Firstly, this place is located in a nice cosy area of Greenwood Ave. I would recommend this area to anyone who would like to get away from the hustle/bustle of the malls and CBD area.

The price is very very decent. Good wine collection with some good choices served by the glass.

Since it was our first visit, we went with the basics. Aberguine parmissano - straight, simple; mussels in white wine;quattro stagitoni pizza and crab meat penne.

I would not say that the food is creative or has wild tastes. The recipes are traditional with more stress on execution rather than fusion or new renditions of old recipes. All in all, a satisfying meal amidst good service and simple, tasty food. For times when you just want to stick to the basics and keep it simple.

My 2nd visit to La Braceria and I confirm for certain that the portion sizes here are HUGE. And its not just the big plates...its the fact that they are grossly generous with the pasta! And the best part is, I savour every last bit of it!

There with my BFFs and a toddler in tow, the simplicity and generous serving brings a cosy homecooked feeling to the meal. It feel as if there's a warm italian mama in the kitchen cooking up the daily staple of pasta and sides and all too eager to make sure that her guests are well-fed and happy. And that we definitely were.

For starters, we shared the mussels + clams in white wine sauce and the baked eggplants. The mussels and clams were absolutely delicious swimming in a light pool of white wine soup. I had to stop myself from drinking the remains of it straight from the bowl. I'll come back just for the mussels/clams for sure!

Moving on to mains, I had what was to be the vermicelli with lobster. Now, on the menu, it says Vermicelli in juice of lobster. I don't really know what italian vermicelli looked like coz all I could think of was my chinese "mee sua". Plus the fact that I wasn't sure why it says "juice of lobster" and half wondered if there'll actually be any lobster meat or that the lobster is being juiced? (not very appetising thought)

Anyways, I had to share this with my friend as the portion was meant for 2. The lobster is actually halved for each which i suppose guaranteed that one half doesn't go to waste or kept overnight. The pasta that came with it was spaghetti though and not vermicelli. I asked the staff if it was meant to be something else and she didn't seem sure and offered to check but I was too hungry to wait so didn't pursue it. (If anyone else tried it...lemme know if you got something different) Nonetheless, it was still good! I'll recommend that you order it to share amongst 3-4 people though.

The service level was as good as the first time I was there with warm water always promptly re-filled. The pizza chef even found a fan in our 2 year old toddler in tow and gave our little tyke a complimentary strawberry sorbet. How sweet.

Sunday lunch was at this cute and quaint little italian restaurant tucked away in the alley behind greenwood. Parking is a pain usually but we were there about 1 plus and there was a lot right in front of the restaurant. Came here upon recommendation of a colleague of mine and been looking forward to it since Thursday!

Ambience

I would say that the ambience is warm and cosy with the pizza oven adding a nice glow to the place. It's altogether charming and comfortable, reminiscence of those idyllic evenings in a particular italian cafe in Florence. The decor is generally simple but tasteful. Plates though, as mentioned below, are a bit too big for the small tables. But I like the fact that they put the chairs side by side rather than across each other, makes for much better intimacy and conversation.

It's also fun to watch the chef make the pizza on the spot (as compared to picotin which somehow looks like making prata). There's a 'cellar' cold room where you can select your wine to match your meal. Didn't really explore thoroughly but did manage browse through the selection on the way to the toilet and back. Seems pretty good.

Service

Service was impeccable. No pretentiousness, just earnest, honest-to-goodness service. Very responsive, always attentive to clearing of plates, providing new plates, refilling of water, etc. We were well waited upon.

Only gripe is they should have served the appetizer first before the mains rather than all coming together. This would also probably solve the over-crowding problem.

Food

Bread basket. Ok, not really a basket. Waiters were obliging and gave us as much bread as we wanted. It was moist and freshly baked and went well with the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Appetizer. We were contemplating between the carpaccio and the eggplant parmigiana. Went for the latter and it was really good. Reminds me a bit of the moussaka we had in greece, but this was more tomato based and less cheesy. The simmering sauce was perfect, we spooned up every single drop. The eggplants were soft and the texture was gorgeous. The sprinkling of parmesan on top complemented this excellent appetizer. However, do note that this can be quite substantial to small eaters and might fill you up a bit too much. Best is probably to share in my opinion. Good idea is not to eat too much bread (note to self: don't eat so much bread next time).

Pasta. We had the crabmeat linguine. What can I say from the below which has not already been said? It was large enough for the girlfriend and I to share and there was ample to go around. The crab meat luxuriously covered the al dente linguine and it was very refreshing to taste. The problem with pasta, especially with an asian palette is that it always tastes good for the first few bites, then becomes heavy going and becomes difficult to finish. Glad to announce that this was not overwhelming but still maintaining its tastiness - the sweetness of the crustacean complimenting the sauce.

