Concetto By Saveur

I think I like the purvis version better. There’s something more cafeteria about this place. The staff is working hard for sure bless their hearts but barely can handle the place. Price is cheap as usual for nice food. The fruitti de mare is much better choice than the pork cheek that needed salt and something… actually if it came with a side sauce dip it would be nice. An acidic side dip (soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, peppers). The flavor is too simple. I think the pastas are a better choice. I saw the next table the girl was using Tabasco sauce on her meat. Hmm.

My friend asked me whether I would like to try this place out for dinner and after being to the other Saveur branch and not the one here, both of us decided to give it a try.
There were two floors to this open concept restaurant/​café style. After looking at the menu, I realized that they have different menu from the branch I visited last year and was not too sure on what to order. Decided to try concetto pasta for starters and crab risotto for main.
The concetto pasta was pretty good but the portion was little. It was flavorful and the lobster foam was the main highlight of this place.
The crab risotto came in a bigger bowl that looks a little overwhelming. It was definitely flavorful and the arborio rice was tender. The ingredients inside this dish was also pretty well thought. I am glad I ordered this even though I was deciding between two other dishes on the pasta section.
I also tried my friend’s Pollo Allo (boneless spring chicken which was stuffed with mushroom duxelle). The chicken was tender but it was not juicy as I thought it might be but it was better when combined with the stuffings. Tried the duck confit with tagliatelle (a kind of pasta) with pesto sauce. Not as flavorful as I thought it might be either.
Unfortunately, even though the pricing was reasonable here and the customer service and food preparation was pretty good, the space seemed not too conducive for long hours seating. It was also rather warm as there was not really shades on the glass windows. Will probably try out the first branch to compare.

Menu has had some tweaks (in the wrong direction). And portion sizes have taken a downward plunge.
Sad to say that my last order was quite disappointing. My order was for takeaway, I ordered two minestrone soups and a Caesar salad and a tomato salad. Caesar salad now comes with seafood on top (octopus and squid), I asked for them to be left off and «no changes can be made.» Some of my tomatoes tasted really old, definitely had started going bad. And the minestrone soup was just vegetable soup (no pasta or beans) with a disgraceful portion size. *posting picture…*

Dinner for 2 with 2 main courses and appetizer and an OJ came up to about $ 40. You can’t really quibble with that kind of pricing. It’s cheap compared to a lot of other eateries. The prices and casual vibe means it attracts a lot of 20 & 30somethings.
Like the Saveur outlet which attracts long queues, this one is always packed.
I waited about 30 mins for my table. Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s worth the wait. We had the octopus salad, prawn aglio and duck tortellini. The only thing I would recommend unreservedly is the tortellini — 4 fat tortellini filled with shredded duck, a slightly over sous vide-​d egg and a little too much froth. But a nice dinner portion.
The octopus was not the freshest and the prawn aglio was over salted. Think they didn’t compensate for the Sakura ebi which can be quite salty on its own.
The place got really noisy and the service was decent. So my final verdict. Tried it but won’t be going back cos it’s not my cup of tea.

The food served here are cooked as if salt is free. THEY ARE SO SALTY! The selection is good, the service is alright, the ambiance is not too bad, but the food… oh my gosh. SO SALTY. I could feel my hair ready to fall off my head anytime from the overdose of saltiness.
When I heard that the team behind Saveur started Concetto, I started having reservations cos the food quality Saveur dropped drastically after they expanded. Based on the crowd in the restaurant at Concetto, I thought perhaps they have done something right here. But the food sorely disappointed me. The servings were also very modest, in fact, a little too modest that left me very unsatisfied and grumpy.
Given a choice, I will not visit again.

I hate to give them a bad review, because I love Saveur, and this is from the same guys. Maybe it wouldn’t be apparent seeing how a lot of Singaporeans use 3 stars as their average rating, but as an American who hasn’t completely outgrown the grade inflation of my youth, for me this is a bad review. Overall, this is disappointing if you expect the Italian equivalent of Saveur.
The minestrone was good. The buffalo mozzarella dish was the highlight of the meal.
The Bolognese was underwhelming, like they were not trying to follow an Italian recipe at all. It tasted like they didn’t use any red wine. It came with three additional «sauces», one of which was flaked pieces of meat, the others being tomato sauce and cream sauce. I don’t want four sauces. I want one good Bolognese sauce and I didn’t get it.
The deconstructed tiramisu didn’t really seem like tiramisu. Tiramisu does not have chocolate mouse in it, but this thing did.
The service was shoddy. I clearly asked for the soup then the mozzarella then the pasta. After the soup, the pasta came before the mozzarella. I said that I had asked for the mozzarella first, so the server asked if I wanted them to take the pasta back until after the mozzarella came, and I said yes. Maybe this was rude of me to say given the price point here, and I probably wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t literally the third restaurant in a row in as many days that had made a basic mistake like this, so maybe I asked for the further decrement in service that ensued, but ensue it did.
After I finished the mozzarella the server asked if they could «fire my mains now» and I said yes, and a minute later my pasta came out reheated, maybe from a microwave, and the cream sauce in the little three-​compartment condiment tray had congealed on the top. After that, I ordered the tiramisu and it didn’t come for over half an hour. I asked a different waiter if they could check on it, and they came back to signal that it had not actually been ordered and said it would be another 5 – 10 minutes. Good thing I brought things to read. Maybe you should too!
I don’t think they have put the same level of care and thought into this restaurant as they did with Saveur. I would recommend that they go to Italy for at least a few weeks and see what actual Italian cooking tastes like, or consult good Italian cookbooks, such as the silver spoon («cucchiaio d’argento») or those of Mario Batali or Giada de Laurentiis.
As for the Bolognese, this is a good recipe:

