Trattoria Singapore at 313 Somerset

Trattoria Singapore
313 Somerset, #01-16/17/18, 230 Orchard Road, Singapore.

Met Fata for a quick lunch at 313 this afternoon, main purpose was to collect my cell phone which was left in the car :P

We had decided on the Italian restaurant on the 1st floor of 313 'cos it looked presentable and Fata had heard from some people say that the place had good food.

The menu reminded me of Cafe Cartel's menu, the scratchy font and a numerical reference for every item. But this place has NOTHING to to with Cafe Cartel, I found out when I was paying for the meal that this was part of the 2 Trattoria places in Bali, with branches in Medan, Jakarta & Kuala Lumpur.

Lunch was decided, we ordered calamari (though the waiter said calamansi twice...), black ink pasta with salmon cream sauce and the 3-meat pizza. As they didn't serve free water, we ordered a bottled A&W root beer which was only 250ml for S$3.90! A can is 330ml.

Starter = calamari. For S$8.90 the portion was pathetic... we must have paid 80cents per little ring in that basket... very sad... and the rings were too small to fit even my pinky finger.

Main courses were shared, the first to arrive was the squid ink pasta. The first thing was the lack of length in the noodles. Though there were noticeable balls of longer noodles, there were many little stragglers... like 2cm - 4cm long stragglers dotted the border of the dish. Plus, I found it tasteless... even after a sprinkle of salt, it was still bland...

The pizza arrived about 5 minutes later, the toppings were really few and far between. The pepperoni slices were even halved! The cheap supermarket ham wasn't impressive either... Another problem with the pizza was that we couldn't pull it apart 'cos it was not sliced through. The wait staff were all busy, so I picked up the pizza plank and walked the 5-6 steps to the counter to ask a lady to help cut the pizza properly. Then I had to walk back again to the counter to collect my pizza 'cos the lady behind the counter also had difficulty getting the attention of any wait staff...

Sigh...

The bill came up to S$46.80 for the both of us, to pay, I had to go to the cashier to be ignored by 2 people (plain clothes people, so I assume they are 'management') before a 3rd main clothes person took my check. When I told this lady that my lunch experience was not good, all she said was that they are still under training. Not apology, not even a question in why is was not a good experience.

If anyone goes there and has a good time please let me know? Because I know that I will not be going there again. Strange thing is that the place was full of people by the time we left... why? Enlighten me please...

MH - Chrome Drillbot a.k.a. Chillbot

My shiny new trap from Ronza! (shown here with the Magma base & Gouda cheese)

Let's see how it works out in Derr Dunes :P

MH - Merry Christmas :)

This time on the Festive Comet through December brought me all my 7 Hydras, 6 Trolls and 13 Elves. Plus, the 8 special Christmas mice.

But with the Festive Gift Shoppe and Ronza here again with all the new toys it'll be another 3 to 4 months before my coffers will be filled enough for the Clockapult :P

Plus, I used to to missing just 3 mice out of 138, namely the Harpy, Cook & Shelder. Now the mice count has gone up to 140 + another event mouse -> Frozen, Toy & Frosty. And I'm missing all the 3 new mice :P

MH - 12-days + new trap + Ronza!

Larry has turned trapsmith this festive season! Trade in your items from the 12-days of Christmas event for a limited edition Christmas Cracker Trap!

Here is the Christmas Cracker Trap from Larry with the Candy Cane base from Ronza! Also bought the Snow Globe Trap from Ronza :)

Note: still prefer the HVMT & Magma combination at the Festive Comet :P

MH - last 2 of the 7 special X'mas mice

This ornament mouse was the toughest one for me to catch.

The Christmas Tree Mouse preferred SB+ :)

MH - Gingerbread Trap & Base

Got this sometime last week :) So cute...

MH - Finally! the Hydra!

Yippee!!! The hydra!!! FINALLY!!! Plus, they're wearing Christmas wreathes to boot! hahaha...