Pizza. Not my favouritest of crusts, but it was light and soft. In tangent with the dough of the bread, it was baked on the outside and soft on the inside. Usually I order the margarita, but decided to be 'adventurous' today and order the parma ham pizza with ruccola. The ruccola was generous as was the cherry tomatoes. Drizzled with olive oil and the parma harm was pretty good. It was generally quite good, but not exceptional exceptional in my opinion. In the end we were too full and packed half the pizza home.

We didn't order dessert because their coffee machine was out of order (else we would have gotten the affogato).

Worth a visit I would think. =)

Just when I was having the post b'day feasting blues...an old friend sprung a surprise belated b'day treat on me this weekend. And being the resident go-to "hungrygowhere" girl among my friends, it was refreshing to have someone else suggest and pick the dinner place...even better when its somewhere I've never been. I was excited at the prospect of a catch up with an old friend at a new joint.

I of course had to consult what our fellow HGW comrades had to say about La Braceria and knew exactly what I wanted even before I got there.

The restaurant is tucked away behind the popular row of Greenwood eateries. From the reviews, I expected a rather rustic looking laid back set up but it looked a bit more done up with a nice al fresco deck and spacious but cosy interior. We were the first of what was to be a busy evening for the restaurant but had a good quiet 30mins to ourselves before the crowd pulled in.

I knew I was definitely going for the crabmeat linguine after having read the reviews but had to give myself a window of opportunity for something that might look more enticing on the menu. Comtemplated on the lambchops but my friend and I decided we'll share a pasta and pizza just for variety. And for starters, we were inking for the calamari but couldn't find any so asked the staff if they could do that for us. It turned out that the calamari was on the menu under "Seafood/fish" and it comes served with prawns. I was afraid the full portion might actually be a bit too much for us but was assured by the staff that it would be just nice to share.

Our starter of calamari and prawns came within 10 mins and I was slightly dissappointed with the portion size. For $28 (if I remember right), I was expecting something a bit more fancy or a more generous serving. I wouldn't say the serving was small but I reckon it would have looked a lot more enticing if they had served it on a smaller plate rather than a massive oval. There was a heap of calamari and (only) 2 prawns with a spoonful of tartar on a bed of rocket salad.
Thankfully it tasted better than it looked with the batter nicely coating the calamari and the prawns de-shelled (thumbs up for that!) and slightly crisp on the outside sealing the flavour in.

Next up, our crabmeat linguine. Again, I really would suggest the restaurant using smaller serving plates. The table for 2 was not big so with 2 massive ovals, our side plates, cutleries, drinking glasses and a bread basket, we had to make a few adjustments to get comfortable. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach yesterday having not eaten much the whole day prior to dinner that I was expecting everything to come in bigger portions. So our crabmeat linguine looked more like a starter portion than a main. It lived up to its reputation though and I was happy to have stuck with it. Al dente pasta well tossed in a wonderful sauce and generous serving of crabmeat. Although, I started to get very thirsty after 2 forkfuls of the pasta and reckon it might be a tad salty.

For pizza, my friend picked the calzone and by now we had to do a bit of juggling to squeeze 3 big plates on our table. I asked the staff to transfer the remaining calamari into a smaller plate. Ironically, the calamari looked so much better when it came back served in a small bowl. The pizza looked pretty all puffed up and laced with tomato suace and cheese over it. Unlike most pizzas I've had, their dough was a lot softer and more chewy even if its sat for about 10 mins before we got started on it.

The service is worth a mention with friendly staff and I was most impressed with them bringing me a new glass of warm water everytime I finished without me having to ask. The attentiveness remained consistent even when the restaurant was full. The place did however start to sound like a fish market once the crowd came in which consisted mainly of your neighbourhood DINKS and expats.

If you walk into a restaurant with Italians speaking in Italian when in Singapore, it's gotta be good; well at least in my opinion. Although in this case, it's complemented with a wait staff of Filipinos.

We ordered the eggplant parmigiana, ravioli, and risotto. I put the eggplant parmigiana as the gold standard, it's rich, cheesy. Yum! Compared to other places who probably use similar ingredients, you can feel the heartiness of the tomato and cheese, as though it's been baked with tender loving care ;) The risotto was also excellent, the creamy-ness with the dense flavor of the mushrooms.

La Braceria really pampers my tastebuds and would definitely be back for more.