La Braceria has always been one of our favorites. Bollicine was too, when they were still around that is. So when we heard that the La Braceria folks had taken over Bollicine's vacant spot at the Rivergate (95 Robertson Quay #01-19, 6634-5117), it was a no brainer to come here. But to our surprise, it was fully booked last night, forcing us to come here for lunch today instead.
I'm not sure if I understand why though. Sure, the quality was as good as I would have expected of La Braceria; the tripe that I had today was tender and tasty. But there were still some basic ingredients that Bollicine had that I liked better, be it the quality of the bread and olive oil there or the branzino which they did en papillote rather than the one that Limoncello did. And yet Bollicine had very few customers, even though it was at the same location and pretty much the same price points...and had arguably even better decor and service.
I suppose that the La Braceria name and publicity helped. That, and the fact that they added a bar, wine cellar, and pizza oven outside. (Interestingly, they were offering four stalks of Spargel here for S$28 or US$23.) Well, the menu here unfortunately did not feature those sausages that I love so much from La Braceria, so I'd still prefer to make the trek up to Bukit Timah for that. I sure miss Bollicine either way.
1 comment:
I miss Bollicine for the quality of it's ingredients too, just simple and well made food. For a while it's boss had an eatery at Orchard Central selling more food that was economical than Bollicine, called Eatalian Gourmet Garage. But after a few months the chef left the place and ever since theyve stopped offering cooked food which was sad. Their pasta was cooked to the same standard at Bollicine which was nice and you had the same tasty olive oil.
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