Food review: Procacci Singapore

SINGAPORE — If you haven’t gotten your act together and your beloved is expecting, under no uncertain terms, a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner, there is hope yet. Earlier this week, we were told that Italian restaurant Procacci still has reservations available for its S$180 (per couple) three-course Valentine’s Day set menu featuring dishes that include sundried tomatoes served with Smoky Bay oysters and a platter of grilled wagyu strip loin with a whole salt-crusted sea bass.

Opened in September 2010, Procacci enjoys a spectacular location in Customs House that looks out to the waters and Marina Bay Sands. Snag a seat in its al fresco area and you’ll be privy to the nightly light show put on by the integrated resort too.

A franchise of the celebrated centuries-old delicatessen in Florence, Procacci Singapore bears little resemblance to its Italian parent. Whereas the original eatery is all Old World charm with dark wooden fixtures, brass accents and a menu limited to petite bread rolls filled with truffle butter, cheese plates, prosecco and wine, the Singapore outpost — which underwent renovations last year — is sleek, awash in natural light and serves an underrated menu of refined Italian dishes.

For the uninitiated, an a la carte meal here can prove dear. Pasta prices run from S$26 to S$48, while mains start from S$36 for a pan-seared barramundi fillet to S$50 for a grilled Black Angus tenderloin. Even the paninis cost an average of S$20 a pop. Far better, then, to get your feet wet with the restaurant’s set lunch menus (S$28 for two courses and S$38 for three).

Procacci Singapore group executive chef Mark Richards (who also oversees contemporary Italian-Japanese restaurant and lounge NUVO, Singaporean-Asian restaurant UJONG @ Raffles and the Lady M Confections chain from New York) and chef de cuisine Khairel Asyraf have tailored a menu that is comforting and otherwise traditional, save for a few modern techniques that render their food clean and elegant.

The yellowfin tuna tartare (S$30), for instance, is enriched with a raw egg yolk and a scrim of caviar, so the mix is lusciously creamy and briny all at once. They have also mastered the art of the perfect handmade pasta — firm to the bite yet supple and sturdy enough to make for a fine contrast to a light-as-air scallop mousse filling (ravioli di astice, S$46).

The steep prices are somewhat justified by the impressive quality of cooking, where main dishes such as a perfectly baked cod fillet (S$38) is gently and confidently layered with flavours and textures from the crunchy fennel and grilled artichokes, a sweet white wine and balsamic burnt butter emulsion and crumbs of goat cheese that seem to lose their salty edge as soon as they are mixed into the delicious fray.

For dessert, stick to tradition and ask for a slab of the soft, boozy tiramisu that is spiked with just enough coffee to provide robust flavour and enough caffeine to ward off the inevitable post-lunch snooze attack. ANNETTE TAN

Procacci Singapore

Where:

#01-04 Customs House

70 Collyer Quay

Telephone:

6532 9939

Opening hours:

Monday & Tuesday Noon to 2.30pm, 6pm to 11pm

Wednesday & Thursday Noon to 2.30pm, 6pm to 12am

Friday & Saturday Noon to 2.30pm, 6pm to 1am