Friday, July 31, 2009

Michaelangelo’s

C says:

Just our luck that we never managed to try Michaelangelo’s before Chef Angelo Sanelli left to open his own restaurant, Mietta’s. Citibank has an ongoing promotion at Michaelangelo’s till February 2010, where their $80 4-course set dinner is one-for-one. We decided to take advantage of the offer before trying out Mietta’s.

Just like it was with Don Quijote, I think limited buffets and one-for-one deals are not the best showcase for a restaurant. Corners are inevitably trimmed and as a result, you don’t get a true representation of what the restaurant can offer. The set menu was in no way worth $80, so I’m sure they’ve factored in the one-for-one deal when designing the menu.

The first course was a deconstructed smoked salmon Caesar salad – instead of croutons, the salad was on a crispy slice of melba toast. This was pretty well executed, with the best part being the crispy bacon.

The pasta course was an aglio olio spaghetti with prawns and cherry tomatoes. This was very ordinary, and certainly not what I would expect from Michaelangelo’s. I would say it was more like the standard of Spageddies or any generic pasta restaurant. The prawns were pretty fresh though.

We had a choice of two mains – a pan fried chicken breast fillet, and pork ribs. We thought we’d try one each, but the waitress convinced us that the pork was very good so we both ordered the pork. Big mistake. The main course really wasn’t great, so we had two of them to finish. The pork was pretty tough, and it was accompanied with lentils that were unduly sweet and therefore a rather odd and not particular pleasant flavour combination.

Thank goodness we ended the meal on a high note, though. Dessert was panna cotta with berries and this was one of the richest, creamiest panna cottas I’ve had. This was very welcome after the disaster of a main course.

Apologies for the lack of photos. The lighting was completely not conducive to photography. Also, for a Friday night the restaurant was eerily empty. Indoors there were only 2 tables of 2 (ourselves included), and outside there must have been no more than five tables of 2 to 4 people. I guess it’s not just us – the standard has probably dropped since Chef Angelo left. Either that or his followers just left with him. Well, based on the standard of tonight’s meal, I don’t think we’ll be back. Yes it may have been a one-for-one promo, but at a total price of just under $100 for the two of us, there are many other places I’d rather patronise.

A says:

The service was excellent and the setting is definitely interesting. I had high hopes following the excellent re-interpretation of a smoked salmon Caesar salad. It was followed by a passable pasta dish and a very blah meat course. I was ready to leave disappointed when the meal concluded with the best panna cotta I’ve ever had.

So I’m left confused as to whether I’d recommend it. I guess I’d consider it only if there’s a good promotion on and I can’t get a table at Pasta Brava, Valentino’s or Da Paolo’s.

Michaelangleo’s
Blk 44 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-60 Chip Bee Gardens
Tel: 6475-9069
Lunch:Monday to Fridays & Sundays, 11:30am – 3pm
Dinner:Monday to Sunday, 6pm – 11pm
http://www.michelangelos.com.sg/

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