heaven in my tummy: Menotti Itallian Cafe & Bar

I came to know of this restaurant from an online magazine sent out to undergraduates. It was described as a romantic and good place to go for dates. But I never got around to seeing it at Raffles City though I often patronised the place. It turned out to be that Menotti is tucked away at the corner of the shopping centre, accessible through Espirit or throught the external door. Walk past the DBS atm machines and a few steps away (some steps!) is the place.

G brought me there to try out the desserts on Saturday. We had just finished a fantastic meal of Tom Yum Steamboat at Thai Express (which I shall talk about in the next review) and we were raring to eat some great cakes (G having heard that I was deprived of them in Canada). Unfortunately Secret Recipes (just next to Thai Express in Marina Square) was closed (at 10pm??!!) and we had to leave in dejectment. We had wanted to celebrate G's very belated 21st birthday because I was away in Canada.

Somehow, G recalled that there was Menotti! And he became really excited about it! Now G sledom gets excited about food (unlike me!) but when he does get excited, it must be good! I was worried about the closing hours but he told me "Are you kidding? It's opened till late purposely for people to hang out late."

I was really excited when I saw the place because the interior was really chic AND funky.

I got even more excited when I saw the display of cakes (urged on by G to take a look at their vast display of beautiful desserts at the counter)! I love gorgeous desserts- they look beautiful AND they taste so good (provided the standard’s good in the first place!).

Based on what I saw, I really liked this brown chocolate cake that G described as “so good the chocolate oozes out”. G decided on his Tiramisu so we ordered 3 desserts- the Soffiato (warm dark chocolate cake with chocolate-chip ice cream), the Sorrento (lemon, passion-fruit and chocolate-chip mint ice cream with fruit salad, amaretti cookies and red berries sauce) as well as G’s Tiramisu (mascarpone cheese cake with ladyfinger biscuits, coffee and cocoa).

The chocolate cake was really good. I liked how the ice cream complemented the chocolate- the duo wasn’t too sweet together. I also liked how the chocolate would ooze out from the centre, very much like jello! Unfortunately the flip side was that G and I were really full after Thai Express, thus we couldn’t fully enjoy the desserts we had as we were really packed! We struggled to finish all 3 desserts! I would give the chocolate cake a 3/5.

The Sorrento was even better. G liked the lemon sherbet a lot (It stated Gelato in the menu, but to me, it’s a lot like sherbet or even sorbet. By the way, did you know that the only difference between sherbets and sorbets are that the latter is entirely water-based while the former still consists of some diary products. In this case, since the menu stated ice cream, it must be sherbet!)

An interesting article to read is this. It tells you the difference between ice cream, gelato and sorbet! :)
Ok, back to the sherbet. I liked how the sherbet helped cleansed our palate between the sweet desserts. When you order this much desserts, sometimes your tongue gets so numb you can’t taste what you are eating! Everything would taste the same to you because everything’s so sweet! The sherbet provided a nice contrast to the sweet cakes and ice cream and was a break from the sweet side. The same goes for the passion-fruit ice cream (though my taste buds were so overpowered I thought I was eating strawberry!) and as for the chocolate-chip mint ice cream, it was good. Like I say, too much desserts rendered our tongues numbed. You just eat, and go “mmmm… nice…” and eat and eat. It becomes a rather mindless consumption process in the end because you don’t really know what you are eating! But this is life! Sometimes you just enjoy what you are eating without needing to pay much attention to it! Oh… of course the key thing about eating is the social interaction you have with your friends! Eating is a social thing, so it’s not entirely about the food sometimes!
Maybe the red berries sauce had something to do with the numbing of the tongue. Its sweet taste wrapped itself against the other ice creams, kind of giving a mish-mash effect in the end.
The Amaretti biscuits were yummy too. There was crunch in its texture and upon the first bite, it broke away easily to reveal its sweet sugary nature. It did well in providing texture for the Sorrento. The Sorrento would deserve a 3.5/5.

Lastly, the Tiramisu was rather delightful. It tasted pretty much like good old regular Tiramisu to me. Nice, but nothing unique or special that made it stand out from other Tiramisus. I guess that must be a good thing, because if it tastes like Tiramisu, it must be good Tiramisu! This, I would also rate it as 3.5/5.

The thing about Tiramisu is that it has got a pretty much standard taste, thus there isn’t much variance to its taste. Of course sometimes the liquor taste is stronger, at other times the bitter-sweetness of the cocoa stands out more, and in some cakes the mascarpone cheese taste is stronger… but all in all… Tiramisu is pretty much Tiramisu. That’s why it’s such a popular choice everywhere. It’s pretty much a safe choice if you want something sweet, delicious and satisfying. My French friend S would prove me wrong though- she claims that her mum’s friend makes the best Itallian Tiramisu in the world and she has yet to try something better! She claims that the cream is so good it melts in your mouth! I guess seeing where she comes from, freshly whipped cream and freshly cultivated cheese… Singapore is really in a different league. Not that we are of a substandard (Singapore is a world-class gourmet place mind you) but rather the taste and the culture of our two countries are really different. In France I would say that gourmet “couture” reigns (i.e. high fashion meals)! In Singapore, our taste buds are pretty much practical, just like how we are. All that matters is that it tastes good… thus we don’t care much about experimentations or fusion foods. We tend to be on the safe side. Maybe I am very wrong, but the truth is all Singaporeans care about is the taste. Presentation, the history, the ambiance, the philosophy... behind the food we consume… is of a lesser priority. Oh right, not forgetting that price matters a lot too for us Singaporeans!