It was after 5 long years that we decided to go to Pregos. The reason why we stopped is because many year back Pregos was a great palce to go. I remember when i use to go to Pregos with my granmother...but after awhile when the management changed we stopped for the food was crap.

So it was 5 years...till the blessed day came to go...mum's friends brought us there.

My, my my...i was suprised...pleaseantly surpised.

The service was GREAT...the FOOD was GREAT...i shared the Maincourse with my mum's friend - it was a lamb rack - COOKED to perfection...the potatoes were smooth and creamy. The garden vegetable roasted to perfection.

I also had the Tiramisu...oh wow...i am a cook myself and i love to cook but that is one of the best Tiramisu i have had in a while.

And the service - especially the Assistant Manager Mr. Nurcahyo and Bon our waiter.

Great service from the staff.

I must say Pregos have redeemed themselves in my eyes and we will surely be going there back again soon

my partner and i felt like italian one friday evening after work a few weeks ago and we ended up at prego given its proximity to my partner's place of work. I actually didnt particularly feel like prego, but because there were no other italian restaurants nearby which i felt like - ristorante bologna at marina mandarin was ruled out because we did not particularly enjoy the food too much during our previous visit there.

so anyway we had:

A pizza - Porcini, gamberi e guanciale di maiale: tomato, mozarella, porcini mushroom, prawn and bacon

A Starter - Calamari e zucchini fritti con salsa di pomodori secchi piccanti: fried calamari and crispy vegetables served with spicy sun dried tomato salsa


i actually had wanted to upsize the pizza, but the waiter not only did not know hot much it would cost (despite the pizza menu saying please ask staff for price) and started telling us that oh this size is okay. in fact, he took it upon himself that my first choice of pizza (i cant remember what it was now but it had bacon and pork) was too oily and that we should not have it. normally i would be fine with staff making suggestions like that. but that night it was after work and im like thinking why cant i have what i want to eat? he was really quite firm in saying No its too oily, you shouldnt have it.
and my partner being the usual amiable (and health conscious) one decided that we should listen to him. ok fine.

so anwyay we had a starter of calamari with fried crispy vegetables - think an italian version of tempura, and i must say both calamari and vegetables were very well done. Flavourful, and the calamari was fresh - no weird fishy smell or taste. the batter was very well done also - not the standard stuff you get from cheaper restaurants. I think it was slightly oily though, but only very slightly. i thought the dried tomato salsa the dish came with was very refreshing. excellent if you like tomato or feel particularly like having something tomatoish.

okay so the starter was served around 20 minutes after we placed our orders- no problem. but the freaking pizza took something like 45 minutes thereafter to arrive. we had to ask the waiter for our pizza twice. and the second time, before i could even get a word in hes like It's coming in a few minutes. you know i dont particularly like the style of premption that prego appears to practice i.e. telling you what you cant eat and going on before i can even get a word in and not being in the least apologetic. okay whatever. just serve me my pizza.

the pizza comes and it did not suit me entirely. it was so wet (tomato base)and taste of the porcini mushroom was overwhelming and did not go with the rest of the ingredients that made up the pizza. the prawns were good, but bacon soggyish and made up of layers of fat. The crust was okay, but if you like it crisp that was something it definitely wasnt. I suppose at least it wasnt burnt and i wasnt eating carbon. in any case, i was sorely disapppointed. especially after having to wait so long for the pizza to show up.

another thing i did not like was the fact that if youre eating in pairs, the tables are placed so close to each other its almost like youre sharing a table for four with two complete strangers. it goes without saying that your immediate neighbours can listen in on your conversation and you on theirs. This is not the place for intimate italian. or even cosy italian. certainly not what i had in mind.

one of the few things i enjoyed however, was the bread they served after we ordered (and prior to the calamari) and the tomato salsa it came with. the salsa was yummy. i dont usually like eating tomato in slices, but if anything prego does right it must be their salsa.

