Cova has finally opened on our shores. Choosing the ritzy Paragon Shopping centre where the likes of Prada, Gucci can be found, for the opening in Singapore certainly won’t go wrong for a premium brand like Cova.

Caffe Cova is spilt into a tea room and restaurant, with the open concept cafe having the space once taken by Dome, and the restaurant taking over the premise of Swarovski crystal shop.

The restaurant interior is done up splendidly, the lighting and the tone is set in majestic gold to reflect the ambience of the place. The serving waiters are dressed smartly, stepping inside the restaurant, think fashion and lifestyle.

They had quite a wide range of cakes available, but its not available on the menu because the cakes changes everyday. So you’ll need to go to the counter to order for it.

But, the big but, there’s only several cakes of the day, which you order in slices. The rest are all sold in whole, which makes it difficult if you want to try many different cakes, or unless you got a large group with you.

Prices in a posh restaurant like Cova is definitely not what you will describe as affordable. For their dinner menu, the mains are all in the 30 range.

For a swanky restaurant, you may ask 30 should seem rather reasonable, given there’s other places not in their league but charge around the same price. But Cova being famous for its coffee, cakes and pastries, i remain skeptical about paying 30 for their main course.

My secret food partner and I went for dinner, but we were after their cakes and pastries after all. So we didn’t ordered any main course, desserts are enough!

Unfortunately for us, Caffe Cova seems to be very popular during tea time, when we went during dinner time, quite a lot of their pastries are sold out, that includes their signature Sacher cake. And we went just one week into their opening.

Bigne Pistachio
Cova has sets for their mini pastries, with assortment of 4 petite ones going for 9 bucks. For such a miniature pastry at 2 bucks, it will make Bread Papa’s cream puff seems a very good deal. The bigne Pistachio does not really have much of a pistachio taste. Period.

Mini Chocolate Raspberry Tart
The chocolate shavings on the mini chocolate raspberry tart is what caught my attention, its done very exquisitely and pretty to look at.

The raspberry in the middle is rather sourish, but i guess it gives a compliment in taste to the sweet chocolate. But i’ll rather the raspberry to be slightly sweeter to perfect the overall taste.

Mini Chocolate Gooseberry Tart
Chocolate toppings coupled with gooseberry in the middle to make up the tart. Personally i do felt that the mini chooclate gooseberry tart is my least-like among the 4 pastries.

The gooseberry is too sourish, and its not like the case of the raspberry. Not so sure whether thats how gooseberry should be, but i don’t like the mini chocolate gooseberry tart.

Mini Chocolate Hazelnut Tart
The hazelnut tart is the best of the lot, with the other three being quite a letdown. I love hazelnut, eating nutella out of the container is a favourite pastime for me. The mini chocolate hazelnut tart is gone in a mouthful, you wish there is more.

Assortment of cookies ($5.50 per 100 gram)
There’s quite a wide variety of cookies to choose from, but please don’t be mistaken by the picture, there’s more cookies from the 100gram than the seven shown in it.

Back to the point, the cookies are actually quite ordinary, like your normal butter cookies. I like the Krumiri (long banana shape-like), butter cookie with chocolate coating at the tip.

My partner preferred the star shape cookie with-a-hole-in-the-middle, which is covered with sugar.

The assortment of cookies at $5.50 per 100 gram isn’t very expensive, for a place like Cova where everything else is so expensive. But considering the fact that Famous Amos cookies are priced in the repotire of 4 plus, i do think buying famous amos is a better economic choice

Nevertheless, Cova cookies selections are placed in a nice bag, which makes a rather affordable and presentable gift for friends and family.

Gamberi ($14)
A refreshing combination of prawn and mayonnaise. The bread was a soft brioche so credits for that. But the Gamberi sandwich wasn’t even hot and toasted.

Furthermore, the sandwich portions were meagres given the price, the shrimps were crunchy but there’s only 3 tiny ones in the sandwich.

Total Bill is $32.50 for the pastries, cookies and sandwich. All in all, Cova is a good place for novelty, if u havent been to better italian sidewalk cafes, or even tried da paolo’s sweet little treats, its a nice place to experience the tai-tai lifestyle. Otherwise, i do find it quite a rip-off, which Cova rides on its brand name and not really worth it.

There are certainly other places for better cakes and pastries, but i guess going to Cova is more than just that, its the overall glamorous experience seating in Cova that really attracts people there. Maybe i will go back again for their Sacher cake.

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

I was so excited when I found out that there is actually a shop in Singapore that sells Sacher Torte. Tried this dessert in Vienna and simply fell in love it. Was certainly looking forward to satisfying my taste bud without having to fly all the way to Europe.

The variety of cakes is not stated on the menu. One has to walk over to the display shelve to choose. There is a fair selection of cakes on display. However, the size of each piece of cake looks rather miserable. In addition, not all cakes on display was properly labeled. I had to ask the staff what kind of cake is it. The price per slice was also not indicated. Thank god that I was mentally prepared to pay $9 for a miserable size after reading previous review.

If I had not tried the one in vienna, I would certainly buy into this "fabulous" sacher story. However, once you have tried the one in vienna, you will realize that this one simply pales in comparison. A very poor imitation of the real thing.

The real thing is much harder, firmer and sweeter. You could really taste the apricot jam in the cake. Each mouthful was solid and flavorful. On the other hand, this one is very soft and is largely made of cream. There was also not enough chocolate. They have tried to be innovative and decorated the sides with chocolate rice. IMHO, that really spoils the taste further. The layer of chocolate on the top and the one at the side simply did not complement each other. It tasted like two different kind of chocolate were used.

I was really struggling to finish the dessert. However, I felt obligated to finish as it is quite expensive. Okie. Hereby attach some pics to show the contrast.