Although Pete’s Place is an institution in Singapore when it comes to Italian cuisine, I had never been there until about a month ago. The occasion was my birthday lunch treat given by my company. Everyone gets a treat when his/her birthday comes along and the restaurant usually changes every time. Birthday lunches are usually done as a group outing, and the birthday boys and girls from those one or two months will have lunch together with the HR manager and the boss. I figured the HR manager has it the best ‘cos she’s entitled to go along every time!
In 2004, my birthday lunch was at the Marriott Hotel cafe. It sucked. In 2005, many people in my batch seemed to prefer Italian food. I had suggested Garibaldi and another colleague suggested some place more interesting. But I think the decision was to go with somewhere safe (read boring).
Anyway, most of my colleagues opted for the lunch buffet because they wanted to go for the salad buffet. I, on the other hand, decided to go for a la carte as I wasn’t impressed by the mains presented in the buffet. The food looked so run-of-the-mill and so unexciting. The salad buffet, while healthy, didn’t look very exciting too. I liked the selection of bread though. The herb butter and butter with sun-dried tomatoes were particularly tasty. The good thing was that I was entitled to the bread even though I had ordered a la carte.
I chose to have food in the special menu by the guest chef. I forget his name. I ordered a starter which consisted of baked eggplant with cheese and tomato. My main was a mushroom risotto with dried truffles.
My food took REALLY long to come and I was getting rather impatient as I was hungry! The baked eggplant was quite tasty but it wasn’t mind-blowing as I’ve had something like that before. The risotto was tasty enough, but I think I can’t eat too much of it as the cream gets a bit overwhelming after awhile. I picked at the mushrooms and truffles and left a fair portion of rice behind. Honestly, I don’t know what’s the big deal with truffles. Maybe I’m just ignorant but I really don’t find it VERY VERY tasty.
Anyways, I don’t think I’ll go back to Pete’s Place again. I don’t like the decor and interiors as I find the dark wooden chairs and tables too old-fashioned. Not my cup of tea I’m afraid!