Thursday, September 26, 2013

Espresso Joints: La Ristrettos

Quaint, interesting artisenal coffee places have been sprouting all over the island. La Ristrettos is one...situated within a Medical Center...yes, right next to the Doctors' offices.

A bit out of the way to find...but situated on the 8th level of Novena Medical Centre...just upstairs of Square 2.

Looks interesting...certainly the owners are passionate about their coffee. There is a fairly large outdoor seating in landscaped garden just outside, but within, an order counter, and another countertop housing a magnificent espresso machine.

So first off, order some espressos...I had a machiato

Delivered as it should...a double shot of espresso, and marked with foam. Tastewise, quite nice. The coffee was robust, but as I have remarked before, milk tends to mask the taste...but it was promising enough for me to order a ristretto

It takes a brave barista to offer a ristretto. Ristrettos are not easy to pull one after another...but from the looks of the ristretto...I'd say it was less successful than the machiato. The double ristretto was too large in volume, the crema looked light and weak. On the palate, it was ok, tasting more like a double espresso than a ristretto. The mouth feel was not as luscious as I have tasted...for example in Mecca in Sydney.

Kin had the iced espresso...which they call cafe shakerato

A double shot of espresso, shaken violently with ice cubes, and served in a martini glass. Interesting...and surprisingly delicious.

We had food there too...Edward had the spagetti carbonara

Quite nice, I must say. Beautiful, rich, and very nice. Not too much sauce as they tend to do in Singapore, but more like carbonara as served in Italy.

Kin had the breakfast...the Grande...scrambled eggs, sauteed mushroom, bacon, spicy Italian sausage, salad and sour dough...quite regular, and not better than what we can whip up ourselves...no pic for this.

I had a crab capellini...

This was more successful...the capelini was nicely done. The serving had a generous helping of crab meat, and very nice cherry tomatoes. A bit light in taste, which was remedied by a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Quite nice.

Oh, we had a Ceasar's salad as well...with chicken

The salad was great. The greens were very fresh, and crunchy. The chicken breast, grilled I presume was very good. Tasty and still moist and tender. The salad dressing is light, and very tasty.

Nice, quaint place to hang out. The coffees were ok, but not spectacular like the blazing standards set by some of the new Artisanal coffee joints around...I have covered some, and some of the newer ones I will be covering soon. The food range from quite good to very good, though not spectacular. And its kind of a cool place.

La Ristrettos
10 Sinaran Drive
#08-37 Singapore 307506
(Novena Medical Centre)
6397 7165
facebook.com/LaRistrettos

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