La Vela

C says:

We went with A’s parents to La Vela, the Italian restaurant at Keppel Club. The place was quite deserted for a Sunday night, and the music playing was decidedly un-Italian, but the food was surprisingly good considering that we didn’t have great expectations.

We shared a couple of starters – the fried calamari itself was nothing spectacular, but it did come with a pretty good aioli-type dip. The insalata caprese – buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes, basil and olive oil – was much better. The cheese was firm yet creamy, and the tomatoes were fresh and sweet.

A ordered the rib-eye steak with gorgonzola sauce, which was surprisingly good. It looked a little hard but was actually very tender, and done to a perfect medium rare. The meat was very tasty – sweet but with a strong beefy flavour. I initially ordered the lobster spaghetti, but I was told that the one lobster they had remaining in the kitchen wasn’t fresh and therefore they couldn’t serve it. I ended up having the beef tenderloin with porcini mushroom sauce. Again this was better than expected. The sauce was tasty, with a pronounced mushroom flavour, and the beef was very tender. After tasting both a tenderloin and a rib-eye tonight, I realize that a rib-eye is much more flavourful. The tenderloin, while definitely very soft and tender, tends to lack character in its taste. I was a bit puzzled with the veggie sides though; A and I had exactly the same sides of potato wedges and baby asparagus, but I could’ve sworn that on the menu, my steak was supposed to be served with spring vegetable fritters… oh well.

Alas, we were too full for dessert. We got a voucher for our next visit though, so I guess this won’t be our last trip. Hope the lobster is available the next time…

A says:

Food’s okay. Starters stood out more than the mains though. Pity the place is so empty. It could do better in a different location.