Il Fiore

A true local joint in the middle of Raffles Place. It’s the only place I know in the heart of the business district where you can get great local food past 9pm. The Salted Fish fried rice is amazing. Honestly, any of the fried rice dishes are a good bet. The Bee Hoon and the Char Kway Teow are decent, especially late at night when you are trying to find something to hold you over after a night of drinking.
Located at the basement of the Singapore Land Tower (or next door at the very least), this is a no frills drinking establishment. You come here for two main purposes: (i) too drink amongst friends and (ii) to try out the surprisingly good Asian cuisine — yes, I know the place is Italian, but the Asian /​SG food is soo much better!
P.S there is a sexy painting of the owner (scantily clad) hanging right next to the bar. It’s a pretty cute touch, if you ask me. :D

This is really more of a 3.5 star place, but it has some positives going for it so I’ll give it a 4.
It can be a bit hard to find if you’re not familiar with the Raffles Place area. If you’re coming from the MRT, I would take Exit A/​B, go past Chevron House (but away from One Raffles Place) and when you see the CIMB branch, find the staircase, go down, and it will be there.
When my husband told me to meet him and a few of his colleagues here for drinks on a Friday night, I scoffed because I thought, «I’ve never heard of this place, it’s in the basement level, and it’s probably lame.» However, it surprised me. The wine, though nothing special, was reasonably priced per glass (around $ 13 – 15) and my linguine alla carbonara was quite delicious. Despite it being pretty busy, it didn’t take too long for my food to come out.
In addition to Italian food, they also serve some Chinese dishes. I know it sounds a bit strange, but apparently the locals say it’s pretty solid. According to one of Miguel’s colleagues, he tried their foie gras fried rice and loved it, but it might’ve been a seasonal dish as it wasn’t on the menu and our server didn’t seem to know what it was. Miguel did try the pork belly fried rice and thought it was top notch.
Maybe lunch is a different story, but for dinner, the restaurant seems to exude this sleaziness that I can’t explain. Perhaps it’s because we’re in the basement and there’s no windows? Or maybe it’s the clientele (mostly businessmen) added in with the mostly female staff (but in their defense, they don’t dress like sluts.) Then there’s the décor– yes, Botticelli’s «Birth of Venus» is a tasteful nude… but when an almost-​nude photo of the owner is included in the mix*, well… what are we supposed to think?
Despite all of that, I did enjoy the food and I appreciated the relaxed atmosphere at the start of the weekend. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind coming back so I could sample that pork belly fried rice!
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*To her credit, she did look good in that photo and she still looks good now. Apparently, if you ask her, she is willing to pose next to you if you want to take a picture with it.