La Strada Ristorante on 9 September (Lunch)

Beef Carpaccio...

I read alot about La Strada since it opened and did a little research on the net about it. Seems like they serve really excellent Italian food so I made a reservation for me and CK.

All in all, after all the good things I read, it was a little let down with the kind of quality I expect when tagged to the price. I mean the food is definitely far from being bad but it was certainly not mindblowing. We agreed it will be our first and last visit. A special mention for the service though, it was very very attentive and the deco was very 'Omotesando-ish'.

Anyway, we ordered a 4 course set lunch, the entree of beef carpaccio and a main of mudcrab/white wine pasta. Topped with a lunch special duet of a white and red wine. I'll get to the main point. I read so much about the beef carpaccio but though presentation wise it was very nice but we thought it was juz so-so. The same for the mudcrab pasta. Strangely, it kinda reminded me of prawn hokkien mee actually. The mudcrab was very nice and fresh but again, I had higher expectations.

My starter...


The 4 course set lunch which cost $46 was a little disappointing. My tapas starter which was a slice of french loaf topped with some seasonal veges was slightly burnt which gave it a bitter taste. The topping was really nice and light but the burnt, bitter taste of the toast spoiled it.

The linguine that came next was much much better. It was simple and delicious. It was simply a nice tomato base topped with a dollop of creamy cheese which worked very well. We both enjoyed this one.

Next was the a smallish grilled beef (steak?? ) with rocket salad. I hated this one. The thickness was all wrong. It was too thin for me and I dunno why but I thought it tasted oily. Again and unforgivable thing is this one had that same burnt taste too. I mean it was not burnt as in burnt but the grill markings on the steak gave it a bitter taste.

Dessert was pretty good. Some nougat that had icecream in it. Nice chewy texture and creaminess of the ice cream .

And lastly, a special mention for the white wine I was served. Sorry I don't have the exact name but it was very interesting for me. The after taste was very floral and nice though the wine itself was pretty dry. I like it in a funny way.

All in all, I think maybe the pizzeria next door could be more worth it. To our horror we saw they had a nice set lunch of pizza + cream of cauliflower at only $16!!! Ughhhh. Maybe that one next time. But for La Strada Ristorante, maybe not.