Palio (Resorts World Sentosa)

Hubby and me tried out this restaurant at Hotel Michael after a day out at the Universal Studios. We checked it out in the first place due to Lynn's previous recommendation that she saw a pizza place outside USS that looked pretty good. A quick price comparison revealed that the pizza in a pizza cafe in USS cost $42 for a whole pizza, while it costs $24 at Palio. Hm, add in the self-service versus the waitress-service, the decision was obvious.

The mains were actually priced pretty steep, but not unexpected from an Italian restaurant based in Sentosa. I was eyeing a baked cod that was priced at $38, but seeing hubby had already paid for all our expenses that day, I was unwilling to tax his wallet further. The pizza prices were decent, so I opted to share a large pizza with him instead. He chose an asparagus pizza, which I was fine with. We both decided we wanted bruschetta, and I wanted Caprese, which was fresh mozzarella with tomato and basil.

We were served Italian bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar while waiting for our food to arrive. I know I once told some colleagues that I disliked Italian bread. I take back what I said. Seems like I do love Italian bread, just not in Italy! (For some reasons, the bread I had in Italy were dry, hard things that most human beings can't tackle properly). The crusty bread went so well with the oil and vinegar, I had at least 4 slices - that's probably half the loaf! (I apologize for the funny pattern in the picture of the olive oil and vinegar - that's the reflection from the ceiling I had obviously not noticed when I took the picture.)

The first whiff I had of the bruschetta when it arrived brought a big smile on my face. It smelled so good! Upon the first bite, I felt that it was a little spicy, quite unlike any bruschetta I had previously eaten. By the time I reached my second piece, the spiciness was feeling more like tingling. I really couldn't place that zip - no idea what ingredient was causing it. Hubby struggled through a third slice and gave up. We both agreed that it was very good on the first slice, but that zip was getting weird by the third.

When I ordered the Caprese, I was picturing thickly sliced mozzarella alternatively arranged with sliced tomatoes. So I was a little surprised to see quartered tomatoes arranged with wedges of mozzarella. The cheese was so fresh and light, and complemented the tomatoes so well. You do need to cut the cheese and tomato into smaller pieces, as too big a mouthful makes it feel a little too yucky. I did that with my first mouth, and regretted it cos too much cheese and too little tomato makes the whole mouthful a little bland. But subsequent mouths I learnt to cut both smaller, and I really liked the outcome.

As you can see I forgot to take photo of the pizza until two slices were gone. This was a thin-crust woodfire pizza, just the way I like it. The flavor was ok, but I guess I would have loved a lot more asparagus than the one per slice. The size was ok too, and with all the other appetizers we ordered (and the bread I gulped down), we were both comfortably full (ok, I was stuffed due to all my bread) at the end of it.

Crusty Italian bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Bruschetta Pomodoro

Caprese - fresh mozzarella with tomato and basil

Asparagus pizza

I would recommend Palio to people visiting USS. It's definitely more worth the $$ compared to the food within the USS itself (which I have gathered from several people to be "disgusting" and "horrible"). You can exit the theme park and re-enter with an invisible stamp they'll ink on your arm. Moreover, this restaurant is surrounded by many other restaurants that looked like they will burn a huge hole on your pocket. So I think pizza is a reasonable choice here.