La Villa (River Valley Road)

This was my first visit to La Vila and I liked the atmosphere and the looks of the restaurant. It's spacious and allows for big group events. The service was good and the staff were friendly. I will probably be coming here again.

On to the food:

Inspite reading the previous review, I decided to order the classic meat platter and regretted it. My main gripe is that the pieces of lamb and pork were very fatty and thus incredibly chewy. I can't recall having to ever work so hard to chew meat before and to top it off, the taste wasn't worth the effort. To give you an idea, for less than the 36 bucks for the meat platter, you can order the Karsik Kebab at Alaturka which completely kicks the butt of the meat platter served here. If I were the restaurant owners, I would just draw a line under their experiments with meats, acknolowedge that is is not their forte and instead focus on what they do well......

.....which are the pizzas and pastas. This pizzas are excuisitely thin, topped with fresh ingredients that taste well together. Nice! My wife had the squid ink pasta which was al dente and flavourful. Also nice. I tried a bit of lava cake and that was well executed too.

So this place is recommended, but avoid the meats.

 

For a more detailed review with photos, please see http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com/2011/03/la-villa.html

We liked it here. It seemed so quaint and secluded, and it had a very charming appeal about it. The food was generally good, and better than the average. Best of all, the price points of the food are cheap(er) than you'd expect of an establishment like this.

We had:

1) Parma Ham ($19) - with Italian burratina cheese and rucola salad. I loved the contrast of the soft, almost fluffy pink ribbons of salty fatty ham against the peppery crunch of the rucola leaves.I wasn't a fan of the burrata (as a matter of preference) though it was good in quality, mild, soft and a wonderful complement to the bread basket

2) Risotto ($24) - with wild mushroom, parmesan and truffle oil, was like eating a very rich and earthy mushroom soup.If you sniffed the al dente rice very hard, you get a faint whiff of truffle-scented oil infused into the dish. Otherwise, the addition of the truffle oil was negligible

3) Classic Meat Platter ($36) - a combination of chicken breast, lamb shoulder rack, pork rack, beef sirloin, pork and lamb sausages, served with mediterranean vegetables. The dish is costly, yet the meats were dry and tasteless.Even the liberal addition of chilli flakes couldn't impart sufficient flavour into the meat.We'll stick to pizzas and pastas next time round

I've never try Sunday Brunch before, this is the first time I enjoyed the sunny afternoon meal. My friends find that the environment is pleasant with outdoor greenery, a white swing and retro dining table, the place was renovated from an old school to a restaurant, I like it very much. It’s free parking on Sunday with plenty of lot for Motorists.

We have made a reservation and the staff has shown us to a comfortable seat. We were serve by the cordial restaurant managers and staff. We have a perfect view along the glass penal from the interior; you can enjoy the greenery and blue sky view while dining, it was like a dream. (^_^)

Brunch here is Italian self-service food. I love the fresh oysters, a variety of bread and eggs dishes. Desserts look delicious; fill with all kinds of shapes and colors. It will be love by child and adult. (^-^)

Relaxing on a Sunday afternoon, fill with sunlight, coffee and laughter, this must be the Italian way of life and culture. If you like to enjoy this kind of dining experience, this place is a good choice. (^_^)

星期天的Brunch我從來沒有嚐過，這是我第一次享受這充滿陽光午後的用餐體驗。我和朋友都覺得這裡的環境怡人，戶外的翠綠草地，白色的鞦韆，復古的餐桌，再加上這棟舊學校改造出來的餐廳，主題概念就已經讓我給它加分了，我非常喜歡。當然，駕車人士更容易找到停車位，而且是免付費的喔。

我們之前預約了，所以也留了個好位子。親切的餐廳經理和服務人員禮待了我們，我們的位置也非常理想，靠著玻璃門外的室內坐位，可以一邊用餐，一邊看著戶外的綠草藍天，宛如夢境。(^_^)

這裡的Brunch是自助式的，以意大利的食材為主。我個人喜歡新鮮的生蠔，洪培的各式麵包，還有蛋類的料理。甜品方面讓我蠢蠢欲動，各式的造型，色彩繽紛，不管是小孩子或是成人都會吃個好幾種。(^-^)

悠閒的星期天午後，陽光，咖啡，笑聲，這就是意大利人的生活文化了。如果你也想體會這樣的用餐經驗，這裡是不錯之選喔。(^_^)

My cuz had her wedding in La Villa 2 years ago, and I was captivated by the beauty of the place. Situated far from the crowd but yet within bus-ing reason, we finally booked a table to enjoy a lazy Sunday with close friends. 

