&SONS

Best service I can remember in SG. Everyone was very helpful, sincere and joyful. It made the food taste great. Loved the crab pasta.

Went for lunch and the waiter recommended the penne bolognese. It turned out to be incredibly lackluster and pedestrian.
Good Bolognese sauce should be hearty and meaty, balanced with the tang of tomatoes, with a distinctive hit of olive oil. The sauce here has neither depth nor heartiness. Overpriced fare, and nowhere near authentic.

Visited on a Friday afternoon for lunch — was reasonably crowded, reservations recommended.
Their lunch set is pretty value for money, ranging from 10.90 to 13.90 for pasta, salmon, beef, chicken, salads, etc.
My colleagues ordered the Pork Cheek Penne Pasta ($ 11.90), which proved to be anticlimatic and unimpressive. The pork cheek came in a small portion of minced meat and the dish as a whole tasted plain and uninspired.
I ordered the Salmon Escalopes with Mushrooms ($ 12.90), which was pretty decent, though a tad on the greasy side. Mushrooms were great and added flavor to the otherwise relatively bland-​tasting salmon.
We ordered the Baccala Cakes with Uni Sauce ($ 15) for the table. It looked gorgeous, with the luxurious uni sauce threatening to spill off the side of the plate. However, it was underwhelming, with little hint of uni. The cod though, at least, was succulent. Expensive and looked better than it tasted.
The Roasted Figs cheesecake was okay, not too sweet or rich. It went nicely with the salted caramel, bits of meringue and fruits. Would have enjoyed it better if the figs were infused in the cheesecake though.
The tiramisu generally attracted good reviews from everyone who tried. It came presented prettily in a martini glass.
Overall a nice place for lunch, but I’m guessing dinner would fare better.

good, rich, carb-​and-​cream-​heavy sardinian cooking at this dark bar-​restaurant in china square.
before, I couldn’t distinguish between sardinian and Italian — though I would have ventured it had something to do with fish for such a coastal area. it turns out though, that this restaurant is completely authentic to locale — this water-​surrounded area instead relies on a lot of heavy, hearty land-​based ingredients like cheese and grains, both of which were in clear abundance during the good meal.
everything was creamy, cheesy, buttery or pasta-​y; very good for comfort-​eating and hip-​building. and, a glass of dry white to cut through.
take our baccala cakes, which came with a sea urchin sabayon: tender and bound nicely to be broken apart without effort, these were well-​seasoned, properly-​fried till dark but not charred), and contrasted with a creamy sauce that had that slight sweetness of urchin. very good.
our calamari was also decent (though I thought it could have done a little longer on the grill for some dark bits), served with another thick sauce supposedly made with sausage (I would have thought more cream than meat though).
but perhaps my favorite was our pasta of paccheri with iberico pork and truffle. it was carby, with soft cheese stuffed between the layers, and a beautiful truffle fragrance — SO fantastic. so was the wagyu carpaccio, fragranted with a creamy truffled aioli. I would repeat both dishes in a heartbeat.
it was when we were trying to finish a dish of polenta with gorgonzola and mushrooms, that it struck me how immensely rich everything was, and how easily it can be unbalanced. this dish was just creamy and cheesy, and not salted enough to cut through that fatty softness.
but — that was the only dish, and everything else we had was plenty delicious and reasonably-​priced, even if plenty rich. the only things that I didn’t like about this place was the noise level (crazy noisy, and terrible for conversation) and service (we barely got attention and the dishes came slow).

The food is great, the atmosphere is great, the service is great. I really like this place! I have been there for 3 times already and I can definitely say that their food keeps the same level and all of the dishes are great. I love the fact that they are tapas like and you can have a lot of little things to eat.

If there is one place for lunch in the CBD (Raffles /​Telok Ayer /​China Square Central area) you would be able to find me visiting more than once a week, it would be &Sons Bacaro. With a plethora of options, my vote clearly goes to &Sons for capturing my patronage on a regular basis.
Opened along Nankin Row, right next to China Square Central, this Italian establishment has popped up in a row of shophouse eateries that have started to define and shape the lunchtime experience in the area. It offers both alfresco and indoor dining, and I tend to choose the former especially on days when the weather is good — it offers a great vantage point for people watching on crowded afternoons as well.
Food wise, this place is great for their lunchtime menu. Whilst they are open for dinner as well, my most frequented visits here occur during lunchtime where they have a special set of about 10 – 15 dishes that are reasonably priced at $ 8-​$ 12 each on their lunch menu. Among my favourites include their Wagyu Beef Cheek Ravioli (amazingly tasty and filling), Spaghetti with Fresh Prawns (served aglio oglio style, with a generous portion of prawns), the Salmon Escalopes with Mushrooms and Mash (I am a fan of their soft creamy potato mash), the Pork Milanese with Rucola and Parmigiano (a crowd favourite), as well as their Grilled Beef Sirloin Steak (a steal that tastes great at only $ 12). I have personally tried each dish mentioned here, a testament to how often I’ve visited this cosy little joint. A side note, give their Bucatini Carbonara a miss, unfortunately the one dish on their lunch menu that is has disappointed on numerous occasions. Apart from that, a great selection to appease a variety of palates.
They do additionally have an ala carte menu as fell, featuring various tapas styled dishes, and a healthy selection of salami and cheese for starters as well as an extensive drinks menu featuring a variety of Italian wines as well as cocktails, and beers from all over. (They have a special beer promotion going on for lunchtime as well).
It gets really busy here during lunchtime, don’t expect to be seated immediately, and they have a whole bunch of orders coming in simultaneously from 12 — 2pm, so have a bit of patience here and all will go well. They do try to bring out their dishes as promptly as they can. Special mentions go out here to Pierre and Sophie, both very attentive and friendly servers who make my visits all the more enjoyable despite the lunchtime rush. Their manager Jody is very much hands-​on as well, and goes out of his way to make sure his patrons are well taken care of.
On a side note, &Sons also seems like a very suitable venue for a casual first-​date, fun and light hearted yet cosy and presentable for an evening meal and some drinks. Do give it a shot, and of course, it is my favourite lunchtime joint so do give it a try in the day time as well. 5 stars for sure!

