TELOK AYER: Ann Siang Hill and Club St may have it in the bag as the hip district but just down the steps at the bottom of Ann Siang Hill Park, the Amoy St and Telok Ayer area is muscling in as Singapore’s latest foodie destination. A whole string of new restaurants have recently opened up in the area.
Nestled among the conservation shophouses at the top of Amoy Street, Burlamacco Ristorante is an Italian restaurant conceptualised, owned and managed by a veteran in the business, Gabriele Piegaia. Behind the unassuming facade is a cosy yet stylish space soaked in earthy tones and ambient lighting, with lively paintings adorning the walls and natural sunlight falling effortlessly through a skylight. Accented with some old world charm, the fifty-seater features a built-in floor-to-ceiling glass cellar storing more than 120 Italian wines to complement every meal.
We decided to leave the menu choices to Chef Gabriele assuring him there wasn’t anything we wouldn’t try – who wouldn’t take advantage of being in the hands of such an accomplished chef!
From the antipasto menu, the chopped red tuna tartar topped with avocado ($26) was simply melt-in-the-mouth. The stew beef tripe with vegetables and Parmesan ($20) sounded much sexier in Italian, ‘Trippa di manzo alla Burlamacco’, but the taste was divine in any language and certainly not from the same kitchen as Grandma’s tripe.
We followed on to the pasta menu, first sampling the lobster linguine ($30), which had just the right hint of heat but not so much as to detract from the delicate inflections of the lobster. The black squid ink risotto ($28) was a delight on the palate, and decadently presented with a flake of gold to garnish.
For a table of carnivores there was no resisting the slow cooked beef short ribs with Marsala wine sauce ($40), hearty and homely and served on a bed of potato puree to soak up the richness of the sauce.
Their dessert menu is comprehensive, and Gabriele’s selection of four could not have been better suited, with one of the party proclaiming the panacotta to be the best they had tried outside Italy. For me, the chocolate lover of the group, the choice would have to be the Crostata; heralded as “a chocolate tart eruption” and nicely rounded off with wild cherry ice-cream.
One final word of advice; do not leave Burlamacco without sampling the homemade limoncello – the challenge will be to resist a second!
ANZA members receive 15{be2ed48eb5164722cedb437b4154e2fbc822e42c70fc3ff0c38ae00e24820875} off the total bill when dinning from the A La Carte Menu Sunday to Thursday. 4 dine for the price of 3 when ordering the degustation menu. Visit the Member Benefits – Entertainment page for more information.
Burlamacco Ristorante
77 Amoy St
Tel 6220 1763
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