and prego, while some might still think moderately priced for a restaurant in a hotel, has a rule clearly stated at the bottom of the menu (i think on every page) that there is a minimum order of one dish per person. so while that's not a problem for most of us, clearly the restaurant isnt out to serve just anyone. you gotta order something man.

when i first walked past the prego deli, the desserts in the counter looked divine. so i opted for a business set lunch which included a dessert. the freshly baked bread and dip were nice. my fried calamari starter was yummy but too big a serving for 2 people. my main was thinly sliced beef wrapped with bacon, served with mashed potato and sauteed veggies. the beef was tender and the dish was overall pleasant. my lunch partner's carbonara pasta was however far too creamy for my taste. i couldn't make myself get to a second mouthful. the dessert, 'fruit tart', was sooo pathetic looking. the fruits were not even on the tart. the so called tarted was a very thin baked apple pastry. it was extremely unsatisfying and i left disappointed. $35 for 2 course set lunch and $45 for 3 course.

I come to Prego probably once a year as the busy, noisy ambience is uplifting and welcoming, reminiscent of homely and boisterous Italian restaurants? Anyway, a friend and I came here for a late-ish weekday dinner and were very quickly seated. Definitely at 1/3 capacity.

Service was excellent with a very attentive and friendly waitstaff who was polite and didn't interrupt us in our conversation.

Food on the whole was satisfying. The complimentary bread came out piping hot and was nice and chewy. Here's what else we ordered:

1) Fried Calamari - $23 - besides deep fried squid, strips of deep fried sweet potato and zucchini were thrown in. For the 2 of us, it was a lot. The accompanying tomato sauce was disappointing, although the bread's carbonara paired very well with the calamari. On its own the calamari was quite tasteless so we added more salt and pepper on top of it. For the price, it's steep and wasn't particularly anything to shout about.

2) Linguine Scoglio - $27 - their linguine with seafood (clams, baby scallop and shrimp). The helping of pasta and seafood included was very generous. We ended up finishing up all the seafood and left a bit of pasta left. Again, we felt more pepper made it taste a whole lot better. But otherwise a tasty dish with fresh seafood.

3) Lasagne Alforno - $25 - their regular beef lasagne had a rich, full-bodied sauce that was this time a tad bit salty.

4) Tiramisu - $14 - the star of the meal. The tiramisu was moist, with coffee at the bottom, and the mascarpone fluffy. Yumm!

Yes, I'll still come back to Prego once in a while, but it's not a drop-dead best Italain place to eat at. But if anyone's looking for a late night dinner, this place is relaxing and open till quite late. We were there past 11pm and people were still lingering around having a late bite. Great place for a quiet chat, good service, and decent food on a weekday evening. The credit card discounts help too!

Since I started dining at Prego more than 6 years ago, the standards of food quality and service have been inconsistent. But I'm happy to report that both criteria have been met during my three trips this month.

Service

My three trips ranged from a tete-a-tete to two large gatherings and once with noisy children involved. On all three occasions, the service was exemplary with the staff accommodating our demands for privacy, special food arrangements for the kids and for a birthday celebration. The wait staff were unobtrusive but attentive at the same time, quite a mean feat considering the ratio of wait staff to patrons was quite low.

Food

I've always enjoyed the seafood at Prego, from the now-defunct frutti de mare (aka seafood pasta!) to the current linguine alio scoglio (seafood linguine cooked aglio olio). The proportion of seafood to linguine was generous and the linguine done al dente.

Other orders that I remember are:
- parma ham pizza with rocket (unctuously melt-in-the-mouth ham set off by the bitter rocket, yums!)
- spaghetti vongole ( fresh clams, but could do with a bit more white wine)
- spaghetti carbonara (luscious and fullbodied!)
- gnocchi (my friend had this and she said it was quite good. I can't remember the filling but she did comment that the contrast of textures and flavours was interesting)

My only gripe was that the pork loin with apples was too dry. When I brought this up to the manager, he informed me that I could have mentioned that I wanted the pork loin done medium rare but how was I to know that the alternative was a dry hunk of meat?

Anyways, still a great dining option!