Wow, one of those few restaurants where the service staff actually gives a damn about serving customers politely and patiently. La Nonna is the fairly new resto in Holland Village that has become one of my favourites.

The ambience is chic and rustic at the same time and makes you feel like you're in a old Italian pizzeria.

The menu here is quite fluid, there is plenty of stuff to choose from including a large menu-of-the-day that is displayed on the chalkboard. If you still don't find anything that suits you, the waiters are happy to let you pick say for instance, ingredients from 2 pizzas and mix them up! Great if you are vegetarian or have friends who are vegetarian.

Like many of the good Italian places, La Nonna has excellent pizza, great risotto and everything else you'd expect from the Senso chain (which incidentally owns La Nonna if I am not mistaken). Moreover, the food is very affordable and I hope it stays that way.

Two Thumbs Up!

Update: Went here again last week. Food was as good as ever- I had the Gnocchi Porcini from the daily specials menu. It was absolutely amazing - a soft rich creamy sauce delicately flavoured with procini mushrooms and the gnocchi itself was perfect. Kudoes!

Having read numerous reviews of La Nonna I have been pretty keen to check this place out.

Had their weekday set lunch which I thought was affordably priced at $22 ($25.89 all-in).

First up was the tomato soup which was hearty and a tad on the sour side, and definitely whetted my appetite setting me psyched for more. I had the aglio olio as the main and the pasta was suitably al dente and competently executed. The tiramisu dessert was nicely plated, but a bit blah with no real kick to it. Lunch was nicely rounded up with a nice cup of coffee.

Maybe I've not uncovered the real gems in La Nonna's menu. Found my meal there to be overall ok, nothing to shout about, alfresco seats outside make for great people watching.

The sign of a good Italian restaurant is its ability to generate appetising Italian food which can please a wide variety of people with different tastes. Pizza and pasta can often set a benchmark but the real test comes when you try authentic Italian dishes such as Osso bucco, Bisteca Fiorentina, Caprese salad. You need to rely on fresh ingredients which combine the flavours of Italy to make a mouthwatering meal. I feel that this restaurant achieved this with flying colours.

I brought along some discerning guests - my wife and mother in law who are both on the Atkins diet (for those of you that don't know - its meat, meat and more meat - oh and a token load of vegetables). They are both huge fans of Italian cuisine. My two daughters aged 1 and 3 who are already starting to get a taste for Italian food are massive for pizza - a bad pizza will undoubtedly get thrown around the restaurant! And me - well I've just been makan'ing down the food court for breakfast gorging on fishball noodles so I'm pretty stuffed and looking for a snack.

We wanted a nice relaxing lunch with wine and somewhere we would not feel too uncomfortable with two toddlers. The two young lads greeted us with a friendly smile and immediately made us feel welcome. We had a glass of wine each and ordered some san pelligrino.

The kids shared a pizza margherita. I ordered the set menu - $8.80 for a salad and pizza of your choice - I chose their signature pizza - "La Nonna" which had ham, asparagus, mushrooms and an egg in the middle. Wife had T-Bone Fiorentina ($28). She wanted it served with fresh green vegetables rather than carbs and the waiters dashed into the kitchen to ask the chef if that were possible. Mother in law wanted the fish (I can't rememeber what it was but you can see the picture below). They both went for the caprese salad for starters - buffalo mozzarella, beef tomatoes, rocket and pesto salad - an Italian classic.

My wife's steak when it was brought thought looked like a work of art. We all went Whoooa!!! It was served medium rare and the meat was beautifully cooked and melt in the mouth. The grilled courgettes were equally tasty

Pizza was destroyed by my girls - they ate all but the crusts - we enjoyed 10 mins of peace and quiet! None got chucked around.

My pizza was nice but disappointly small - beware the lunchtime pizzas on their offer menu are scaled down in size.

In short I think the pictures I took of the food says it all - everything looks mouthwatering! I thoroughly recommend this place.

Buon appetito!

Cosy little 2 storey Italian restaurant. The 2nd storey is definitely cosier and gd if you have a small party of friends. There's al-fresco dining too on the 2nd floor balcony.

Food wise is so-so. My friend's carbonara was mediocre, so was the risotto. My beef ravioli was flavourful though a tad heavy going. Bread is free and served with vinegar and olive oil. Not too bad.

Service was attentive and my friends planned a bday surprise for me and the tiramisu was nicely decorated and all. And the restaurant was so sweet to not charge us for the tiramisu!! "It's on the house!" says the pleasant waiter.

Nice overall feel.

Dining at Garibaldi the night before, I set foot into La Nonna trying not to expect too much but by night's end I still left an unsatisfied customer.

1===> Service:
The service was adequate. Waiters constantly checked on us and tended to any needs we had. This could be in part due to the late hour that we were there accompanied by the fact that there was a lack of other diners. In any case, the waiters served with a smile on their face which to me is integral in creating a warm, friendly dining environment. Food was delivered in good time and pronunciation of the dishes was acceptable(I get annoyed with inaccurate pronunciation by waiters). The waiters had sufficient knowledge with respect to items on the menu.

2===> Ambience:
We sat inside due to the hustle and bustle of Holland Village on a midweek night. The place did not have a distinctive Italian feel to it and not conducive for a romantic dinner. Palpably this might have been due to the throngs of people flooding the street directly outside the restaurant but I am not one to make excuses for restaurants.

3===> Food:
Armed my usual champagne, the food tasting began.

Bread starter -
Not great to say the least. Any Italian restaurant serving bread before any of the courses should have the decency to ensure the bread is warm and fresh. Ours was neither. The olive oil and balsamic recked of poor quality. So what if the bread is free of charge, if its not to a certain level of standard, I would rather not have it served.

Caprese -
Buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil is a marriage made in heaven. The traditional Italian salad was however marred by poor quality tomatoes. Orange and unappetizing looking. The pesto by the side was a nice touch but flawed by a hint of off-the-rack taste. Kalamatas would be a welcome addition.

Potato Scallop Soup -
The soup was watery. It lacked texture and depth. The flavour was rather uplifting, sort of a winter day pick-me-up, but the overall richness of the soup was somewhat disappointing. If only the soup was thicker and had more life in it. Then again if-only s distinguishes the great from the good.

Gorgonzola Gnocchi -
One word. Uncooked. The gnocchi was sticky and glued to the roof of our mouths. Horrible. We barely finished one quarter of the dish before asking for the bill and our initial intention to get our dolce after the entree was replaced with the exigency to leave. The waiter upon seeing the gnocchi largely left untouched asked if there was anything wrong and I told him it was uncooked and hence sticky. His immediate defence was that the Gorgonzola cheese created that particular effect which was utter rubbish. Even a darth prick could tell that the gnocchi was not cooked long enough.

4===> Value:
The pricing was relatively mid-range, however for that kind of prices I expected more. Enough said.

Final Words:
We tried only 3 dishes mainly cause my partner already had dinner, however the ones we did try did not justify the prices we paid. Maybe we made the wrong selections. Maybe we missed out on their signature dishes. Or maybe the restaurant just isn't worth its weight in gold.