Set lunches for under S$50 and cosy Italian cooking at Capasso
The Telok Ayer restaurant and wine-whiskey bar serves up fuss-free food at good prices.
NEW RESTAURANT
Capasso
92 Telok Ayer Street Singapore 048472
Tel: 8819-3306
Open for lunch and dinner Mon to Fri: 12 pm to 3 pm; 5 pm to 1 am. Dinner only on Sat. Closed on Sun.
EXCELLENCE isn’t always the be-all and end-all goal of a restaurant. If we were Capasso, that’s what we’d be thinking. Let the high-achieving, fine-dining dudes on Amoy Street duke it out, while we paddle in calmer waters closer to Far East Square, contemplating the virtues of not being particularly ambitious.
Capasso covers the middle ground well, catering to the Cbd-ite who’s not in a Michelin mood, doesn’t want to squeeze into Sarnie’s, but still wants a presentable place for a quick business lunch, or to suss out a potential romantic partner without looking too cheap.
At S$48 for its executive set lunch, you can’t quibble. If either work or love connection doesn’t work out, you’re not too out of pocket. But if it does, you can up your investment at Capasso’s sister restaurant Bacata, where ex-preludio Colombian chef Fernando Arevalo raises the stakes and menu price.
At Capasso, Arevalo gets in touch with his Italian side, putting out a fuss-free menu of pastas and mains that are no stretch to the kitchen team’s skills or your palate. The restaurant has a slinky loungey vibe, nodding to its aspirations as an after-dark wine-whiskey bar. There are blood-red velvet banquettes, dark, heavy curtains and a cosy living room in one corner. Outside, you give the thick wooden door a good heave to open it, without realising your hand is squeezing a brass handle in the shape of a naked woman.
The a la carte menu is compact, with dishes rarely crossing S$50, unless you lean towards a wagyu striploin or bone-in ribeye.
And the set lunch is unbeatable value for the price: three proper courses, plus a salad and bread to start. Not a grudging handful of iceberg lettuce either, but a proper rocket-and-tomato salad dressed in a well-balanced vinaigrette and garnished with almond slices. The house-baked koji bread is the same as the one from the a la carte menu – its deceptively hard and crunchy crust belying its malleable, soft and chewy insides, which you smother with smoky butter.
Since everything in the set lunch is a mini-me of the main menu, there’s no reason to order from it, but we felt rich enough to splurge on a polpettone (S$20) – essentially a large meatball in tomato sauce.
We’ve never understood the appeal of lumps of minced meat in tomato puree. One person’s nothingelse-in-the-fridge-dinner is another’s cornerstone-ofitalian-culinary-history. But Capasso’s version is rather pleasing, mainly for the stretchy, melted mozzarella cheese that oozes deliciously out of the meatball, and the basil-scented sweet-savoury sauce it’s bathed in. Save some of the koji bread to dunk into the mellow sauce that goes easy on the acidity.
The set lunch itself follows the same pattern of straightforward cooking that feeds you rather than seeks your praises. You start off with baby octopus – tender, bouncy nuggets rolling in a smoky tomato paprika sauce filled with Mediterranean earthiness. But the undercooked potato balls, salty Parma ham bits and saltier capers get in the way of full enjoyment.
There are just three pastas in the main menu, and one of them is on the lunch set – a tagliatelle sauteed with fermented mushrooms and showered with parmesan shavings that you mix together for an addictive, vaguely-funky cheesiness. It’s good enough for us to complain there should be more of it.
Pan-fried sea bass left just a bit too long in the pan has crisp skin but dry flesh – which you can ignore and instead focus on the creamy vegetable risotto that gets a shot of red wine for colour and oomph.
There’s also grilled Iberico pork chop, pink in the middle and chewy enough to give your teeth some exercise, even if the rest of your body doesn’t. Mashed potatoes swirl around it, and a coffee-spiked port wine sauce adds some depth to the whole thing.
Dessert is a thoughtful milky, cheesy burrata gelato with an ever-so-slight sweetness that’s amplified with a few flakes of sea salt and a dribble of olive oil. Just to keep things colourful, a berry compote is the perfect match.
For sure, a set lunch isn’t fully representative of what the restaurant is. And like everywhere else, it does feel like the kitchen team switches on a different part of its brain when it is cooking to fit a budget. Right now, it feels like they could raise the bar more to set itself apart from the many Italian options around. Still, it may well be worth taking a deeper dive on a second visit and see just how far Capasso’s ambitions go.
Rating: 6 jaime@sph.com.sg
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 Our review policy: The Business Times pays for all meals at restaurants reviewed on this page. Unless specified, the writer does not accept hosted meals prior to the review’s publication.