Domani

C says:

I’m not quite sure how we ended up at Domani, which occupies what used to be Pasta Cafe at B2 of Ngee Ann City. It was our second consecutive day at Takashimaya, so I guess we just wanted to have something simple yet marginally interesting. Well, interesting it certainly was. The menu is billed as Spanish/Italian, but I would go further to say that it’s a Singaporean interpretation of Spanish/Italian, so don’t expect too much authenticity.

Their tapas were quite disappointing, since they were more like generic deep fried appetizers that you can get just about anywhere – think deep fried calamari, deep fried soft shell crab, deep fried chicken, fries, potato croquettes and even potato salad. We chose the most interesting thing, which was a platter of bruschetta.


The platter came with one each of their 5 bruschetta offerings – smoked salmon with cream cheese, mixed mushrooms, parma ham and melon, prawn and mango, and sardine with chopped tomato. These were ok but not very outstanding, and I found it a bit disconcerting that all 5 of them were spread with cream cheese.


The photos of the paellas looked like ordinary fried rice, without the signature slightly burnt crust, so we decided to go with some safe-looking and sounding pastas instead. A had the four cheese tagliatelle, which was like any other cheesy cream sauce with just the slightest hint of gorgonzola.


My prawn and aspagarus spaghetti with tomato cream sauce fared only slightly better. It definitely needed the chilli flakes and powdered parmesan cheese that I liberally sprinkled on it; even then, it was quite ordinary and in my opinion, not quite worth $15.90.

We were about to dismiss this place since it was similar to Saizeriya, but without the jaw-droppingly low prices that justify dining there despite the uninspired food. But then, the dessert arrived… They have a tie-in with Rive Gauche patisserie so you can order Rive Gauche’s cakes for dessert, but we went with their home-made Double Chocolate Chiffon Cake instead.


Wow. This was a massive cake – we added A’s hand in the photo to give some perspective on the size. It wasn’t pretty – the icing was just slathered on and the slice was ragged and uneven, but this was better than so many of the multiple layer, doorstop chocolate cakes at some of the finer cafes around. Those jolt you with their size, but are often very heavy and dry. This, on the other hand, is an old school delight. The cake is really light chiffon but still quite chocolatey, and the icing is pretty good fudge. It’s served warm, with a sweetened whipped cream that pairs very well with the cake, since ice cream would probably overwhelm the super-light cake.

So would we recommend this place? Probably not for the food, but most definitely for the cake. I would happily eat somewhere else in Ngee Ann City, and save some space for the cake here.

A says:

This would be perfect for students and young execs. I’d definitely have brought C here for dates. haha

The menu’s slightly more interesting than other equivalently priced places, although it tastes pretty average. As a spoilt gourmand poseur would say, “A little truffle oil would have brought the Quattro Formaggi Tagliatelle to life.” The spoilt gourmand poseur, of course, being me.

The standouts are the bruschetta (for the price) and the desserts (great, no matter what the price).

The coffee’s not bad too.

C says:

Wanker... I’ve created a monster...

Domani
391 Orchard Road
#B2-37 Ngee Ann City
Tel: 6734-1638
Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm
www.pokkafood.com.sg/domani/