After hearing on the morning show about La Braceria, I was very keen on checking out the place. The food was suppose to be top notch and very reasonably priced. They are famous for their homemade sausages and wood oven pizzas.

A good friend and I was scheduled for a meet up, so naturally I suggested La Braceria. Talk about coincidence! He has been there, and he said that the sausages were fantastic. He made a reservation and we were all geared up for a nice meal.

Unfortunately, this place was a disappointment, and I won't go back again. The sausages tasted like sawdust....the potatoes that came with my main was FRIDGE COLD! Come on...that is just not acceptable.

To read more about my experience, please go to this site. http://vanessafrida.livejournal.com/235081.html

I've been hearing about La Braceria (70 Greenleaf Road, Ban Guan Park, S279356, tel:64655918) for some time now and it's been on my list of places to check out for while. Located in a very old shophouse block at Ban Guan Park on Greenleaf which is just off 6th Avenue, the location is can be considered to be secluded, if not remote. It also meant that being around that area felt like stepping into a capsule of another era. But that's for another day. Maybe. The food here's fairly straight forward with minimal frills. The options on menu is decent and definitely looks more appealing than the recent disappointment at Trattoria Lafiandra.

To start, I opted for the trippa alla Fiorentina which is essentially tripe in a light tomato broth with cheese. The tripe turned out to be pretty good. The taste of the meat was beefy, soft and slightly chewy. Having soaked up the tomato broth, each bite is somewhat "juicy". This turned out to be a rather pleasant warm starter of meat and broth.

There is this salsicci de maiale al finocchietto which is their famous home made pork sausages which I thought could be interesting. The sausages here are densely packed in their cases, served with a small side of salad and pan roasted potatoes. Hearty would definitely be the word for them and I thought there were not bad at all except for the use of fennel seeds which I guess are part of the seasoning. I don't really enjoy them normally as they remind me too much of licorice.

Their molten chocolate cake turned out to be similar to the lava cake from Borgo. From the menu, I had expected the ubiquitous chocolate cake with a hot melting centre, but here's one where again, the server poured Grand Marnier into the cup and flamed the cake on serving. This one, is actually noticeably better than the one I had back at Borgo which didn't have a taste as rich of chocolate.

pics and original writeup

Came here for dinner. Fairly brisk business for a Saturday night with some people coming in for their takeaway orders. The brothers who run the place are ever present, and if the Italians themselves come here to eat, guess the place has to be fairly decent.

We started off by sharing the Alla Braceria Pizza amongst the three of us. Thin crust pizza with beef slices, mozzarella, cheddar and porcini (I think) - quite yummy!

Mains were a risotto with pork - delicious, fettucine with black truffles and sausage (the sausage was more like ground meat rather than sausage), and our guest had their specialty homemade sausages, which hasn't ever disappointed.

Went on to dessert bearing in mind the previous review about the tiramisu coming out squashed after an altercation with the chef. Well...it's still squashed! We figured it comes out not in pretty squares or triangular slices cos they bake the whole tiramisu in some kind of large tray that needs to be sliced up for serving. Anyway the tiramisu was excellent - not enough alcohol for a kick, but well balanced flavours still.

Also went with the Grand Marnier flambed chocolate lava cake. Very rich, extremely satisfying, and a visual treat as well! My wife insists it's worth coming here just for the Chocolate Lava Cake itself!!!

Ambience: can't get any better than a well hidden restaurant away from the maddening crowd.

Me and my boi were comtemplating on our dinner and so he decided to use his latest phone and track down this place in Greenleaf..

The phone worked pretty well and we parked outside Cantina. I've heard of Cantina but never eaten there before. But nope, he informed me. He's been told by his colleagues that theone opposite serves nice italian food.

So off we went. And as usual, without a reservation, we were told that the air conditioned restaurant inside is full. We were seated outside which is fine that night cos the weather is cool.

We ordered the calamari, I order foie gras but he wanted to try pasta and pizza at the same time. So throwing my diet caution to e wind, we order 1 each of the waitress's recommendations.

The bread tasted horrible and I told the indian waiter that. He advised that the chef bought the bread today instead of making it as usual (?!?!!).

The Foie gras is fresh and nice. Cooked the way I like it. Firm and slightly crispy on the outside and soft but not runny on the inside. The pizza is not bad but the pasta is weird. My boi enjoyed both though. The calamari is nothing spectacular, but it still taste nice.

The foie gras is $28 which is the same price as the one offer in Friends (Jelita), and if I were to compare, I would come back here to eat this instead.

I like the service though. The waiter and waitress are polite and check if everything is fine after each dish is served. Water is replenished promptly. The only thing I don't like is that the fan rotates under the lighting, making my table looks like disco lighting. I almost had an epileptic attack just by looking at the shadows casted on my table.

mmm, GF birthday wanted Italian so instead of Catina decided to try LB as they always look crowded. (crowded=got customers=good food right!) so i thought.... but it is BS.

Stepped in and an Indian staff with very thick accent seated us. Very friendly, proceeded to inform us the soup of the day and today's specials. Gemini twins across me giggling as they cant comprehend what he is saying... *evil*

We settled for White Asparagus with parma ham, homemade fettucini in cream base with black truffles, 2 pizzas: La Braceria and the Rucola. Desserts are the tiramisu and warm molten chocolate cake with grand marnier. Drinking the house white which is Sicillian medium bodied but tad bit tart.

The asparagus is way too "old" and "fibre-y" that makes it really difficult to cut thru. Ended with one piece left but "naked" of the parma ham. Bad start... Next rolled out the pasta: the homemade fettucini is al dente but the sauce is not very fragrant, a bit on the dry side that not all pasta is coated...

Pizza is not as thin crust as Italian style like Valentino's. The La Braceria is beef slices with mozzarella. Beef is well marinated and the tomato base sauce complements well with the cheese. The Rucolo comes with a bed of arugula and a generous serving of parma ham and a sprinkling of cherry tomatoes... Looks really appealing! The contrast of the colour and texture is good for that. I think of the 3 mains, this is the best.

Nearing the end of our meal, the staff asked Gemini twins n me if we mind shifting to a table outside for desserts as apparently Chef's 2 friends popped by for dinner and the inside air con seating is full and they dun wanna seat out. Gemini-girl retorted: "i also dun wanna seat out!" *LOL* oki, so what if you are the chef's friends???

But here comes the bad part: apparently the chef got pissed and revenged on our slice of tiramisu... PLease LOOK at the pix... have you ever seen such a sad piece of tiramisu... We asked the staff: "isn't the tiramisu supposed to be squarish" and he shamefully hanged his head and walked off... We were half afraid to eat it in case it actually dropped onto the floor before! The entire one side is collapsed!

Sure it didn't look good but at least, it did taste quite nice. Creamy light and not too sweet, espresso flavour is there but liquor taste can be a bit stronger. The warm cake is the best: molten dark chocolate spiked with a good dose of grand marnier and flambe at the table... gemini twins were woo-ing and arh-ing over this....

I may return just to have the dessert though the food is nothing to cry and shout about...maybe its crowded cos they are the chef's friends!!!

The whole meal we have so much rucola (which is an aphrodisiac) i better head home to settle so issues... wa ha ha... Ciao!