Getting better…

We dropped by here when it first opened but at the time, they had not set up the oven yet so they did not have pizzas on the menu. Well, there was word going round that they had got it done and were now ready to roll so we wasted no time in making a beeline for the place for lunch last Saturday…

Holy Moses! Is that last year’s decoration or are they getting ready for Christmas this year already? LOL!!!

Their opening hours are from 12 noon to 12 midnight…

…and we got there about 5 minutes early just in case there would be a lunchtime crowd. A Caucasian couple was inside already and that made me wonder as to who they were. I mean if they were tourists, they would not want to come to this little town and eat Italian and would be feasting on our local delights instead, wouldn’t they? Well, both had pasta and they seemed happy with what they were served and left when they had cleaned up their plates.

I browsed through the menu…

…and had to enlist the help of the waiter as being the country bumpkin that I am, I just couldn’t make head or tail of those names that I suppose are in Italian, much less pronounce them. Unfortunately the small skinny chap was mono-lingual and after a few exchanges, I gave up and asked him to get someone that I could communicate with…and he did.

In the end, the boss came himself…and it turned out to be the guy who was taking the Caucasian couple’s orders earlier and had gone inside, probably to start cooking away. Of course he was very familiar with everything that they had in their menu and knew exactly what to suggest and we had no problem whatsoever in placing our orders.

To start off, we had their very delightful Ceasar’s Salad (RM8.00)…

…which we all enjoyed very much. It was not the same as what we had had at other places and I would say theirs was a lot tastier.

Then, we shared the Amatriciana (RM17.00)…

…and for our choice of pasta, Melissa picked spaghetti. Ahhhhhh!!!! I noticed they had done away with that miserable bit of lettuce that they seemed to use to garnish every dish the last time I was here, thank God for small mercies. This was pretty good, I would say, very generous with the sauce though I wished they had been the same with the pasta – not too much, just a little bit more so that towards the end, one would not have to eat pasta sauce without the pasta.

The Pizza Prosciutto e Funghi (RM26.00) that we had…

…was really good. It tasted great and we all prefer thin crust…

…and what we had that day was definitely to our liking – nicely done, crusty and fragrant.

We wanted to order a chicken dish but eventually, decided that we would do so later if we wanted some more…but having had all that, we reckoned we only had room left for dessert so we asked for their tiramisu (RM10.00)…

…which my missus loved very much and Melissa too but I prefer their crème brûlée (RM8.00)…

The torched layer of caramel on top was very thin, perfectly done and not burnt, plus the egg custard base was yum…yum…yummy! You know I always have this soft spot for rich egg custard so perhaps this may be a slightly biased comparison between the two. Hehehehehe!!!!!

When we got there, I did not know what music they were playing and after a while, they switched to some Chinese songs. Mamma mia!!!! At an Italian restaurant? Thankfully, unlike at some other cafes and restaurants in town, the volume was kept to the minimum so it was quite bearable. Eventually, Adele came on…and when she sang my favourite song, all was forgiven. LOL!!!

And unlike some other cafes and restaurants around here where they charge 50 sen or a ringgit per glass and even RM2 at one place (Tsk! Tsk!), sky juice (iced water) was served absolutely FREE here and I would give them a double thumbs up for that!!! Of course, the idea would be to get us to order their expensive drinks on their menu…but when the food alone does not come all that cheap, they should not try to cash in on the drinks as well, like we’re being held to ransom. We would order when we feel like it and not feel that we’re forced to because you’re twisting our arms behind our backs by charging astronomical prices for the water. Blerk!!! At many places overseas or even in KL and elsewhere, the moment you sit down, they will place a jug on the table with enough mugs or glasses to go round. I think the next time I visit “those places”, I would just order the food and tell them I do not want anything to drink, thank you very much.

Well, we all enjoyed the lunch that afternoon and we certainly hope to drop by again sometime and try some of the other stuff on their menu but in the meantime, I’m afraid I do have a bone to pick! Perhaps it is high time they get some new plates to replace the chipped ones…

…and they definitely must tell the workers to be more careful when handling the crockery…

For the prices that they charge, I am sure they can jolly well afford to do that.