Why the title? I guess we were just lucky.
Have been wanting to try Jamie’s Italian even before it opened, and our plan was to go during our staycation on 6 Aug. However due to us being very late we did not. So yesterday we tried again. We reached vivo at around 5pm and there wasn’t a queue yet, in fact you can even go in if you want to. It’s still crowded (it’s a weekend yo) for 5pm though. But we just had lunch at around 2pm so we said to come back later at 7pm, however we can’t reserve on the spot as they only accept walk-ins. So we went to winter time to get my stuff for Germany. At 5.35pm when we left winter time, there was already 2m of queue. But we thought it wouldn’t be so bad if we came back at a later timing. Good timing to queue for dinner: 5pm to 5.30pm (to get a seat almost immed). According to Amanda’s dad, there’s no queue during lunch. Lol.
Off we went to other shops! After like 30mins or so, we walked back to JI and gasped in shock at the snaking queue. It was actually more of a queue to queue for queue numbers. Pretty cool system they have though, they just used the computer and probably send an sms to inform that there’s table available for the next party. Amanda went to queue for our back up plan at Pu Tien and when we were at the front of the queue, she was at the front of the queue at PT. We heard that the person before us had to wait for 1h 15mins, we were more or less prepared to wait that amount of time. Rachel was giving her name and number, then the manager (I think) came out of nowhere and took 4 menus and ask one of the staff to bring us in. They asked if all 4 of us were here. We said yes! And then we went in without having to wait after queuing. BEST NEWS EVER! I guess we really got lucky because a table of 4 left before we entered and all 4 of us were present already. I think most of the people are queuing in advance because they know that the waiting time is long and thus not all the people of the table are present. I’m not really sure how it works, it’s just my two cents worth. Anyway, in order to make the queueing less torturous for the customers, there was a staff carrying a plank with some little appetizers. I loved mine though.
Jamie’s Italian
Vivocity #01-165/167
You can do booking, check out the menu etc all on the website; http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/singapore/home
even the table cloth / napkin is customised!
Plain water is complimentary and he told us that there were 3 types, I heard normal plain water, sparkling water and some other which I did not catch. We went for the normal one though. We took really long to choose what to eat but decided on 2 pastas and a dessert first. But 5mins later we ordered a plank as well.
We were seated at the darker side of the restaurant, not near the glass windows that overlook to RWS, more towards the outside, so pardon if the pictures came out more orangey than the usual. According to Alicia and as what she observed, she said that there’s only one waiter who can attend to us, like an American culture. No wonder when we called someone to ask to order our food, everyone sort of either never really bother or was in a rush. In a way it’s good to organise your staff to just one area, but in a way if the waiter is preoccupied with other tables, he can’t attend to our table! But I thought that the staff at JI were well trained though.
we were like errr what’s this when the staff serving at our area placed this on our table
So now we know what the two cans of tomatoes were for! It’s for the fish plank!
First up we tried Jools’ Favourite Sicilian Tuna Fusilli $14. There was the $14 and $21 one and we took the smaller one, which according to the waiter who served us, it was more like an entrée because the portion is very small, he described it as 5 mouthfuls to finish. But I think it’s more like 5 big mouthfuls. I went online to read, apparently the $21 is about twice the amount. But if you prefer to have a little of everything, maybe the small one will do! Taste-wise, it’s not bad, but pretty average for the standards of JI but nevertheless, still a good starting dish to try!
Jools’ Favourite Sicilian Tuna Fusilli
Next we had the Wild Truffle Risotto ($16, entrée size). According to the menu, it’s “Finely minced black truffle with butter & Parmesan”. Don’t expect anything else other than truffle and rice on the plate and maybe abit of garnishing. It’s tastes quite good on its own. Disclaimer: I’ve never tried risotto before so evidently, this is still the top of my list but the rest said it was quite good! But I’ve watched enough masterchef and Hell’s kitchen to know what a risotto is! But the truffle smell/taste was quite strong, so I don’t really advice you to finish up the whole plate on your own, or even attempt to order the large one for yourself.
Wild Truffle Risotto
No, the photo below is not blurred on purpose, I used a filter and posted this picture on instagram. But this was the Fish Plank ($15.50) we ordered! It’s actually written as $17 per pax but we obviously only got 1 plank to try. There’s 5 little items to try. It’s hard to describe the whole plank but I’ll try (with some help from the menu on the description). The waiter actually came by to explain what each and every item was but he said it too quick we didn’t really catch much and were just like OO by the terms he’s using.
1. Cured and Crispy fish (at top of the picture)
– 4 pieces
– not really sure if it’s fish, they taste rather rubbery like squids
– dipped it with JI’s signature mayonnaise sauce which they make it themselves
2. Mussels and Clams
– around 2 mussels, 3 clams. Not raw.
3. Salmon (??) on ice
– there were only 2 pieces of this raw fish but not exactly sure if it’s salmon as it’s more reddish than orangey.
4. Italian Cheeses
– a 3mm slice of cheese on top of a big piece of nacho (??) chip with sweet chilli spread on top of the cheese
– weird combination but the taste comes out right (at least for me)
– sweet chilli masked the sour-ish taste of the cheese
5. Salad
– shredded carrot, beetroot (??) and probably some mint
6. Biscuit
– weird biscuit with pickles, green chillies, green olives and caper berries
– there’s this mayonnaise-tuna like spread on top as well.
Fish plank
If you realised, we did not order any mains at all. We ordered just pastas or appetizers. First reason being that most of the mains had steak or beef, which Alicia can’t eat. And I would say that the menu is not very friendly on other types of meat. There’s a lamb one, 4 other fish ones, 1 grilled chicken and ribs. We were looking at the fish category but unfortunately there wasn’t one which we thought would be worth it. Maybe next time when I start working and have more financial means, I would love to try the prime ribs one which costs a whooping $59.
Was doing a safe thing of checking out which dessert to order and many said that the Creamy Panna Cotta ($9) was great and so we ordered that! It’s quite a small portion and it brings me back to the time when I had my first Panna Cotta, by recommendation of Amanda at Bakerzin. And yes, JI’s one cannot beat Bakerzin’s. But the assortment of berries is something rather unique. But for $9, it’s not too bad.
Creamy panna cotta
We weren’t satisfied with the panna cotta so we decided to order one more dessert. JI Warm Brownie ($11.50). Afterall, we queued for quite a fair amount of time and probably won’t be heading to Jamie’s Italian anytime soon, at least until the crowd really dies down to the extent that queuing is reduced to 10mins or so? So we had to make full use of our time at JI!!! This brownie is not your typical squarish or rectangle kind of brownie. It has an arc which probably came out of a circular pan. The texture of this brownie is also quite different. It’s hard at the side (like crust) and soft in the middle and there’s berries in the middle too. It’s like sour and sweet combination. The ice cream is just the normal vanilla ice cream.
JI Warm Brownie
We waited really long for our bill (probably close to 5mins of repeatedly calling) and two persons came with the bill -.- Total bill came up to $79.45. And we waited really long for our change that Rachel wanted to just walk off and leave the $80 there. And then the most astonishing thing happened, Alicia’s assumption that only the one waiter can serve in that area is true! Another waiter said he cannot steal the guy’s customers away?? LOL what did that mean! And the shock thing was that the waiter took out $0.60 from his own pocket. WHY?? It still baffles me even after more than 20 hours.
Anyway I would rate 8/10 overall. If there’s no queuing, I think the almost-impeccable service will make up for the fact that the food was 8/10.
My longest post @ 1604 words!
c’mon!!
always sauntering. 