I have only seen La Villa in the night; romantic, sweet and full of laughs with cosy companions (we had our christmas gathering here in 2011), and was surprised to see that La Villa has transformed itself into a kids-friendly place on Sunday. They even have a bouncy castle on their lawn for kids to entertain themselves while the parents enjoy their procceso. It was actually heartwarming to see the little ones laughing and playing in the castle. And no, even though there were lots of kids, La Villa has made sure that the games are far enough to not disturb the indoor seating guests but yet near to the parents, which was just brilliant.

Brunch consist more of an antipasti selection in their buffet line. The bites were smaller compared to huge portions in other brunches, but enough for me to head back for extra servings of various dishes. The brunch consist of a main dish that each guest could order, which I felt was a good idea (i usually gorge on champagne brunches which is bad for my calories). This was a brunch that we spent a good amount of time sitting and chatting and not be rushing to the buffet line to beat the crowd. The service staff Romel was always all smiles and continuously topping up our glasses. Thumbs up for the amazing service. By the way, the restaurant manager lady is beautiful (hint hint).

As promised by La Villa, I felt  the cosiness of the place and the relaxed ambience. If possible, I could sit there till night time, drinking an endless flow of prosecco. If my cousin did not have her wedding here, this place will be top of my list for a lawn wedding.

For photos, please visit Six&Seven.

Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen in Singapore; after more than 300 plates of aglio olio, can you honestly rank them all in order? Probably not, but then again you are not a food writer so you would not have to. That is why La Villa @ River Valley stands out as an Italian restaurant.

Food aside, the ambience of a restaurant is equally important; be it a bustling façade with reminiscence of Italy, or an oasis in the heart of the city. At La Villa, it is a beautiful marriage of the two mentioned qualities. Nicely tucked away from the city, La Villa serves up a taste of Italy in both its food and surroundings.

The low terrace restaurant is furnished beautifully with stoned walls, wooden tables and chairs. The al fresco bleeds out to a nice open field albeit a noble attempt to block out the main road with low-lying bushes. I would have gone al fresco, but my dinner companion was afraid of mosquitoes given it was raining that afternoon.

We were given an assortment of bread to start. After building my hopes up high with the feel of the restaurant, they came crashing down when I started on the bread. The crust was hard, and the centre barely porous. My jaws had such a workout chewing the bread that I felt guilt-free skipping gym that morning. No saucer for the olive oil and balsamic vinegar; no butter served; yes, it was like getting kicked on the ground.

I carried on with my orders, mentally blocking out that painful 10 minutes of my life (the Prosecco helped). We had a Parma ham with Italian burratina cheese and rucola salad ($19) to start. The restaurant was generous with its serving of the parma ham; that being said, I could not complain about the small portion of rucola salad as I did after all, order Parma ham with salad and not vice versa. The salad, topped with balsamic dressing, went well with the servings of Parma ham.

For the mains, we had two dishes to share. We had the Capellini ($22 small portion, $28 large portion) divided into two portions for sharing. Do you remember the first time you watched Charice sing at David Foster’s concert? Small petit looking girl walking onto the stage, but the moment she opened her mouth to sing all judgments just flew out the window.

Same. The Capellini was rather humble looking – angel hair pasta tossed in some tomato gravy and lobster ragout. Boy, was I truly mistaken. I was blown away with every strain of pasta. The Italian bee-hoon had soaked up all the tomato gravy flavour and goodness; every bite was an explosion of richness that it made me regret agreeing to share the pasta.

We also shared the Frutti di Mare ($22) pizza. It was akin to a seafood pizza – served with tomato, mozzarella, prawns, scallops mussels, calamari and clams. The crust was paper thin and crisp, and the generous portions of seafood ingredients were not spared from immense freshness.

My dinner companion valued his waistline more than I did, and probably stopped after the second slice. I would have gladly finished all the pizza, but I was afraid my gluttony might result in eyes of judgment, so I stopped after the 4th slice. I had the rest packed home, as it was too good to waste.

“No meal would be complete without desserts” as Jasper would often say. Well, my theory is I cannot write a review of a restaurant with just 3 dishes; so I had to order desserts. Such, is the life of a food writer. Under the waiter’s recommendation, we had the Panna Cotta flavoured with 1872 Clipper Tea’s Earl Grey ($14). No, it is not Earl Grey with an 1872 vintage but essentially the brand of the tea. The Panna Cotta was of an amazingly soft consistency that it made your tau-huay look like a rock. The tea, infused into the dessert, gave it a nice aroma.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at La Villa. The location offers diners in town a small oasis away from the hustle and bustle. The restaurant offers great ambience, with certainly great food to match. The al fresco option is definitely appealing to those out on a romantic date. And should the waiter ask if you drove there, just say yes as they will take $3 off for each car (general rule of thumb is that there should not be more cars than diners). Bread? What bread?