A bunch of us decided to head to Concetto for a friend’s birthday lunch.
The atmosphere here is comfortable, it feels casual and laid back, and there is a modern stripped down feel to the place, and for lack of a better word, the place is presented to appeal to the ‘hipster’ in all of us. At the same time, the menu looked delectable with a decent variety of options (and the prices did not look like they were going to burn a hole in our pockets, so that was a definite plus). Located next to Starbucks at The Cathay, it was easy to get to with Dhoby Ghaut MRT station located nearby.
I had ordered the Crab Risotto, and it didn’t take long for the dish to arrive (plus points once again), and I was impressed with the presentation. Taste wise, the flavour of the crab was present without being too overpowering. The dish included a tiny bit of rice krispies, which gave the occasional bite that extra crunch. A welcome surprise. I somehow felt that the overall flavour of the dish could have been stronger, it was bordering on being slightly bland, if not for the shredded crab.
What really grabbed the attention of my taste buds was their Funghi Risotto with pickled shallots. Eyeing my friend’s dish all afternoon, she finally caved and let me have a bite. Which she regretted because i was hooked. The flavour was refreshing, not too strong, and the pickled shallots added a zesty twist to each bite. It was so good, I ordered the Funghi Risotto after I finished the Crab Risotto and shared it with an equally impressed friend at the table.
Unfortunately, I did not get to try any other dish but I am definitely headed back there soon.
Then on to dessert. Their deconstructed tiramisu was only slightly above average, and though it looked great when it arrived, it was lacking the soft creamy slice-​through you experience when you slide your spoon through a regular tiramisu (the kind you traditionally can get at Italian establishments) — and to me that is important. The one we got at Concetto was a tad bit dry and there was room for improvement there.
The Pistachio panna cotta on the other hand was to die for. I am not a big fan of pistachio in general, but the soft creamy texture of this dessert was divine. A must-​try here. My words might not do it justice.
On the whole a great place for a fuss free date before a movie at the Cathay, or for a meal with your friends.

Ok its Italian not French. Its delicious. Go for the food. You order a la cart basically and the dishes are smallish portions but that’s good because then you can order a few of them. I had pumpkin ravioli and squid ink risotto. Both excellent, with some Asian flair.
Ok now I’ll tell you its the best value around. Wine and food all very reasonable.

I love the food at Saveur because they offer quality cooking and don’t skimp on service. Sure the portions are small, but its value for the price you pay. When I heard that the same guys had opened an Italian restaurant at Cathay, I was skeptical (French –/​– Italian) but curious nonetheless. Overall the dinner I had was just «okay» and bordered on rough around the edges. Hopefully it’s opening blues and they’ll get better over time.
We had the grilled octopus and tasting tomatoes for starters. I’ve had some really delicious and simple tomato dishes in Tuscany and Japan before so I was looking forward to this «tasting», which turned out to be bruschetta. The tomatoes were really fresh, sweet and perfectly plumped on crisp slices of bread. The grilled octopus however, was very bland and thankfully came with some punchy fennel to make up for it.
I ordered the pork ravioli as my main course because it was the first and only time I’ve seen a bean-​based pasta in Singapore. Beans + pork = doubly awesome in theory. However, the beans were bland and undercooked with none of that sweet creamy base you’d imagine from barlotti beans. The dude’s duck tortellini was much tastier, with a good kick from the Parmesan. The kicker though is that both pastas we ordered were basically western wantons if you will, but they were too thick on the edges and folds! Like if I tried to take on the din tai fung chefs at xiao long bao folding this would probably be what I’d produce. Hopefully the chefs get the hang of it but if I go back, I’m playing it neat and trying the fail safe (but boring) dishes next.
For dessert we were decidedly predictable and got a tiramisu to share. It wasn’t the best pick-​upper, but it wasn’t the worst either. The same cant be said about the wine selection. The Sauv Blanc by the glass could do with a rethink because it was a mess on the palate, bordering on sour. I asked for a new pour thinking my wine had been over aerated but both pours were from unopened bottles.
My point, if you get where I’m driving at, is that my meal at Concetto felt amateurish and they could do way better than that. I mean this with the best of intentions and have high expectations given what Dylan and Joshua have demonstrated at Saveur. We felt the service was unusually attentive and cheerful especially since it was 8.30pm and the staff had probably done 1 – 2 covers by then. I will probably return to try the rest of the menu… after a few months so the kinks can be sorted out.