Etna Restaurant and Pizzaria

spicy aglio olio with prawns - 9/10

i've been trying to find some good, authentic italian food near my place for quite awhile now. i like pasta, and i get annoyed because i can't seem to find any decent ones around my area. so one day i was cruising along in the batmobile along east coast road and i saw a small little restaurant with said "etna restaurant and pizzaria". i thought, "hmm, the name sounds mighty familiar to me".

so i went home and dug through the bible (aka wine and dine) and realized that yes, i was right. it really was in my book. considering the fact that i went cover to cover on the book, i don't think that's much of a surprise. regardless, i realized that in fact they did open a second outlet along east coast (insert great happy music here).

i've never been to the original etna, but i've heard mixed things about it. so i decided to try it for myself one day. so i decided to take mum along for a little dinner date (or rather, she took me along). we got to the restaurant at 6:25 and had to wait for 5 min because they were only opened at 6:30 and were having a briefing inside. very well.

we were seated soon enough and i lauched head into the menu. looks good, they have lots of things. the squid ink caught my eye and so i got that. i needed more places for good squid ink anyway. my mum didn't really know what she wanted. all she knew was that it was a plain based pasta with a little tinge of spice and prawns. so that's what we got her.

linguini al nero di seppia - 9/10

this place is really good because they can just do up whatever you like. i told the girl thta i wanted squid ink, and to change the pasta to linguini. she was more than happy to oblige. and i told her to get my mum aglio olio (olive oil and garlic based pasta) with spaghetti and prawns (not on the menu), and make it spicy. they can even do other things like arrabiata. i haven't asked for pesto yet though, but i'm sure they could. you can also put in ingredients like ham or bacon or other types of seafood, whatever floats your boat.

additionally, we got the etna pizza (from sicily). it's interesting because on the menu, you have some items which have this "from sicily" bracketed next to the item. apparently it's authentic italian style.

etna pizza - 7/10

the wasn't any crowd on a friday evening, and the food came out soon enough. it sure looked pretty good. so i hungrily took a first bite. my squid ink came with squid and prawns. i usually poke into the pasta to taste it first but somehow this time i accidentally fished out a prawn instead. it was all black and so it made things difficult to see. i put it into my mouth and took a bite. mmm.. the prawns were very fresh and crunchy. nice and big too. you know that springy texture you can from really fresh, cooked-just-right prawns? yup. very nice.

i tried mum's. the spiciness hit me a little, and then i could taste the al-dente spagheti with the fragrant olive oil and garlic flavor. really good. although i must disagree with mum about the spiciness. i always liked my aglio olio non-spicy. i believe the spiciness kills the subtle flavor of the aglio olio. but delicious nontheless.

the pizza though, was mildly dissappointing. the pizza came with ham, mozerella, mushrooms and pistachio. ok don't ask me why pistachio. apparently that's how the italianos eat it. i thought i was going to get whole pistachios, but to my delight, they were ground up. i can't really imagine having whole pistachios on your pizza. that would be weird.

i didn't like the pizza that much, but i think it was my fault though. i forgot to check whether it was cheese based or tomato based. i'm adamant that my pizza be tomato based. i can't stomach all that cheese, so when it came out cheese based i knew i wouldn't like it that much. there needs to be a thin layer of tomato over it for me to truly like it. but the texture of the crust was very good. thin-crusted, firm bottom with a very crispy and all-too-slightly charred crust. i decided that the next time i go back, i'm going to try something more tomato based. i think it would be much better.

i think i finally found a nice place to eat around home. it's pretty good. the squid ink is almost up to par with borgo's and the other pastas very well done too. additionally, the prices are reasonable for the autheticity. (about 18-22 per plate), so i think i'll be back here more often. but for those of you who don't stay near the east, they're main location is at lau pat sat. i'll give you the address down below. happy eating.

#01-68/70 lau pat sat festival market
18 raffles quay
tel: 62205513

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i went back to etna again recently and had more things. i got the squid ink pasta with linguini, a seafood linguini pasta in pink lobster sauce, and the carbonara with chicken.

i'm not sure if it's on the menu because i just told the waiter what we wanted and had them make it for us. the squid ink was just as good as before. the carbonara with chicken was really good. super creamy and thick (might be over the top for some), with lots of cheese. this goes really well if you're sharing a lighter pasta (eg marinara or some other tomato based one), but might be a little too much if eaten on its own.

the seafood with pink lobster sauce was fantastic. it tasted like a mix between the carbonara and the marinara. so it's pinkish from the tomato and yet just a tad thicker because of the cream. it was well balanced with lots of seafood and pleasant to eat on its own.