Parco Caffe

My 100th post. And it has to be a negative post, one that made me so unhappy I decided to cut my queue of unblogged entries to talk about this one first. It's Mother's Day dinner. We were throwing around some ideas of restaurants to try, and the first few were either veto-ed by some, or the restaurant doesn't accept reservations. In the end, after surfing through some of the Mother's Day promotions on Chope, we decided on trying out Parco Caffe. The promo was a free meal for mum, with at least 2 main courses ordered. There are 8 of us, so more than easy to hit the requirements. The menu looked great, so we were quite excited to try it out.

Our reservation was at 6.30pm. The ambience was actually pretty nice. Granted, some of us were late and orders were only placed at 7pm, but still didn't justify some of the service problems we encountered. No bread was served, in an Italian restaurant. I didn't see any on the menu either, but there was olive oil and balsamic vinegar provided on the table. So we asked, and was told yes, they serve bread, do we want? Hey, you're supposed to serve it whether we want or not, or at least ask before I ask you! Even then, no bread was served, and eventually two plates of pasta fritta (fried pasta) was served with some vague excuse about bread not yet ready. In an Italian restaurant! Oh my....

Drinks refill rate was horrible, even after several polite reminders from us. Generally we were being served by three servers, one was slightly smiley, one was a little of a poker face but still cordial, the last is a really dark faced guy. The kind of face that makes you feel you owe him something. That's the guy who asked if we wanted bread after we raised the question. And the thing that irritated us the most, is the rate of food service. By 8pm, 3 out of the 8 main courses never made it to our table, including the promotional mum's meal. Seriously, I would have thought that the promotional meal is the most ready item in their kitchen, given it's what attract many to the restaurant in the first place!

Now about the food. Food-wise, it's overall ok. Hits and misses, like most places. Their pizzas are thin crusted, which is something I like, but some people may find it not quite filling for the tummy. I'm not huge on Parma ham, so I ate Pizza Parco without much feelings or thoughts. The Herbal Chicken smelled fantastic when it was set down. An entire spring chicken bathed in a rich cocktail of Chinese herbs. It was pretty yummy. Only downside was the 'vegetables' mentioned in the menu seems to be limited to two pieces of lettuce at the bottom of the plate.

Last slice of Pizza Parco

Chef Jet's Herbal Chicken

I didn't try the lamb cutlet, but father-in-law seemed to enjoy it. For someone with his small appetite, he managed to finish the entire plate of 3 cutlets. Photo was only remembered after he polished off one. The foie gras was a miss. It didn't melt in my mouth, it wasn't full of livery goodness. Basically it just wasn't blissful. It was, however, considered cheap. $24 for 2 slabs of liver. Pity it wasn't tasty but I guess you get what you pay for. For that price, I'll rather go to Saveur's. Oh wait, why was I having foie gras in an Italian restaurant?

Parco Costine D’ Agnello - Lamb cutlet

Fegato - foie gras

Their version of Caprese was served with Parma Ham, which I requested to be on the side, so that the hubby can eat. It was two huge slices of Parma ham. I ate one slice. Still no love. Call me poor taste if you will, but I think I prefer good old bacon. The tomato slices are grilled slightly, which sets it apart from the usual Caprese. The final dish that made it to the table was the baked salmon. Wrapped in a packet of greaseproof paper, it was torn open in front of us by the server. This revealed a nicely done piece of fish, alongside some potatoes, and horrors, unopened clams. So we brought it up to the waiter, who (??) offered to open it for us. She attempted with M's fork and knife, and failed. L managed to open his, and found it sandy. So in the end, most of the clams were left uneaten.

Mozzarella Caprese e Parma

Salmone al Cartoccio - baked salmon

The kitchen apparently was ill-prepared for the Mother's Day crowded. We initially wanted Vongole Pasta, and was told it wasn't available. Ok, maybe not enough fresh clams that day. Our order of 24-hours cooked Kurobuta Pork rib had to be cancelled, also because it wasn't available. And what's more irritating is that I saw the table behind us, who came later, was brought a loaf of bread. After the hour long wait, we decided to cancel the last three dishes and go elsewhere for the three of us to eat. We called for the bill and I was charged full amount. I demanded a discount of the supposed free meal that never came. In the end, the manager came and gave me a goodwill discount of 30%.

Truth be told, the manager was very nice about it. If not for him, my impression of this restaurant will be totally down in the drains. I did see him in the kitchen trying to make things right before I cancelled our order, and I respect him for it. But it still doesn't justify how a restaurant failed to prepare for a big day, even after putting up a promotion. He said the kitchen was jammed from the crowd, and actually it's our table that jammed it. Seriously, I reserved last week. No excuse that you didn't know a table of eight is coming. As M put it "it's Mother's Day and my mother didn't get to eat!"



Parco Caffè at Raeburn Park 
(Off Spottiswoode Park Road)
10 Raeburn Park Block A 
#01-28 Singapore 088702
Tel: 6223 6338