The Rushman was here for lunch today, a friend had made the reservation and recommendation, so why not. I'd been here once before, about 3 years ago, and thought it OK but clearly albeit subconsciously had been in no hurry to come back.

It was pretty quiet today, there was only one other table with some old guy taking his rather delectable niece out for lunch, therefore we had very attentive service, in spite of us all being ang mohs.

The much-vaunted bread arrived and I agree with previous observations, it does look a little dry at first, slightly crunchy on the cut surfaces, but inside it's light and airy, nicely soaking up the oil and balsamic in the little dish by your side. I don't like too much balsamic, so having seen how much was poured as standard I was able to moderate the flow.

We're in the middle of white truffle time but we generally managed to resist the special menu, only one of us succumbing to the poached eggs with white truffles, and judging by the pristine state of his plate afterwards, I can safely say it was OK. Wagyu carpaccio for me and Tuscan bean soup for diner number 3. Mine was excellent, the quality of the meat first rate, pleasantly dry-ish and chewy, not slimy with just the right amount of parmesan and rocket salad. I needed an extra slosh of oil, but then I'm European. The soup was pronounced a winner.

Mains. Diner number 3 has a number of foibles, and one is how he likes the Milanese veal chop presented. He asked for his with a side of spaghetti dressed with a tomato sauce, and the standard salad on the side. Usually it's spread all over the chop which I've never liked so after this suggestion I concurred. The other main choice was for the rack of pork, but being a good Muslim on Hari Raya Haji I didn't feel I could possibly go for this.

The chops arrived, beaten nice and thin, but covering the whole plate, so they appeared rather daunting, however, they were perfectly cooked and the light breadcrumb coating, possibly having had a visit from mr. polenta somewhere in the kitchen, was just the right combination of bite against the meat. A squeeze or two of lemon just lifted it and it was very good, just too damn big to finish. The spag was fine, but I found the tomato sauce a little too clever, some cheese and basil in it, whereas a simple concasse would have been enough.

We had a dabble at the dessert menu, a pannacotta that was OK but unexceptional, a selection of gelati, ditto, and a tiramisu, again ditto.

We had two bottles of an inoffensive though drinkable Pinot Grigio, and two bottles of a pretty reasonable Montepulchiano d'Abruzzo. The wine list itself would have been rather off putting to a novice and as someone previously has commented, four figures for an Aussie wine is a trifle ambitious.

I enjoyed my dinner at Garibaldi, and found it to be generally on par with the other Italian restaurants in Singapore with which it competes.

The dishes we ordered that really stood out were from their seasonal white truffle menu (the pasta, and we ordered ravioli from the a la carte menu with truffles added) but I suppose that's not entirely surprising because, hey, it's truffles. I also liked the complimentary bread, which initially appeared a bit dry and crusty but was actually pleasantly moist and chewy. And served with a particularly delicious viniagrette.

Service was attentive and efficient, and I appreicated how they served us ice water at the end of our meal without our asking. (We had been surviving on wine and sparkling water up till then- both self-imposed)

I went for what was my fifth lunch at Garibaldi last week, a business affair, with as usual the choice of restaurant out of my remit.

Was it the let-down I expected it to be? Yes, I'm afraid. For starters, as with Gunther's I detest the dark walls. They simply bring an air of gloom to the interior and there is no relief provided by decent artwork. Just a rather ludicrous plastic glow-box with a flower design on it. Atmosphere created for the cost of a few tins of dark green emulsion paint? I don't think so.

I ordered the poached egg with shaved white truffles as a starter and was severely disappointed when an ice-cream glass containing what can best be described as an egg mayonnaise sandwich mixture toppped with the shaved fungus was presented to me. You can't screw up truffles, but they managed to degrade the ingredient by having it sit on top of such a crass concoction.

The main was pan fried cod. Almost certainly the fish had been frozen and was of a consistency and taste fit for the garbage bin. The skin had been overcrisped to boot, almost burnt, and the fillet was surrounded by a wilted leaf salad that was laughably bad.

