Thursday 25 April 2013

Palio, Michael Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa

Palio's menu boasts a wide variety of Italian cuisine including antipasti, pasta, pizza, and desserts. It took me awhile to decide on my orders because the dishes were all named in Italian and there were no pictures to look at. You would have to read the tiny descriptions to know what you were about to order. (And so, please pardon me as I do not have the actual names of the dishes mentioned below.) Anyway, dining here for the first time, I reckoned it would be safer to pick from the chef's recommended dishes.

I really wanted to try their Lobster Linguine ($46, good for 2 to share), but sadly the kitchen was already out of lobster that night. In the end, we settled for:



Crayfish pasta ($26)
I was slightly disappointed when this was served. I had expected whole crayfish with shell, but instead only 3-4 chunks of crayfish meat laid atop the creamy pasta. Thankfully, the fresh and sweet taste of the crayfish made up for it. The sauce was very well done again, retaining its consistency till the very end without clumping up. There were also a couple of cherry tomatoes, which helped to balance up the creaminess in between spoonfuls.



Pork Bucatini ($24)
This is essentially the pork version of beef bolognaise. Bucatini is a type of pasta that resembles spaghetti but is much thicker, and has a hole running through its center. I thought it was too chewy, and its texture was not smooth enough. However, I loved the tomato sauce! It was thick with tomato puree and bits of pork and bacon, which made it very appetizing and full of flavor. I slurped up every bit of it.


Nera pizza ($12)
This pizza is huge! It is a tomato sauce cum squid ink based pizza, topped with succulent chunks of scallop and prawn. Apart from the freshness of the seafood, this dish was not impressionable. Besides I felt it could do with a more generous serving of toppings. My two aunties though, commented that it was the best dish that night.

 
 
We ended our dinner with gelato ($12 for 3 scoops) in tiramisu, chocolate, and strawberry basil flavors. While the 2 former flavors were unremarkable, the chocolate was quite impressive, thick n smooth, kinda like the ones from awfully chocolate.

Overall, we enjoyed the food and I would definitely return to try their lobster linguine the next time round!