Osteria Mozza

C says:

After we got a prelude to the potential of the cheeses here at our visit to the Pizzeria, we finally made our way on Friday evening to try the more formal Osteria. It's worth noting that although it's definitely less casual than the Pizzeria, it's still not prohibitively fancy. There's still a reassuring hum of activity, and the vibe isn't too forced or proper.

There's a Chef's Tasting Menu available, at $128 for 6 courses, but we were quite fine dined out after St Pierre so we opted for a la carte. Besides, we were really here for the cheese.

They have a dedicated Mozzarella Bar, with burrata, buffalo mozzarella and other varieties in all sorts of interesting dishes and combinations. After much thought, we decided on one burrata, and one classic buffalo mozzarella.

We tried the burrata with grilled asparagus, guanciale (smoked pork jowl, similar to pancetta) and almonds. I was slightly disappointed that the burrata was just in the form of a slice placed on top of the asparagus. Not quite the flavour overload of the burrata at Valentino then, but pretty good nonetheless. 

We ordered the buffalo mozzarella with 4 condiments - pesto, salsa romesco, black olive tapanade and a caper relish, served with grilled crostinis. Surprisingly, the buffalo mozzarella was better than the burrata. It had much more flavour and texture, and went really well with the pesto and caper relish in particular.

They nicely split the primi portion of pasta for us when they heard that we were sharing. We were torn between a capellini with chicken liver and black truffle, and the one we eventually ordered - the spaghetti with lemon and white anchovies. Because we ordered a main that had chicken liver sauce, we decided that the lemon and anchovy one would provide a better contrast.

I liked the acidity of the pasta, but A found it too tart for his liking. My colleague D, who I only found out much later was also there at the same, had the chicken liver pasta and raved about it. Dammit.

We shared the guinea hen crostone with chicken liver sauce. A piece each of breast and thigh was placed on top of a large crostone, and drenched with a rich sauce of chicken livers. It was topped with a salad of flat leaf parsley, which helped to lighten the dish somewhat, though it was still pretty rich. 

We were pretty full but because the pastry chef in charge of Mozza globally is Nancy Silverton, somewhat of a celebrity in the pastry world, we figured we had to try at least one dessert.

Most of the options didn't really call to us, so we went with the olive oil cakes with an olive oil gelato. They were quite heavy handed with the salt, but apart from that it was a surprisingly light and refreshingly different dessert. The cakes were light and moist, and went well with the gelato.

Overall food was good, but for the price (budget about $100 per person) I'd still rather go to Esquina.

A says:

Good cheese and pasta. Interesting desserts. So-so secondis. I’d say it’s an alright option for a $100 per pax meal at MBS, but it isn’t exactly top of my list.

Osteria Mozza

10 Bayfront Avenue

Marina Bay Sands

Tel: 6688-8522

Open daily: Noon to midnight