Less is More - Ah Bong's Italian

 

I forgot to take a photo of the stall, so please make do with this (taken from the stall's facebook page)

Mr Bear's sister joined us for lunch today, so I suggested that we try Ah Bong's Italian, which I read about a few days ago. It was supposed to be restaurant quality at kopitiam (coffeeshop) prices. So we decided to give it a try, even though I was nursing a headache. It was the same coffeeshop that houses Two Face at night.

Today we had a few choices, ragu, country style pasta (I think), mac&cheese, aglio olio and creme brulee. The pasta was S$6 a plate, which was ok. We also had the option of adding truffle oil for S$1 to the pasta. The three of us ordered the creme brulee. The food was served on quaint coffeeshop style dishes, unfortunately the portions were dietician-sized.

I tried a little of everything as well as my own mac & cheese, which was delish, but didn't have much other than bacon bits, mushrooms bits and cheese. 

The country style pasta

Miss Bear's country style pasta was very nice, with minute slices of zuchini and mushrooms. Mr Bear's had the same ingredients though his was doused lavishly with oil because it was aglio olio after all. I preferred the country style pasta, though my Mac&Cheese was the best. Bobo being a pasta hater would probably run screaming into the afternoon. :D

In a nutshell, I would say, the taste was very restaurant style, though the portions were also very restaurant style. Perhaps it's because Mr Bear and I were fatty poompooms, but even slender Miss Bear opined that the portions were a little tiny, and we looked longingly at the yong tau fu stall. Wished Ah Bong sold salads, or even sorbet. The pasta settled a little heavily in my still fragile system, would have been nice to have had some lemon sorbet to cleanse the palate a little bit (luckily I ordered 钓鱼 - chinese tea using a tea bag), though the creme brulee was very yummy. The scorched sugar shell was warm, contrasting with the cold inside which was gooey, cold and sinful... hmmm. But oh so tiny.

It was a teaspoon next to the creme brulee (S$3).

I commented drily that it was good in a way that they didn't give us too much to make us feel sick, like we'd have with large family sized portions, because the flavors were heavy. I think if they provided some free greens/salad would have been improved the meal so much more and made us feel more value for money (e.g. air-conditioned Saveur's very popular Saveur pasta only costs S$4.50 and the portion is larger). I suggested to Mr Bear that if we ate at this place again, we should buy 3 pasta to be shared by 2 persons.