I fell in love with Italian ciccheti (little bites) after visiting many bacaros in Venice. How can anyone say no to little sandwiches and a huge variety of small food items along with wine yea? &SONS at China Square Central attempts to recreate the traditional bacaro vibe with their authentic Italian offerings. The décor is also similarly styled as the Venice bacaros though more spacious for sit down dining. Tried their offerings at Savour 2014 (read about the highlight dishes here) and i promised i’d check them out and so i did!
Prices are very reasonable here with food starting at $ 8 per plate, cocktails from $ 10 and wine from $ 8 per glass. The bar features an entirely Italian list of wines, craft beers, cocktails, grappa and the finest malt whiskies made available throughout the day. Apparently there’s free flow of ciccheti with purchase of wines and cocktails. Certainly a great deal!
We started the meal with a Bellini with peach which was a mere $ 10. Decently spiked and delicious. S had the Whiskey Sour ($ 15) which was really strong IMO.
&SONS is the only place in Singapore to make its own specialty-​cured meats and salami on premises in a custom-​made curing room. These are great with the tipples I must say. Italian cheese are also available.
Pasta, the Italian staple, is a big feature at &Sons especially for lunch when they serve affordable big plates between $ 8-​$ 10. The servings are huge. They also have a Sirloin Steak for only $ 12! We sampled the Homemade Tagliatelle Bolognese ($ 9). The pasta noodles are done perfectly and the meaty bits were plentiful but i thought it could do with a little more seasoning.
The pasta options at night at served in tapas portions. This encourages sharing of small plates like the typical bacaro. The portions are still very substantial and can feed 1 sufficiently. My favorite paste is still the Tagliolini, Crab & Nduja ($ 9) which was similar to what I had at Savour 2014. The Tagliolini is a thinner strand noodle with more pull and gave the impression that it were cheese. Nduja is a spicy and smoked soft salami from Calabria and that gave the dish a savory and lightly spiced flavor.
If you’re a cream and cheese fab, go for the Paccheri, Iberico Pork & Truffle. The paccheri (a large tube pasta) was stuffed with Iberico and cooked in tomato pesto served alongside a truffle besciamella. A little too heavy and bland for my liking.
Veal Ossobucco, Orzotto ($ 19) is a Milanese specialty of cross-​cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. There’s also barley added to the mix. I didn’t like this dish as it was too gamey.
Wagyu Beef Tagliata ($ 26) was paired with a refreshing Salsa Verde.
My favorite meat dish of the night was the Baccala Cakes with Sea Urchin Sabayon ($ 13). The salted cod is mixed with béchamel sauce and potatoes and then coated with black squid ink crumbs and fried. The fish had a light texture that is kinda like fluff and it was all too easy to eat with the Uni cream.
Fresh greens are my favorite and the Asparagus, Garlic & Anchovy Sauce ($ 9) was a nice mix to our little bites.
Well the good thing about the smaller plates (they’re by no means really small) is that I can have more variety! And then I’d have space for desserts! The Homemade Tiramisu and Pistachio Gelato ($ 5/​scoop) were good. The tiramisu ice cream was essentially frozen tiramisu and chef is very generous with the alcohol. ;)
If you’re for tons of cream, the Salted Caramel Strawberry Jubilee ($ 12) wasn’t too bad. Strawberries and cream isn’t quite a typical dessert choice so it was rather refreshing.
Would certainly be back at &SONS for more tipples and bites. Don’t miss out on their weekday lunch specials if you’re working in the area.

