Bottega Di Carna

My monthly indulgence has brought me and my group to have dinner at Bottega Di Carna, which is helmed by legendary butcher Dario Cecchini, who has eight generations of butchering experience

With the kitchen under executive chef Alastair Clayton (formerly from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay) and Chef de Cuisine Kenny Huang  (formerly from 28Wilkie), the restaurant has high expectations set by customers. The restaurant itself is located within the Mondrian Singapore Hotel and is the flagship dining outlet within the hotel. With a spacious, serene space decorated with plants, flowers and lights, the restaurant gives off an etheral garden feel while surprisingly matching to the posh furnitures

As we visited during the festive season in December, they offered us the festive dinner menu, which has a 2-course or 3-course selection

They started by serving us bread with olive oil, and we had to ask them for balsamic vinegar. The bread was a soft, fluffy loaf which was served warm and smelled extremely fragrant with the natural herbs used in the bread itself

Right after the bread, they served the first appetizer, which included beef tartar and scallops. Our friends who ate beef ordered the beef tartar, which came served with black truffle, salsa tonata and tendon cracker. My friends who chose this option said that the beef tartar was tender with a slightly tangy flavour and that the tendon cracker actually took the show from the beef as it was beautifully fried and not overly oily, which is why it complemented the flavours of the dish well. The scallops, which was my option, came plated on a shell and was lightly grilled before being topped with seafish sauce and pickled carrot and decorated with the Nasturtiums plant. While the scallops were nice, there was nothing too extraordinary about the dish itself

Some of us chose the a la carte menu, so we added a side of mushroom soup full of earthy flavours. The essence of the mushrooms was well infused into the foamy soup, which was drizzled with olive oil to give it a light fragrance. The chunky croutons nicely soaked up the soup for a crunchy and soft bite, and the grilled mushrooms in the soup gave the dish an additional umami flavour profile. The serving is considered fine dining size based on the pricing of SGD 18

For the choice of mains, those who went for an a la carte menu chose the pork loin served with Tuscan beans and rosemary priced at SGD38. The meat had a good ratio of fats and lean meat and was easy to chew, although one of my dinnermates found her plate harder to chew. The beans provided a creamy and grainy texture to balance out the meaty flavours of the pork. There wasn’t over seasoning of the meat so you could taste the natural flavour of the loin meat with charred smokey fragrance. The rosemary elevated the flavours with a nice herby touch to the pork

As an add-on, we ordered grilled asparagus with lemon vinaigrette and broccolini with garlic lemon vinaigrette. I did not take a picture of the broccolini as we were all happily digging in when the food arrived. The side vegetables were at SGD 16 and 14, respectively, and I found them reasonable for a fine dining establishment as the size was quite generous. I loved that both vegetables were grilled perfectly with a charred smokey flavour but yet carried a tinge of tanginess from the vinaigrette dressings. Between the broccolini and asparagus, the asparagus was crunchy and delicious, whereas the broccolini was more leafy and juicy. Both of them paired really well with the meats to cut away the grease of the natural oils of the meat

The friends who had the set chose the 48-hour braised short ribs with oyster mushroom and chimcurri. My friends mentioned the meat was tender, with only certain parts slightly chewy. The dish also allows the natural flavour of the beef to shine, although the chimichurri sauce gave it a nice cut-through of the fats of the meat. The side of the oyster mushroom also inherited the nice smokey flavours from the grill

Lastly, we were down to the desserts for a complete meal. As nobody opted for the 3-course meal, we did not have dessert included, so we went for the a la carte options of Tiramisu and lemon mousse with strawberry compote and white wine jelly. The tiramisu looked decent but lacked certain flavours. It tasted more creamy than the usual tiramisu from other places, and I can say I have had better ones elsewhere. The lemon mousse was a nice tangy finish to the meal with a light bouncy texture and acidity from both the lemon and the strawberry compote

Overall, the atmosphere trumps the food here. Not that the food is bad, but for a fine dining establishment with its menu prices set within this range, I did find some of the dishes quite normal and not astonishing enough. Some of my friends found some parts of the meat tough, while the presentation of certain dishes wasn’t exactly the most exquisite. The restaurant is good for overwork hours hangouts if pricing is not a consideration

Address: Mondrian Singapore Duxton Hotel, 16A Duxton Hill, #03-01, Singapore 089970

Opening hours: 7 am to 12 am