Pizza and cocktails at Anto
The new Jiak Chuan eatery serves up pizza every which way, with little variety on the menu
NEW RESTAURANT
Anto pizza e aperitivi 2 Jiak Chuan Road Singapore 089260 Tel: 9689 6869 Open for lunch and dinner Mon to Sat: 12 pm to 3.30 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm
WHEN it comes to food, it’s hard to hate pizza. It’s the labrador retriever of the edible world – totally inoffensive, eager to please, a hit with kids and adults with no fur allergies. To hate a retriever is to say you loathe life. The same with pizza, which is why we’re always careful what we say about Pizza Hut.
That explains why there are so many pizza joints in town, with plenty to follow. There’s always one more way to ferment dough, flip it and put things on it, and a never-ending stream of people willing to try it.
So now there’s Anto pizza e aperitivi – a name that’s as wide as your mouth has to open to shove a slice of margherita in – but when you get down to it, it’s pizza and aperitivo (cocktails). And the perfect business combination of a low-cost food item and high-profit booze.
The story is that Anto is a venture by two Italians – one a pizzaiolo and the other, a Hong Kong-based bartender. They’ve taken over the old Lime House, and replaced the colourful walls and wicker furniture with a row of nondescript tables and chairs.
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There’s a semi-lounge area in front that has more space, but the payoff is that someone in your party has to spend the entire meal sitting on an ottoman – because it’s either stylish or the restaurant ran out of proper chairs.
It reminds us of reunion steamboats at home when you have to pull up stools to the dining table because the relatives you don’t like have taken up all the available chairs. Emotionally scarred by this memory, we’re not happy when we’re assigned this seating arrangement at Anto. But like at home, the nice but inexperienced staff are not sympathetic, and will not move us inside to a proper table.
But there is some service recovery. The manager notices something amiss and quickly finds us a spot in the still-empty dining area that we gladly accept. So, kudos for that.
In terms of what Anto has to offer, it isn’t much. It’s literally pizza in various forms, and cocktails priced at S$25, or wine if you want. If you’re one of those dough-heads who fantasise about restaurants with an extended bread course, be careful what you wish for. From bruschetta to start and fried pizza dough for dessert, you’re either in bread heaven or carbo-hell.
The most variety you will get is a charcuterie platter, cherry tomato salad or grana padano balls. We choose the latter (S$18) – crunchy crumb-crusted morsels of melty cheese, paired with a very sweet tomato jam that’s a better fit with dainty English scones than scrappy cheese balls. But it does help cut the saltiness of the cheese.
There are four kinds of bruschetta and they are as you would expect. The classic (S$16) has the crunch of toasted sourdough and the tart, squishy jamminess of soft roasted cherry tomatoes dripping with olive oil.
It packs more punch than pizza in teglia, which is by definition sliced, but here it’s more like a focaccia with pizza aspirations that really belongs in a bread basket. We would love it on a side plate, but by itself, the Fornaia (S$22) is too doughy and dense for pizza, and too pricey for the scant topping of tomato sauce and grated pecorino cheese.
You can upsize to a full-sized margherita for an extra S$4, with the requisite blistered edges and melted mozzarella with a nice, stretchy pull. Otherwise, it’s bland, with a heavier, bready dough that’s more leaden than springy.
Just to make sure we didn’t just make a wrong choice of topping, our server recommends Mortazza (S$38) – a white pizza covered with mortadella slices, stracciatella cheese and a sprinkling of pistachios. Again, little impact. But at least its heavier texture holds up well to reheating the next day, when it crisps up and tastes better.
Incidentally, the cocktails are worth a shot as they pair well with the pizza. But do your sums since one S$25 drink is a dollar short of a full-sized margherita.
Meanwhile, If you still haven’t had enough, there’s the aforementioned deep-fried pizza for dessert. Otherwise, the panettone (S$20) with a good dollop of vermouth zabaglione is moist but very sweet, and a little heavy-going with the eggy custard. The best is sgroppino (S$13), which sounds like a skin condition but is actually a refreshing cocktail dessert of milky lime sorbet, limoncello and prosecco.
With pizza in its name, half of Anto’s battle is won. Whether it stands out among the others, well, is maybe a question you want to ask a few other retrievers.
RATING: 6
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