Porta Porta - Stanley Street

You could miss this place if you turned into the wrong street.

Wanting to do an alfresco this time round seemed almost an impossible task as we were bombed by the loud drills coming from a construction site opposite, coercing us to retreat back in the restaurant. We saw another table do the same before deciding to follow suit. This was my second time returning this branch and I must say that my tummy and I were the most happy when the meal ended.

The bread and the olive tapenade (i guess) did just the thing that they were supposed to do. Fill our tummies and boosted our appetite for what's going to follow next.

Calamari Fritti (above) & Fish Soup (Right)

Calamari seemed like a good choice because we had a tasting of it the last time. It came with 2 additional prawns. This has got to be the thinnest battered calamari. No kidding. The batter is just a mere thin case of crispy batter and this batter has got to be the tastiest of all of those (calamari fritti) that I have tasted. Not that I tried a lot. The tentacles were just pure pleasure as I sinked in my teeth in one of those babies. This made me smiled a lot and I can't wait for more food to come. Fish soup was good but in a way, it didn't come across as full bodied as the one I had at the Changi branch. Savoury and not overwhelmed by the tomatoes, this was one heck of a fish soup.

Finally, the pasta! The prawn penne with cream tomato sauce did it for me. Although it was a tad al dente, the cream sauce and the fresh prawns were so good that I did not think about anything else (except the calamari).

Stuffed tortellini with beef sauce.

The assumption that it would be a tomato based pasta proved to be correct except that it was not how I had envisioned it to be. There were plenty of minced beef and a smidgen of tomato sauce. I think the tortellinis was stuffed with cheese. I would come back for this dish too.

Although their tiramisu was not the best, I like them because it is very simple and palatable. Not too fanciful and something sweet to end the wonderful dinner is always a plus.

I would come back again for 2 main reasons. One is for the food. The other is of course the ever charming Italian server/owner who speaks like a Singaporean. ;oP