It's been a while between champagne (well "sparkling" in this case) brunches and nice to try somewhere new. La Villa had been on my watchlist but somehow we never got to this until now. The brunch has a buffet of antipasti as well as an a la carte selection from a menu of pizza, pasta, eggs ben./florentine and meats. The free flow prosecco is very refreshing and dangerously drinkable.

For the antipasti, there is a wide range of excellent salads, and massive platters of cold cuts including ham, parma ham, mortadella, etc. There are also english breakfast options like eggs with beans and hash browns. The serving plates are of massive proportions which guarantee you will overfill yourself as per the buffet tradition. For the main I had the sirloin steak with fries. The steak was average quality and nothing to get very excited about. I like the concept of buffet with an a la carte selection (e.g. OChre), but in this case the a la carte dishes were not executed so well. As usual, I didn't pay too much attention to the desserts but there seemed to be a reasonable selection.

The ambience is nice here, both inside and with the large grass area directly in front, keeping the restaurant well setback from River Valley Rd. The service was also fine, with regular topping up of prosecco. One criticism would be for those not drinking alcohol they could be better looked after (juices are self-serve), and it would be more fair to give some reduction in price for those not indulging in the free flow prosecco/wine.

Overall I found this to be a positive experience. Am not sure if I'll be back in a hurry but I'd be happy to re-visit La Villa for another sunday brunch sometime....

Visited on a Friday evening to celebrate a friend's birthday. Nice ambiance, for both indoor and alfresco dining. Greeted upon arrival at the restaurant's entrance by the friendly staff.

During happy hour (6pm till 8pm), there're Heineken (draft) and prosecco (sparkling wine) to choose for the 1-for-1 offer.

Starters, we had calamari pirata (fried calamari), and for the mains, we had Classic Grill Platter (for 2 pax) and a large Capellini (angel hair pasta with lobster ragout done Sardinia style).

Regular water and bread basket are complimentary. The fried calamari was crispy on the outside and not overcooked, with a touch of paprika. Pricey for its portion.

Grilled items included lamb rack, pork sausages, lamb sausages, beef sirloin, chicken breast and pork. Mostly chewy and tough. We were disappointed. Served with 2 side dishes (you can choose from a list of limited items). We chose salad and oven baked potato (strips). The oven baked ratte potato is not much of a looker, but it tasted buttery and nicely fragrant. The side dish portion is also small.

The Capellini was good. Large portion may be comfortably shared by 2 small eaters, and will still have room for dessert. Adequately sauced, well seasoned and pasta well-cooked (softer than al-dente). Reminds me of mee-sua (rice vermicelli) texture.

Will recommend this place for its nice ambiance, good pasta and good service (and the selected 1-for-1 drinks during Happy Hour!).

For more pictures, you may wish to visit here.

Went on a Thursday evening and very much as I've expected, I love the place for it's wonderful location - very close to town, yet quaint and quiet, with loads of greenary surrounding the restaurant. The place is spacious, with a lovely outdoor area and a simple but tastefully done interior. It oozes a laid back charm that I'm 200% in love with.

First came the bread basket. I love breads and always look forward to the complimentary basket of breads served at good Italian restaurants. But the ones here were a disappointment. They were tough, not crusty enough, and not fluffy at all - albeit being nicely warmed through. I was praying that the quality of the food here had no correlation with the quality of the bread served.

It was just 2 of us, but we ordered a lot. I really wanted the caprese or the burrata with parma ham, but mommy didn't feel like cheesing that day, so we went for the calamari instead ($19). The squid was cut into really thin slices and was well battered in bread crumbs. It was nice and crispy - yes, but slightly on the tough side (but not unbearably so). And like all average tasting calamaris, the squid was tasteless. But the pomodoro dip redeemed the dish as the chilli in it gave a kick to the otherwise tasteless fritters. Portion is ok - not stingy, but I expected more for the price paid. 

