42 Pasta is the Answer offers home-style cooking at S$42

42 Pasta is the Answer #01-43 Thomson Plaza 301 Upper Thomson Road Singapore 574408 Reservations: 42pastaistheanswer.com Open for lunch and dinner Mon to Wed; Fri to Sat: 12 pm to 2 pm; 6 pm to 8 pm

THIS story begins with a man. A perfectly ordinary man, with a predilection for home-made pasta and stories about hitchhiking across the galaxy. Two utterly disparate hobbies, with as much connection as Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz to his mother-in-law: none at all.

“None at all” is also how much idea former physics professor Lim Zhi Han had for most of his academic life, of opening a restaurant named 42 Pasta is the Answer in the depths of suburbia called Thomson Plaza – the number being the precise answer to life, the universe and everything in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Yet, here he is, in the restaurant at the end of his universe, where he makes just one pasta a day. Not two, not three, nor any number aligned to your appetite or conventional understanding of a menu.

You eat exactly what he prepares as the sole chef in the kitchen, and no amount of staring at the menu will conjure up more options.

The place is so tiny and makeshift, it feels less like a restaurant and more like an extracurricular activity. Yet, it’s been fully booked since it opened in late 2024, with our sporadic attempts only recently succeeding. If you try today, the earliest table is likely to be in August.

Tucked just outside the mall, the 20-seater’s dress code seems to be “casual attire suitable for post-meal grocery shopping at NTUC”. The servers are young and friendly, with the air of idealistic students working part-time for pocket money and maybe some tuition from the professor-chef between service.

Not everybody is clued into 42’s concept, with one young couple changing their minds as soon as they see what little there is on the menu.

The first thing our server establishes is that the chef makes all the pasta by hand, and it changes every day. As proof, she brings out samples of maritati: a duo of ear-shaped orecchiette and skinny penne-like pasta that will be tossed in simple brothy sauce of cherry tomatoes and charred broccoli florets.

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The a la carte menu – if you can call it that – has just seven items, including marinated olives and nama chocolate. The latter isn’t available when we’re there, so that’s 14 per cent of the menu gone. 

There’s a set menu – essentially everything at a special price of, yes, S$42 – which includes a glass of wine. You can’t quibble with the pricing when the pasta itself is just S$15 a la carte. 

This is where you shake off your modern dining pretences and tap into your natural suburban self, as Lim’s self-effacing fare wins you over for its comforting honesty. But we are also quite hungry.

Bruschetta (S$2 apiece) is a mere toasted baguette slice topped with cream cheese, walnuts and a trickle of honey. But it’s homey, the walnuts are crunchy, and the honey is good-quality. 

The only other snack (not on the set menu) is a potato and cheese bite (S$2) – a no-brainer piece of hot baked potato topped with melted cheese that’s a combination of firm, waxy bite and chewy cheesiness.

Because we’re so desperate for variety, we even order the marinated olives (S$2) to distract ourselves with.

Service is slow, since Lim is a one-man show, but sit by the glass wall so you can watch the traffic go by. You’re on suburban time, so your pulse rate slows and your patience grows.

The pasta is the real star: chewy with the right resilience, each bite absorbing the juices of fresh tomatoes rather than canned sauce, and crunchy broccoli for contrast.

There are fancier pastas in town made by more experienced authentic Italians, but the warmth and personal touch give this an extra edge.

For the mains, Lim also does a very credible roast pork done siew yoke style, with crunchy crackling and mostly juicy meat with just a slightly dry finish. It comes with two kinds of mustard, Waldorf salad (the classic apple, celery and raisin combo with mayonnaise) and tangy caramelised onions that don’t really need to be there.

Basque cheesecake is one they could sell as a side business. It’s satisfyingly molten, with cheesy cream oozing out of its fluffy, light exterior.

Like its name, 42 Pasta is the Answer is quirky, personal and totally unique. It may not be earth-shattering, but we’re happy to have it here in our little corner of the galaxy.

Rating: 6.5