Arriva

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Arriva, New Farm

This was a farewell dinner for JenL before she headed back to the States. I can't believe it that it is nearly two years since I have known her. Time really flies! Five of us went to Arriva in New Farm and had italian dinner. It's quite rare for me to have Italian food since I usually cook pasta for dinner. :)

We ordered garlic breads for entree. 

Garlic Breads 
The garlic bread was good. Toasted to perfection with well-balanced amount of garlic and herbs on the bread. Yum!

It took quite a while to decide on the main meals. Well, we ordered these:

Risotto Asiago - $21.50
smooth risotto with pancetta and creamy asiago

Spaghetti Al Mascarpone -$20.50
Pancetta, mushroom and thyme in a rich mascarpone sauce

Penne Senese -$20.50
Italian sausage, walnuts and brandy in a creamy parmesan sauce

Fettuccine Tartufo - $19.50
Mushrooms, truffle paste and cream

Mussels (Entree size)
Can you spot the common theme here? All pastas were cooked in cream-based sauce. It wasn't on purpose. Seriously, it wasn't. I guess the four of us prefer cream to tomato based sauce. Well, at least we have different types of pasta. :)

I had the risotto. I like it! It was creamy, cheesy with good flavours. I tried the rest of the main dishes and they were all good too. The pastas were cooked al dente and the flavours were pretty good. We all enjoyed our meals.

JenL loves mussels and she ordered that. Hmm... I tried a piece and it wasn't as good. She agreed. The mussels are fresh but the soup broth needed more salt and it definitely lacked in flavours. Not as good as I had before in Sugo Mi and Belgian Beer Cafe. We chat for a while before saying goodbyes! It was definitely difficult to say 'Goodbye' to JenL without shedding a tear or two. :)

The verdict:

  • decent food
  • OK service (one of the waiters seemed over-friendly, drinking shots with other diners)
  • OK ambience
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