Then came the funghi pizza ($22) and gnocchi ($18 for small) in a creamy sauce with truffle or something. Pizza was good - the crust was thin and crispy, not the type that turns chewy within 5 minutes after losing heat. They're generous with the topping as well, with loads of shrooms, pancetta, cheese and a runny egg to top it all. I wonder why I read negative reviews on this pizza as I thought it's really nice and the egg - yolk especially - added an extra oomph factor to the pizza. So luscious!! But well do I love to complain - I would prefer to have parma or other less fatty proscuitto on the pizza, but it was my bad as I didn't catch the word "pancetta" when placing the order; also, it was just shrooms on the pizza, no sight of any truffle shavings. Sigh.

Gnocchi came in larger chunks that what I had elsewhere, but I don't have any issue with it. I love gnocchis of all incarnations. The creamy sauce was intense enough to go with the dumplings, but again, NO TRUFFLES! It just tasted of gorgonzola..... which is nice, but still, I would like to have at least a hint of truffle flavor in my food when I read in the menu that it's supposed to come with that.

It was a lot of food for the 2 of us, but I was ultra hungry that day so I polished off everything on the plate. Be warned though, the pizzas are 12 inches so if you don't have a big group, don't be greedy and order the large pastas.

Service was ok - nothing too right or wrong.

I would definitely come again for the pizzas and try more of the pastas, or perhaps just pop by with a couple of friends and chill in this lovely little place over some drinks.

La Villa – a culinary oasis right next to the city centre. We were there on a Tuesday night. The place was not too packed, and it had a pretty nice al fresco dining area.

A basket of complimentary bread was served at the start of the meal. 3 different kinds of bread – the triangular (seemingly looking like a tortilla) bread was more flavourful, but a bit oily, giving us the impression that it was deep-fried. Not too healthy, and certainly not a good way to begin a meal. The bread with sunflower seeds was a bit healthier, it tasted more bland, with a fragrant aroma. The last plain looking bun was just a typical baguette.

Funghi – pizza with tomato, mozzarella, mushrooms, pancetta ham, egg, truffle. The unique thing about La Villa’s pizza is the runny egg in the middle of the pizza. And clearly, the addition of the runny egg in the middle is supposed to accentuate the taste of the pizza. Unfortunately, the egg was of little use. In fact, it tasted just like a sunny side up, though we thought it was supposed to be semi-cooked. The pizza was just mediocre, nothing impressive. It becomes worse when it turns cold. Till date, nothing beats the pizza at Pepperoni @ Greenwood Avenue!

Fettuccine - Fettuccine Pasta with Bacon, Egg Yolk and Parmesan ‘Carbonara’ style. The cream sauce was rather thick, not too watery or tasteless. The fettuccine wasn’t too salty; most versions of carbonaras tend to be a wee too salty. But this version, with the flat and fat fettuccine, tasted pretty good.

Parmiggiana – Oven-baked traditional Eggplant “Parmiggiana” with Genovese Basil Pesto Sauce. Parmiggiana is is a Southern Italian dish made with a shallow-fried sliced filling, layered with cheese and tomato sauce, then baked. Looks and texture wise, the Parmiggiana was similar to a lasagna. Sadly, the Parmiggiana was pretty bland. Strangely, it reminded us of those frozen quick prepare food you can get from supermarkets or 7-11 convenience stores, where you pop it into the microwave and after 5 minutes, you get your warm food. Sure, the Parmiggiana did look appetizing, slightly charred, with the semi-melted cheese. But looks can be deceiving, the cheese had no taste as well, and we had to add lots of cheese powder to make the dish more savoury. The only saving grace was the Basil Pesto Sauce which added more flavour to the entire bland parmiggiana. The dish would be more appetizing if the tomato and cheese taste were stronger.

For photos and more, please visit http://foodphd.wordpress.com!

Be it brunch, lunch or dinner, La Villa is the perfect place.

I have patronised La Villa for a couple of years now but realised that I have never left any review on HGW.

Here are the reasons I love this place.

1. It is hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the city, which is just around the corner. So, it makes for quiet dining, at all times of the day.

2. I love the decor of the restaurant and the field just in front of it.

3. This is a perfect place for big group gatherings. The restaurant never fails to place my group in the most comfortable seats possible, even if there is another big group around.

4. This is also the perfect place for weddings and corporate functions. I have personally organised one for my company and everybody love it.

5. I have nothing to complain about the service. They remember me from my first visit and always make me feel welcome. On top of that, they are accommodating and provide their best service possible, always. At least, this is how I feel. Thanks to them, my guests are always impressed.

6. And, they serve good prosecco. Better than those I buy on my own. So, the prosecco keeps me going back.

7. Food wise - standard Italian fare and love the cod and lobster capellini.

So, try it. You might love it.