This place is a little hard to find. I came here on a Wednesday night with a friend, and we had a total of 8 plates. I should think including dessert, most people would have 3 plates per person on average. One thing to note here, there’s a Happy Hour promo from 5−8pm where beers on tap are $ 5 and all cocktails are $ 8. I had a couple of Bellinis because Happy Hour makes me happy.
This place is meant to be an Italian gastropub, and the cooking style here is a blend of Italian and French modern. They adopt a tapas style approach for their food and you order what you fancy. We had:
1. Grilled smoked Caciocavallo &Avocado
2. Sea Urchin Carbonara
3. Crab & Nduja Tagliolini
4. Kurobuta Pork Neck w Balsamic Mushrooms
5. Hokkaido Scallop Bake
6. Snails & Bone Marrow
7. Mini Baba Limoncello
8. Raspberry Zabaione
So all in all, 6 plates savory, two desserts.
We disliked the sea urchin carbonara and scallop bake the most, because they used the same heavy cream sauce that drowned about all the flavors. Also there was zero hint of any sea urchin in the carbonara, so boo!
We enjoyed the pork neck and the crab pasta. The crab pasta was delicious, and a tad spicy, which complemented the sweetness of the crab. I wished I ordered two portions simply because it was so delicious. Snails and bone marrow was soso, couldn’t taste the real richness of the marrow, but this was okay overall.
The biggest disappointments were dessert. After being overwhelmed by the carbonara and scallops with their sauces, we wanted something refreshing. Limoncello and raspberry refreshing right? NOT. The raspberry zabaione was so-​so, but the limoncello dessert was a few cakes soaked a sauce and paired with some cherries in syrup that were way too sweet.
Would I come back again? No.

I like the décor of this place. It’s chic without trying too hard, and spacious. I would come back for drinks, since this part of the town area is not as crowded on a Saturday night. The food selection was predominantly spanish/​italian small plates. The cherry tomato and avocado bruschetta was a-​okay. The cherry tomatoes are actually fresh and on the sweet side, but the toast was soggy and drenced in olive oil, and rather unpleasant to eat. I came to try the uni butter pasta, but I was very disappointed in it. Despite their efforts to make fresh pasta, the sauce did not taste one bit like uni, and pretty much just a heavy butter oil sauce which was on the bland side. The fettuccine with truffle pesto had a better taste, but still a little bland. The foie gras with pickled onions was probably the best dish of the night, but at the same time, it’s not that hard to make foie gras taste good. I do give this place points for having freshly squeezed tomato juice though. Might be back for drinks if I’m in the area.

Had a superb dinner experience at &sons last night. Been wanting to try out this joint after reading reviews.
The grilled calamari and kurobuta pork dish stands out from our order.
Will be back with friends for an evening night out

Great weekday lunch!
Get in early or join the lunch time madness. Been here on 2 occasions and both times have a great meal and coffee.
Spot on service considering the crazy rush and the team are onto it from the start. Feels like a well oiled machine.
Modern take on some classic Euro dishes — fav was the pork and Arugula salad.
Would be keen to try dinner next time to see what the kitchen produces off the lunch menu.

The service is great and the food excellent.
Portions are good for lunch or as sharing plates. The homemade artisanal pastas are very good. Flavours rich so order a few to share. The spaghetti sea urchin carbonara and the paccheri iberico pork & truffle are a must try.

Excellent ambiance, good food and wine selection, friendly staff BUT CHECK YOUR BILL CLOSELY before you provide payment. We were charged double the amount of the food we ordered.

Venetian bacaro whose main attraction for me is the affordable, decently-​portioned cicheti and wines (by the glass or bottle) — been here twice so far the average spend is $ 40++ for food and wine.
Seafood’s pretty decent, try the battered cod cakes (baccalá) highly recommended as is the calamari served with a nduja dip. Scrumptious. Sea urchin carbonara is interesting, quite tasty and according to Aun Koh’s writeup, an owner’s invention. Prawn cioppino and asparagus highly recommended. The Iberico pork belly we tried during my second visit was rather disappointing, on the tough side and lacking flavour.
Overall I’d say give it a try, go in a group of 4 and above, that way you get to sample at least five dishes; for the two of us on my second visit we couldn’t find space for dessert after two dishes and two cheeses.

I had wanted to try &Sons since they opened last month and managed to drop in for dinner yesterday. The ambiance was really nice, quiet but well put together with a lot of sitting and standing room. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable about both the food and wine however did not have a good grasp of the technology used to take orders. Our waitress took a bit too long to put our order in on her iPhone and looked pretty lost.
The food was very very good. For starters we ordered a mixed cheese board — highly recommend the truffle pecorino & the smoked kurobuta; a bit on the salty side but delicious nonetheless.
I had the Linguini with Crab and Nduja which was absolutely incredible. Spicy but not too spicy and a generous amount of crab. The portion looked small but was more than enough to fill me up.
My friend ordered the Pumpkin Ravioli which was a bit too small, with just 6 small pieces. I’d like to see the portions balance our across dishes a bit more.
We also ordered a glass of the Montepulciano ’10 which was delicious. Overall we spent under $ 40 a person; extremely reasonable for the quality and amount of food ordered.
I hope the quality doesn’t suffer as popularity picks up and hopefully the staff have a better handle on the ordering process
I’ll definitely be coming back here soon.