S$88 tasting menu at Italian fine-casual Assaggi

NEW RESTAURANT

Assaggi 77A Neil Road Singapore 089903 Tel: 8984-6495 Open for lunch and dinner Tues to Sat: 12 to 3 pm; 6 to 10.30 pm

[SINGAPORE] Life doesn’t have to be complicated. Manage your expectations. Manage others’. Use disclaimers. Don’t try to be too smart. Under-promise, over-deliver. If you really must show off, give yourself an unpronounceable name.

These are all simple, if boring, truisms that go a long way in preventing unnecessary grief – in both our chronically stimulated lives and the restaurant business.

But, well, enlightenment is hard. So is getting a reservation at Assaggi.

Assaggi – whether with a hard or soft “g” and pronounced in a Singapore accent – is still a tongue-tripper. But chef Denis Lucchi of Buona Terra acclaim is so steeped in “don’t fuss with stuff” ideology that he even has a disclaimer, “Imperfect by Choice”, permanently etched under his latest restaurant’s name at Neil Road.

That’s to pre-empt any wild expectations you might have of getting Buona Terra’s Michelin-level finery for a mere S$88 (S$58 at lunch), given that Assaggi offers only tasting menus in a space that once housed the now-defunct one-starred Chaleur.

With its pared-down decor, the second-floor shophouse space has been deliberately simplified to match the food – familiar Italian shrunk into a string of small portions and served degustation-style with the occasional fine-dining flourish. 

Options are limited, which is to be expected. There are just two dinner menus. One is a signature “journey” balancing pasta and other dishes, while the other is a pasta festa packed with four carbo creations.

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Each menu includes starters, the kind of fancy milk bread restaurants compete with each other to make, and two desserts to round off a substantial and well-executed meal. 

The only annoyance is that you’re forced to order either the signature or pasta menu for the entire table, and not both. But we get that chefs don’t want the double hassle of cooking squiggles of pasta for one person and a morsel of duck for the other.

So we picked the signature, which kicks off with fine-dining-compliant snacks of miniature eggplant parmigiana and beef carpaccio. A crisp tart shell shatters in a one-bite explosion of creamy eggplant and pea-sized tomatoes.

Seared beef, sliced tataki-style on crunchy toast greedily soaked in olive oil, is a steak sandwich in a mouthful.

Even cold, honey-marinated melon served with a teacup of piping-hot duck broth feels more thoughtful than you would expect at this price.

And of course, the bread. A glossy, pull-apart loaf, and a wooden vat of snowy-white whipped butter that demands a solo performance. With great drama, it’s brought to your table and carefully spooned onto a stone slab for you to lavish on the sticky-glazed bun.

For starters and mains, you’re offered two choices each, so a pair of diners can easily assemble an extensive tasting menu between them. We start with a nibble of cold vitello tonnato – thin meat shavings coated in whipped tuna foam – and bouncy octopus nuggets with pesto-slicked crushed potatoes. 

Pasta is a mainstay. Wide noodles in satisfyingly rich ragu, or fusilli in a light tomato-capsicum puree anointed with raw shrimp – an unexpectedly clever touch. Later, you’re served a decent paccheri amatriciana, showered with grated parmesan at the table. 

The mains are more elegant than showy. Tender dry-aged duck sits pretty with roasted peaches, while melting-soft ocean trout cosies up to a parsley sauce with yoghurt foam.

The only slip would be the S$18 pork supplement – a forgettable, dry pork skewer that doesn’t improve with its burnt apple puree and red cabbage. 

Peach granita and a boozy rum baba with ice cream and olive oil are a happy ending to a meal that doesn’t astound but certainly puts you in a good place.

Assaggi is Lucchi’s common-sense solution to the space he has – too small to meet the high-volume needs of his other casual concept Locanda, and too risky for a Buona Terra 2.0.

Assaggi plays to the current mood for good value and shorter meals, while controlling costs with less fancy ingredients and a fixed menu.

It works – so well that you can’t get a table until December. Unless, like us, you stalk its website for any table that pops up after a cancellation. Which is how we got ours.

A lot of the interest is Fomo-related, so demand will ease up soon enough. But as it is, Assaggi has everything it needs to make it a keeper.

It doesn’t posture, has no grand ambitions and sticks to getting the basics right. It’s imperfect by choice, but we think it made the right decision.

Rating: 7