Covelli @ Orchard Central

Covelli is located at the 2nd basement of Orchard Central. It is one of three restaurants in OC on the Palate membership; the other two are Tung Lok Seafood and OChre. 

Antipasto Frutti di Mare, $18

This was a cold dish, and consisted of a combination of seared Tataki tuna, cured salmon, crab meat, and avocado. It was then topped with Avruga caviar, vegetables, and some balsamic vinegar. Tasted quite cool and refreshing, albeit a bit pricey.

Potato Veloute, $12

Usually I refrain from ordering creamy soup with potatoes, because its quite common for the soup to be too rich and filling. But after having so many cream of mushroom soups recently, we decided to try this out.

It turned out to be good! The soup was creamy but smooth, and went down easily. Some white truffle oil was drizzled on top, and the prosciutto and sage were also good additions. 

Barramundi e Astice, $28

This dish was supposed to be accompanied with charcoal lobster, but they ran out of it and replaced it with prawns. Not a very good trade-off, actually.

The barramundi was pan roasted and looked good at first glance, but I wasn't impressed with it after one bite. The fish wasn't too fresh, and the texture of the coating tasted a bit weird. I think the accompanying baby spinach was better.

Risotto Zaffron, $20

I have developed a liking for risotto recently, so I ordered this dish here. When it came, I felt slightly turned off by its appearance - their risotto looked a bit... plastic and fake. Buried in the rice was a generous serving of prawns - five big ones - which I almost couldn't finish. The prawns were still all right, but I didn't like the texture of the risotto. Prego's organic risotto beats this hands down.

It was our first visit here and so far, I found the starters mostly better than their main courses. But my parents, who coincidentally visited the same place an hour plus earlier, said their beef shortribs were fantastic. Covelli deserves a second visit, and this time maybe we should order three starters and one main course instead.