Italiannies

Today I finally made it to Italiannies after work. I thought it was at 313 Somerset, but it was actually at TripleOne, across the road. And speaking of TripleOne Somerset, it looked like a new mall outside, but only the 1st 2 floors are for retail. Italiannies is hidden right at the back of the mall behind the Chinese restaurant. I wish there were some signs to say so. As we were walking past the Chinese restaurant, a freaking side-door opened right in front of me, I barely had time to deflect it with my arm. Be careful when you walk past the Chinese Restaurant because the cleaners don’t look when they barge out of the cleaning area right into the mall area.

The place looked very inviting on the outside, and we were greeted heartily at the entrance. It seems we managed to get the last free table as the other empty ones were all reserved. There were several booth seats, but most were table seats. There was also a bar section in the mid-section of the restaurant. Can’t quite get the vibe of the place, it seems a bit weird to see a bar in a casual restaurant.

I didn’t like the seats we had at all. I thought the chairs were way too small, the backrest was not ergonomically designed and there were no arm rests at all. And maybe it’s just me, but I don’t appreciate a slippery wooden floor (even though it looks good) because I always get the feeling that my chair is sliding backwards.

The restaurant was very busy today. We had to wait half an hour or more for our food. The staff kept walking past our table delivering plate after plate of food. The place isn’t very large, so everyone must have arrived just before we did.

My linguine vongole $18 was nice and I was happy that it was a humongous portion. I finished most of it but I thought it was nothing to shout about. The Partner ordered a Margherita pizza. It had a nice crispy crust, but the cheese on the pizza had a sour taste, not that it was bad, but it was a little weird.

At the end of the meal, one of the staff told us about the new lunch time promotion going on. For $15, you get a semi-buffet lunch where you can mix and match several pizza pasta dishes from the buffet table in addition to being served your main course. The semi-buffet lunch dishes are not all available for dinner.

Although I think I won’t be going back to Italiannies anytime soon, it seems like a lot of people like the place because it was the most crowded, if not the only crowded restaurant in TripleOne. Black was pretty much empty, and so was the Chinese restaurant. Applebees was about 3/4 full. Unfortunately because of its location, 313 Somerset was just teeming with people and customers lining up outside the restaurants whereas TripleOne only saw a smattering of customers by comparison.

Might try Applebees one day. I thought it was a cheap American restaurant, but judging by the prices I saw, it is not. A steak alone costs $30 already, that’s like the price of any mid-priced restaurant out there!