Simple Italian at il Cielo

RESTAURANT REVAMP

il Cielo Level 24, voco Orchard Singapore 581 Orchard Road Singapore 238883 Tel: 6730 3395 Open for lunch and dinner Wed to Sat: 12pm to 3pm; 5pm to 10pm. Lunch only on Sun.

THINK revamp or reopening and something new comes to mind. Or at least an upgrade, promotion or simply a refreshed version of what the original was. Then we come to il Cielo, whose idea of an overhaul is to ditch the starched linens of its former fine dining Italian self and slum it out as a poolside cafe instead.

Not that we can blame it for its lack of ambition. It probably takes its cue from the rest of the hotel it sits in, which is the same Hilton it was decades ago but with a new name - voco Orchard - stuck outside its front entrance.

You can't help walking in and be drawn back to an era when its cheesecake was all the rage, and it was a thing to sip green juices and nibble tofu burgers in a second floor cafe way before anyone heard of plant-based cooking. But now - it just feels past its prime.

So if circumstances or a taste for unrenovated nostalgia draw you to il Cielo, take heart. At least the food is homey and uncomplicated if unexciting, and there's still something called a set lunch for as low as S$28 for 2 courses and S$34 for a 3-course. Which accounts for the decent lunch crowd of young mothers and working-age folk who don't seem to have to get back to the office in a hurry.

We never got round to trying the old il Cielo, which was Italian-Japanese and drew a strong following. This time round, you're eating in a very functional dining room on the 24th floor, where the only view is the equally basic hotel swimming pool.

With nothing much to look at, there's only the menu to focus your attention on. The food is casual Italian, running the gamut of appetisers, pastas, pizzas and a steak or two. We pass on the pizzas - which look promisingly puffed up Neapolitan-style - and score a win with Fritto Misto (from S$26).

What are usually quickly deflated battered calamari appear as a colourful mixture of tempura-influenced deep-fried seafood that hold their crunch. And the selection is solid - a hefty soft-shelled crab, prawn, fish and even broccoli are crisp outside while retaining a sweet freshness within.

The chef - Marco Fregnan hails from restaurants like Prebacco and Otto - sticks to his Italian playbook with little embellishment. Which works well with the Burrata Siciliana (S$28) where a large ball of creamy fresh cheese spills over a bed of braised eggplant and red pepper caponata - simple but done well.

But as it is with restaurants that stick to the tried and true - they get predictable after a while. A squid ink pasta(S$32) is serviceable but drowned in an overflowing lava of tomato based crabmeat sauce to the point that you can't tell the tomato pulp from the crabmeat vainly trying to assert its presence.

A striploin steak (S$48) struggles with its supposed wagyu heritage - stressing the teeth with more gristle than marbled meat. A dusting of cocoa powder and a corn hollandaise sauce add to the aesthetics but otherwise it's a pretty average steak.

For dessert, stick to the basics and you won't go wrong. That means a tiramisu that's not pretty but is the real thing - a good balance of coffee-soaked sponge and mascarpone cream that's on the right side of heavy without any airy-fairy foam. A good dusting of cocoa powder is all the decoration it needs.

In contrast, the pretty panna cotta hides a curiously musky-tasting hazelnut custard, decorated with candied nuts. A drizzle of marmalade helps to perk it up but not by much.

If it had a heyday, il Cielo - and the former Hilton - have long passed it. Now it's pretty much in coasting mode, waiting for inspiration or a good interior designer to step into the picture. Until then, expect basic food that passes muster, although it certainly can do a lot better.

Rating: 6.5

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN

10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average

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