Solo Ristorante - A Disappointing First Visit to This Highly-Raved Italian Restaurant on Amoy Street

 

Heard a great deal about Solo Ristorante from fellow foodies and decided to bring my friend here to celebrate her birthday. It was a Sunday night and they seem fairly busy, and also short-staffed. It was difficult getting the attention of the staff once we were seated. Menus were not provided, the wine we chose was sold out, and it took us like 10 minutes to get someone's attention to place an order for another bottle of wine, only to be told a few minutes later that it's also sold out. We also had to ask for our bread to be served long after the server said that she's going to serve us bread. Not a great start to the meal to be honest, but the server was warm and smiley, and tried to strike some small conversation so I was hoping that the meal would still go well. 

We had the Wagyu Carpaccio($30), and Burratina with Prosciutto($35) which wasn't on the menu that evening. The server was nice enough to say that she could do the burratina for me when I asked if it's available. The appetizers were pretty good, and they were quite generous with the shaved truffles for the carpaccio.

The mains took a pretty long time to arrive. The Pappardelle ($30) with slow braised pork ragout, herbs and marsala wine was weak in the flavours department. While I did enjoy the texture of the house-made pasta, the overall taste of the pasta was quite a letdown.

Being an uni lover, I went for the Tagliolini($45) with sea urchin and smoky sea urchin sauce tarragon without even much consideration for the other dishes. This is actually the main reason why I even chose Solo. I really wanted to try the uni pasta. Sadly, when the dish arrived, it was not topped with uni, but with scallops. The server then informed me that uni was not available, and they have replaced the uni with scallops. First of all, why wasn't I informed of this earlier on? I could have then changed my order. Secondly, scallops are obviously not the same as uni, and you can't just replace the uni with scallops and expect the dish to still taste great overall, especially when the sauce is an uni-based sauce. Thirdly, there was no service recovery done for this at all. I was pretty disappointed at this point, to be frank. Also, I felt that the tagliolini was a tad overcooked, and the sauce a little watered down.

In my reservation, I stated that I was celebrating Cheryl's birthday. I didn't expect them to throw in a complimentary dessert, but I ordered 2 and was hoping that at least one came with a birthday greeting, or candle. Unfortunately, as you can tell from the images, that was not the case. I then asked for a candle, and the server provided one, and wished Cheryl Happy Birthday. Still acceptable.


The Torta Al Limone ($14) and Solo Tiramisu ($14) were alright. Nothing to shout about. 

All in all, it was a disappointing visit. I paid $244 for all the above and a bottle of red wine after a 25% discount through the entertainer app. The food and service could really use some work.

45 Amoy Street, Singapore 069871

Tuesday - Thursday : 12pm - 230pm, 6pm - 10pm

Friday - Saturday : 12pm - 230pm, 6pm - 1030pm

Sunday : 6pm - 10pm