Recommended by a friend, I recently visited Verve Bistro in Gillman Village, and was I pleased I did! What was originally planned as a few drinks with friends turned into an immensley enjoyable evening of great food and wine. The setting is both relaxed and stylish, the service friendly and attentive and the menu varied and enticing. I would recommend the pizzas, especially the duck with hoisin sauce - unusual as it sounds, it was wonderful! The chocolate brownies for dessert were scrumptious. The cocktails we started with had a freshness about them rarely found in other bistros in town and the wine list, whilst not extensive, was varied (and very reasonably priced) and contained more than a few labels I would love to try. If you are looking for somewhere new to try then give Verve a visit - i'm sure that you'll go back for more. I've been three times this month!

The group of girls were looking for a chilling place to hangout after our dinner and one of my friend recommended this place.

The moment I stepped in, I'm in love with the ambiance and setting there. We were first greeted with a few friendly ladies and as there were not much crowds there, we were able to choose any seats freely and we opted for a sofa seat of course.

Since we only ordered a few drinks and a bottle of white wine, there isn't much comments I can write about except on their good service. The staff there were really friendly.

I would love to go back again!

Verve, the new kids on the block here (opened about 7 weeks from the date of this write up), takes up the old British cinema building. So far it's the only Italian establishment in this area. There is a comfy lounge on the inside of the restaurant that extends out to the outside which is a popular section for people who wants to be near to the natural greenery while sipping their drinks. They have a small cellar for the wine enthusiast.

I was out here today as my two friends have cravings for pizza. We decide to try out pizza at Verve. The pizzas in the menu are all names of characters in "The Godfather"........Corleone, Vitto.....

We ordered;

1) Vitto Pizza, which is a classis magarita pizza that made Naples world famous. This is a basic tomato, basil and cheese pizza. My two friends who always ordered the magarita pizza at several other pizzarias (several times at Pepperoni at Greenwood, part of the Les Amis group) thinks that Verve actually made it good!

2) Ah Sao Pizza, a spicy chicken infused with lemon grass recipe that comes from a lady in Malacca. They've added the spicy chicken recipe into pizza. It taste good..........but only if you can agree with me on eating spicy food. My friends thought its a bit too spicy for them. But the menu did warned .........Not For the Faint Hearted

They need to turn up the attentiveness of the service here as there were only 2 tables to be served. Probably due to the venue and also it's F1 weekend.

For photos and more details see:
http://4-the-love-of-food.blogspot.com/2008/09/verve-bar-bistro-italian-mafia-in-menu.html

Desperate for jungle dining experiences outside of Mimolette, Halia, Rochester Park and a few Dempsey restaurants, we ventured afield to Gilman Village with two other couples in mid-September on a Friday night to try Verve.

The setting is quite nice. Alfresco dining both under an awning or under open sky with lots of greenery surrounding. Inside dining within a modern hip interior. And a very enthusiastic owner/manager who even gave my husband a quick tour of the wine cellar. It certainly feels like a hidden gem.

However, the food, while not bad, was a hit and miss. The menu has a decent array of delicious-sounding items but some of the dishes could be improved.

For instance, my husband had the prawn and arugula linguini which sounds like it should be a taste sensation, however he found it to be a bit bland. I had linguini with duck confit. This came with deep fried duck skin on top and decent chunks of duck meat within the linquini. I enjoyed mine more than my husband enjoyed his, but I found the actual flavors not very exciting; the sauce was cream-based and didn't have much in the way of flavor. My arugula salad starter was very plain - perhaps it was just because it was splashed in balsalmic vinegar when I was expecting more of a balsalmic-based dressing (but with some olive oil and salt and pepper). Again, these dishes weren't bad - no major complaints - but I felt a bit disappointed.

Our friends fared better. One had the duck pizza which he very much enjoyed. Another had the eggplant parmigiana as her main and also really liked it (and it was a nice healthy portion).

The best part of the meal was our red wine which was delicious and a bargain at $70/bottle. My husband ordered so I don't know the variety/brand, but safe to say there are some good choices on the wine list.

Will we return? That is a good question. If Verve were closer to us, it'd be a definite yes; I'd give them a bit more time and then return to explore other dishes, probably the pizza. However, since it is a bit far I'm not sure we will make it back...maybe some promotions or some dinner jazz would entice us?

Either way, we wish Verve all the best.

I was the Verve Bar & Bistro abt 2weeks ago..
lovely ambience a great place for dinner and thats whr the compliments end.

it was a weekend..therefore we were lookin forward to ordering afew juicy burgers.
but the waiter said the grill wasnt set up cos it rained.
(it did rain but it did stopped like an hr ago)

food took forever to come. friends who ordered pasta dishes had their food served pretty fast(as compared to the rest)abt 20+ mins min.

our dishes like pizza & sandwiches look abt 30-50mins.
(my friend ordered her pizza without onions, they forgot and had to redo her pizza.. waiter who informed us abt this didnt even apologize)

food was average or worse to say the least.


judgin from the other comments we either came on a bad day or we just ordered the wrong dishes.