Pizzas in Singapore #2: La Nonna

This is yet another long overdue post. Like I mentioned earlier, I was on a hunt for good pizzas in Singapore, and one of the first places I stumbled upon was this place recommended by Brad, called La Nonna, which according to him, had the best lunch promotion in Singapore. The best thing was, it was located in Holland Village, which is relatively near to where I live. Since then, I've visited La Nonna more than 3 times, mostly during the lunch period (so that I can take advantage of the $10 pizzas!) and for their lovely balsamic vinegar. 

Being the bad food blogger that I am, I only had my camera on one of the occasions that I went, so I only have two pictures. I realized that I'm really quite bad at this restaurant blogging thing, because I believe in eating my food hot, so once the food lands on my table, I just go 'snap' once or twice before digging in. This is why I admire those food bloggers who make the effort to lug around their huge-ass cameras to restaurants and to take proper good shots of the food so that they can entice others to go. 

Alright, the best thing about the promotion is that all pizzas and pastas are 50% off. This 50% actually applies to anything on their ala carte menu and they also have 3-course meal offers for about $22/++, which includes complimentary tea or coffee too. This might not sound impressive, but let me tell you that their pizzas are generally $19 and pastas around the same. This means that after 50%, pizzas are super duper cheap, about $10 or so! Plus the fact that they also serve complimentary bread with the traditional olive oil and balsamic vinegar - this place is really a steal! (Gosh I'm using so many exclamation marks!) And if you're a typical girl eater, you probably can't finish one of these pizzas yourself, so if say you stick to plain water and order a pizza, pasta and dessert for 2 to share, it'll be definitely less than $20 per person after taxes. 

La Nonna signature pizza

Only caution though - this lunch promotion is an open secret, so La Nonna is really quite packed for lunch, especially because they don't sit too many people on the inside. There are a couple of tables outside, but unless it's a cool day, I won't advise sitting outside. Good thing is that they accept reservations, even during lunch :] So do try to make reservations if you don't wanna wait! You can also access their website to make an online reservation - it is an instant reservation system, so it's akin to calling in if you can't call ;p

The pictures of the pizzas you see are both $19 before discount, which amounts to $9.95 after discount, before taxes. If you're unsure what to order (they have a few pages worth of pizza and pasta choices), you might want to try the La Nonna signature pizza. It's a tomato based pizza, topped with Mozzarella, Parmesan, Asparagus, Egg and Black truffle. Best thing is, they are really generous with their truffle and parmesan, and if you think you need more parmesan, just ask them for more parmesan - they will provide you with the freshly grated stuff, and not those packaged parmesan you get at plebeian places, heh.

My friends and I love salty food to bits, so the other pizza we ordered was the Caprino, which was also tomato based, but had mozzarella, goat's cheese, pancetta and rucola salad. In this pizza, the goat's cheese and rucola takes the limelight, as the goat's cheese they use is pretty mature, and tastes rather tart (or what Singaporeans might terms as 'sour'). Just a tip I picked up in Italy - you can combine an equal part of balsamic vinegar together with the olive oil (that they provide for every table), and use your fork to mix them together, then drizzle over your rucola. The sweetness of the balsamic vinaigrette goes perfectly with the rucola and goat's cheese :] This is not a pizza I'd recommend for anyone who doesn't like the taste of strong cheese. But if you are a lover of strong cheese - ORDER THIS!

Caprino pizza

We also ordered their Linguini ($19), which was served with crab meat in a tomato cream sauce and fresh basil, and again, they were really generous with the crab meat. I also loved the tomato cream sauce, which was a lovely orange color. On other occasions, I have ordered their Spaghetti ($19) and Capellini ($20), which were in mixed seafood cooked in aglio olio style and scallops in fresh tomato sauce respectively - I didn't like the spaghetti too much because I tend to prefer seafood in a cream-based sauce and I found the spaghetti a little dry (not enough olive oil used). The Capellini was perfect, as once again, they were very generous with the scallops. 

I've never ordered any of their secondi (main courses), so I'm not sure how those fare, but as for other pizzas, I have had their Diavola ($19), which is a tomato-based pizza with mozzarella and spicy italian calabrese salami. I found this pizza quite plain - because there just wasn't enough mozzarella, and overly oily, because the salami oozed too much oil after being baked. I had to use the paper towel to soak up the excess oil before I was willing to eat it, although my bf had no issues with the pizza. I did however, like the spiciness of the salami, which was an interesting change from the normal run-of-the-mill salami.  

And I've probably ordered La Nonna and Caprino like a couple of times after that first, and these are probably my two favorite pizzas out of the lot :]

So if it's lunch and you're thinking of pizza, don't order Pizza Hut or Dominoes or Sarpino's, give La Nonna a try and you won't be disappointed! It's cheaper too (after the discount)! FYI though, the pizzas are the thin-crust Italian type of pizzas, and not the American thick-crust pizzas. 

Details
La Nonna
Address: 26/26B Lorong Mambong
 Holland Village, Singapore 227685
Contact: +65 6468 1982
Opening hours: Everyday, 12-2.30pm, 6-10.30pm
Website: http://www.lanonna.sg/
Price: Pasta and Pizza starts at $19

They have another outlet at 76 Namly Place.