Pete's Place, Grand Hyatt Singapore

I'd eaten at this place in the basement of the Hyatt (10 Scotts Road, 6416-7113) years and years ago, but the only memory I had of it was the checkered tablecloths, thus suggesting that the food itself probably wasn't anything spectacular. Still, it had been ages since I was last here, and the post-work traffic on Bukit Timah was absolutely horrendous tonight (we were originally trying to go to Borgo), so we made a quick U-turn to come here instead. Maybe it would turn out to have some better lasting memories this time.

It started out encouragingly, with a cool (albeit gimmicky) bread table for you to freely select and slice your bread and breadsticks from, not to mention a choice of sun-dried tomato or herb-infused butter. The pizza that we ordered also came out blazingly fast, and came complete with a nicely done thin and crispy crust. It wasn't exactly La Braceria, but it was good enough to clear my bare-minimum expectations of a pizza. The service was also pleasant and efficient.

Then we moved to our main courses, which consisted of a rack of lamb as well as a baccala, which I presumed to be an Italian version of bacalhau. The lamb was tender and interestingly done with a bit of a mustard crust, while the baccala was more like a normal piece of cod rather than the salty Portguese version. I actually kinda liked the cod better this way, but in the end, none of these really had the excitable edge that we were initially craving. It was just very straightforward, that's all.

Were there any lasting memories from this trip then? Yes, but unfortunately they weren't really positive ones. When the suprisingly triple-digit check arrived, we really regretted not having waited out the traffic to go to Borgo instead, where we would have gotten a much more satisfying meal for the same (or less) amount of money. Hopefully their pasta here is a little better, but unless someone says otherwise, maybe we'll just leave this place for the expense-account-carrying business travelers staying at the Hyatt instead.