MH - Festive Gift Shoppe 2009

Moreover! There is a special Christmas shop with lots of new and special ( & not so special ) things! News just got out that blueprints are needed to craft a new Christmas trap for the special 12-day Christmas event.

From The Nibbler - 4th Dec 2009 edition:

Feedback Friday Cliff's Notes Version (no frills, no fluff, just the important stuff)
- Only Gingerbread Cheese can be crafted at this time. Really, that's it.
- A new trap (or component) will require a blueprint which has not yet been found.
- The Festive Comet will begin to melt, and new items and objects will be revealed as it does.
- Festive Mice will be here through the end of December.
- The 12 Days of Christmas event will last 12 days, and something new will happen each day.

P.S.

15 x Gingerbread cheese is obtained by smashing 1 x plank of gingerbread. :)

MH - Christmas Mice 2009

I got 5 of the 7 Christmas mice, still waiting for the Christmas Tree Mouse and the Ornament Mouse :)

Candy Cane Mouse

Present Mouse

Nutcracker Mouse

Stocking Mouse (got my first one just this morning).

Scrooge Mouse

MH - Mice dressed up for Christmas!

Cute little fella dressed like an elf.

A steely chorus...

Bundled up bear :)

Bling bling treant.

Such a cute ASM, got 2 in a row with trap checks this morning :)

The troll I caught yesterday was not dressed up yet :P

Ho Ho Ho...

Haven't gotten one of these X'mas ones yet...

So cute! With reindeer antlers and a bright red nose :P

MH - Bonus Mice Badge & X'mas Glee!

Just got my Bonus Mice Badge! I think it was the first Troll yesterday :P

Plus, check out the decked out banner and MH logo!

Hanoi, Vietnam - 29 & 30 Nov 2009, Mon & Tue

From the boat transfer off the Halong Bay Cruise, we will all squished into a very very tight mini van back to Hanoi. Extremely uncomfortable for a lot of people. Seats were even arranged so Allan and I sat 2 rows apart. This will likely be the one and only time to and from Halong Bay...

Good thing Elegance Hotel 2 was better than what we were expecting. Thank you Elaine Tay for the recommendation. Our room was on the top / 8th floor. It was US$75 nett via TripAdvisor's link. If Pea had stayed, it would have been the same room we would've paid US$95 for 3 people. The receptionist said that their rooms vary from US$40 to US$75 per night, and the rooms come with free wifi and a personal computer in each room. :)

Walked around the Old Quarters again trying to locate the 'famous' beef pho behind the Water Puppet Theater, instead we found a chicken pho place and unknowingly had unborn eggs. Unborn eggs are not fertilized, so they are NOT the chicken foetus. They are more like just the very round egg yolk wrapped in a like-sausage-skin casing, I found them tastless :P

Dinner was a problem, should we go all local? Or should we go somewhere nice again? It was decided that we will do a nice place, so off in a cab to the Metropole Hotel area to check out the fancy restaurants there.

We thought that the Press Club's menu looked interesting so we went up & settled down to decide on what's for dinner. But when we opened the menu, the familar honking of motorcycles and cars from 3 floors down reached us, we looked at each other, paid for the sparkling water we ordered and headed for Nineteen 11.

Granted the first experience for me wasn't great, it was good for Fata :) Plus! it was very quiet :) Fata had the pumpking soup with dumpling and a steak, we shared a cold foie gras dish, and I had the same bisque, but went for the chicken breast with pistaschio paste. Okay, i picked a real dud with the chicken, the pistachio paste had a strange taste :( oh yes, the chef's French, Hugo Baberios (spelling?) so we don't think he understood us very well :( oh well... But Fata had a good time :)

Luckily I got my waitlisted 30 Nov flight out of Hanoi :) I don't know what I would've done by myself for a day in the Old Quarters :P Moreover, Facebook was inaccessible via laptop (only by cell phone) since the Tuesday before :(