When will one ever go to a Singapore restaurant where the freshness and distinctiveness of the ingredients blows you away? Not here at any rate. But with the economy sliding further south by the day, one can only expect more frozen this and that, more inferior vegetables, more desperate attempts to preserve profit margins.

The service was quietly efficient, which was refreshing, but that was the only the box Garibaldi ticked for me that day. From what I saw, this place is on the slide, probably irredeemably.

Purvis Street's lined with food gems aplenty, Garibaldi's one of the finer gems that spot the street of Yet Con, First Thai and Chin Chin.

Ranked 7th on Miele's Food Guide, that made my company and I somewhat more excited than we already were.

I made reservations over the phone, the receiver had problems with my name for starters. When we reached at 12 promptly, we were told to take a seat whilst they checked my reservation and if the kitchen is ready.

The chic warmly lit surroundings, if only we were given a window seat! The place is rather small, fits about 15 diners comfortably.

Ahh, Garibaldi got it right with a wooden plank for bags! I like this. Saves the trouble of another chair or even a bag hanger.

As it was still early, we had the whole restaurant to ourselves, the whole attention of 3 Nepalese waiters who watched over us, pretty much like hawks until another diner came in and yes, a Japanese family with a bawling kid in tow. Why do I always have the luck of children who ruin the ambience of such places?

The usual rattling of soup of the day started the whole Garibaldi dining experience.

I'm not sure if I'm being sensitive here, but the moment we settled the set lunch orders and went without "still or sparkling water", the attention given was somewhat different. The Japanese family had the servers fussing over them, wine they had in mid-day.

The warm water served, I don't remember it being refilled.

nyhow, fresh oven baked herb bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The waiter would head round with glass bottles of the oil and vinegar. I opted for both on the piece of art of a sauce-bread tray. Three servings of warm bread later, I declare the bread an awesome find. The crusty crunchy surface unveils a moist chewy baked surprise. The herb's aren't overpowering, absolutely delicious. Who says baking bread is a no brainer?

One particular plump waiter attempted to remove my plate after my first serving, when I told him I wanted a second serve, he gruffly signaled for my second serve. It's only Mid-day and they've just opened for business, does the waiter have to be such a sour face?

My starter of Chilled Roast Veal in Tuna Sauce with Carrot Salad. It's quite a gastronomical surprise, a flavourful carnival of sight and taste! The portion for a starter is big, 5 thin slices of chilled roast veal so tender, it melts in your mouth. The tuna sauce tasted quite like pate (meat spread), I found it so delicious, I couldn't help wiping the plate clean. The carrot salad's the usual leafy combination with cherry tomatoes so sweet, I was left impressed.

The others both had soup of the day, tomato soup with crab meat. It looks more like pumpkin than tomato, given the orangey hues. The soup's not thick, more watery. The crab meat bits are as scooped up. I found it tasty but unremarkable.

Friend #1 had Cod Fish Tortelli with Spicy Tomato Sauce. The portion's rather small imo, the tortelli's handmade, and surely tasted very different from the mass produced ones. I couldn't taste the cod fish in the tortelli though, probably was heavily mashed.

Friend #2's choice of Grilled Sea Bream with Cream of Spinach, she loved it tremendously. I found the sea bream fresh with a chewy bite. Coupled with the spinach cream, yummy yum yum.

My choice of Deep Fried Pork Scaloppine "Milanese Style" with Roasted Potatoes. Of the three, mine's the biggest portion. Two thin slices of pork fried so crisp, but not overfried. No trace of oil dripping, roasted baby potatoes and salad that came with it was delicious! More of the sweet cherry tomatoes again! :) I seem to have an overload of all things nice in fine places, at La Strada, was the mushrooms.

The pork cutlet reminded me of Pork Katsu, not as good as Tonkichi but way better than most Japanese eateries I've tried.

