Porta Porta is an Italian restaurant I have been to since I was a young lad. My parents wanted me to try Italian food and had read an article about this restaurant across from Changi Prison. Excited that I was going somewhere near a prison, I remembered ordering the squid ink pasta, and had tons of bread. I was thoroughly excited that my mouth was black with the squid ink.
I do not know if it is my mum's Cantonese culinary background or just my mum, my sister and I grew up being very critical of food. My family is the type of family that allows my mum to have the first bite of a fish head curry so that she can determine how fresh the fish is and thus to decide if we need to return the fish head curry. Yes, we are that family. I am also in the family where my mum and my sister can go to a restaurant and tell the server that the dish was horrible, or tell me its too salty or confound the critics by deciding that those fools were wrong.
Why am I writing this? The very fact that I was 12 years old when I first went to Porta Porta and I am still talking about it now means something about the restaurant. I do not know the owner and I do not know who cooks the food. I do know that this is truly one of THE hidden gems not only in the eastern part of Singapore but I can safely add that can include all directions in Singapore.
I ordered the Vongole and my wife ordered the Gnocchi, a mixed appetizer starter which consisted of olive oil cured cucumbers, mushrooms, red peppers and eggplant, free flow bread, an apple pie and a lemon gelato type sorbet for dessert coupled with a glass of wine and plain water. The bill was $100. But it was worth it.
I don't normally like to say this but the Vongole is probably the best I have tasted so far in Singapore over the last 2 years. If ever you can complain about having too much Vongole, this might just be it. I took about 15 mins to deshell everything. And once my task was completed, it took about 5 minutes to complete it. Not because the serving was small. But my mouth is big you see. The noodles were al dente, the white wine sauce was tangy and garlic protruded the taste. The blend was a great mix and I felt like drinking the sauce as soup. But I stopped myself.
The gnocchi was lovely. The cheese and the tomato mix was delightful and I personally hate cheese.
The mixed appetizer got me going, the bread wasn't the warmest but it did its job as a condiment to the starters. The desserts were great. My lemon gelato sorbet came in a lemon. How cool was that? (no pun intended) and the apple pie was much better than alot of the apple smush that I have had at other restaurants.
Service was polite and nice. I mean, its a small restaurant.
The only knock I do have is this: the menu is limited. I wish it has more variety so that I can sample more Italian cooking but its a small restaurant based on a very niche market.
So if any of you who decides to be Wentworth Miller and break out Changi Prison, try the Italian food. Its worth the prison break.
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