Food Review: Chef's Set Lunch at Prego (Fairmont Hotel)

Prego offers diners authentic Italian food over a family-styled setting. Of course, the ongoing 1-for-1 Chef's Special Set Lunch (hence, $49++ for 2) with OCBC cards this month (April 2016) also gave us a compelling reason to head down for a cozy Satur-date.

The Chef's Special Set Lunch included: Appetiser, Pasta/ Risotto and Dessert, and we were to choose amongst the dishes with a Chef's Hat. Not difficult as we usually choose the chef's recommendations anyway :)

Bread & Appetizers

The Free Flow Bread (French loaf and focaccia) with Tomato Dip are their signatures. I enjoyed the herb-filled focaccia bread, while he liked his trusty plain French loaf. (Just nice!) The focaccia had a slightly crunchy crust and each mouthful was so soft and flavourful! 

As I am looking at this, I feel so tempted to bake my own focaccia right now!

Homemade tomato dip

Appetisers - I had the Insalta Caprice which consisted of buffalo mozzarella cheese and vine ripened tomato. The cheese was soft and creamy, and stole the show. While its taste was subtle, it complemented well with the sourish-sweet undertones from the tomatoes which did not attempt to overwhelm.

His Calamari Fritti was served with a spicey tomato dip. We have to say that the calamari was fresh. Unlike most of other calamari rings served in lower-end food establishments, these rings' batter  was neither thick nor drenched in oil. My mind wandered to The Lighthouse @ Fullerton's though, which to us serve the best calamari in Singapore - minimal batter and super fresh calamari.

Main course

We somehow both chose the same main courses, Fusilli Al Granchio, a creamy pasta with crabmeat, sundried tomatoes and asparagus.

He loves cream-based pasta and guzzled down the lot in no time. It was a little too rich for me though, so he gladly took mine. On hindsight, I would have chosen a tomato-based pasta instead. Nevertheless, the generous serving of crabmeat was, to me, a consolation for this dish.

Dessert

Whilst the tiramisu is their signature, we gave it a miss as we aren't really fans of this mascarpone cream and coffee layered cake and chose the ice creams instead. I had the Pistachio Gelato with Lemon Sorbetto (below, left), while he had the Black Cherry and Vanilla Gelato (below, right). 

Still reeling from the ultra-rich creamy pasta, I was so thankful for the refreshing lemon sorbetto. The pistachio gelato was okay but not exactly memorable (St Regis' Brasserie Les Saveurs serves better pistachio ice cream). 

He loved his 2 scoops, especially the rich vanilla gelato. Remember I had once said that the test of good vanilla ice cream is the presence of the black dots which come from the vanilla pods? See below for the answer. Tada!

Nonetheless, we both agree that overall, Prego serves good ice cream - not the icey type laden with artificial favourings which you sometimes get from supermarket tubs.

Service

Service was prompt and the service staff were knowledgeable - something expected from a food establishment like Prego. 

Overall

The Chef's Set Lunch was a really value-for-money deal. The 6 dishes would have set us back by $154++ if we had ordered them ala-carte, but cost us just $49++ (or $98++ without the OCBC 1-for1 promotion). 

Whilst there were some hits and misses (maybe it was a wrong choice of main course for me), it was a lovely lunch date over a quiet relaxed casual setting. Worth recommending!

Quality: 7.5/10

Ambience: 8/10

Value for money: 9.5/10 (based on the 1-for-1 promo)*

Overall: 8/10

*Note: OCBC 1-for-1 promotion ends on 30 April 2016. Don't miss it!

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