It's funny how we visit an Italian place and two of us are eating non-Italian mains. The other mains up for selection are Homemade Fettuccine with Braised Lamb Sauce and Organic Short Tube Pasta with Cheese Sauce.

The waiter came to "swipe off" the bread crumbs with such aplomp, I was amused at the lengths he took to swipe them off, looking as if they were swiped towards me, but I couldn't find any on me. :p

Dessert of the day; gelato. No choice of other desserts though. I opted for 2 scoops of Rum & Raisin. Theirs was rum and raisin and chocolate. The chocolate gelato's one of a kind! Molten chocolate it is, the chocolate's got a bitter aftertaste and not milky at all! Ok, I stole a bite of the forbidden flavour, since chocolate gives me nothing but fierce looking pimples. Wl declared it "the best gelato" she's ever eaten.

The rum and raisin paled in comparison. I couldn't quite taste the rum nor were the raisins prominent enough to be noticed, ice shavings could be found in it as well. Comparatively, it came across as overly sweet.

All in, the food's quality I must say, with some misses and hits. Portions are good enough, but then again depending on what you choose.

Service isn't fabulous though there was a particular waiter who was candid when it came to helping us with our narcissistic snapshots. He claimed "they can appear in the paper tomorrow", after our umpteenth try at capturing the nicest shot. I'm honestly not high on their service, still notches away from La Strada's. Les Amis seems to focus more on service? At least across three Garibaldi Group eateries; Menotti, Riciotti and Garibaldi, the service level leaves me nothing to shout about.

http://thefoodchapter.blogspot.com/2008/11/garibaldi-purvis-street.html

Garibaldi, located along Purvis Street, is part of The Garibaldi Group of Restaurants helmed by award-winning Chef de Cuisine Roberto Galetti and his team. An Italian dinning place that provides a fine exemplar of contemporary, stylish and elegant dining experience all rolled into one, it came no surprise that the tantalising menu emphasises authentic Italian gastronomy primed with the best ingredients imported directly from Italy.

Stepped past the seemingly discreet sliding door and one will be ushered to an elegant bar that offers a great selection of wines by the glass and excellent cocktails – HFB can imagined this to be a perfect after-work to-be-seen setting for chic finance executives and lawyers to mingle at and network.

Make a left turn, and one will find the sombre interior of the small dining area coerce on you – call me unsophisticated but HFB certainly didn’t take to the air-of-pretentious atmosphere of the restaurant.

Also, having a row of smartly dress yet clueless service staff standing at the side of the passageway greeting and staring at HFB while he is seated with his peers add on to his already discomfort.

Kudos to the Complimentary Bread & Balsamic Vinaigrette, which was one of the better renditions that HFB had tried – certainly no one will complain if one goes for a second serving.

For the Antipasti e Insalate, HFB plumped for the Capesante Al Taleggio, or Grilled US Scallops with Porcini Mushroom and Truffled Taleggio Fondue ($25.00). Being a big fan of porcini mushroom, the sautéed nutty flavoured shrooms along with the intense creamy truffled Taleggio cheese was divine. However, HFB felt let down by the textured scallops that were slightly dry for his liking – he thought Sage, The Restaurant did a better job with their Seared Hokkaido Scallops with Normandy Sauce.

What’s an Italian dinner without pasta – the Linguine Al Granchio, or Linguine with Crab Meat and Vodka Sauce ($30.00) was commendable – nice aromatic vodka-infused tomato-cream sauce integrated with the flavours of the sea from the crab meat was simply blissful. However, the serving portion was definitely pathetic and HFB could easily wolfed down another plate with ease.

Dessert was Fondente Al Cioccolato, or simply Molten Lava Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Gelato and Raspberry Coulis ($18.00) – it didn’t wow me but definitely not the worse I have eaten. However, accolades must be given to the hazelnut gelato that everyone around the table seemed to enjoy it.

Overall, 4 of us choked a total of $428.00 including a bottle of wine and taxes. HFB felt that the pricey wine was a total rip-off and service although professional, lacked cordiality.

You can view all the photos here.