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2013-08-09
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As part of my on-going restaurant week "adventures" trying out restaurants i have not been to before, I had dinner at Lupa last night. I arrived before my dinner companion, and the waitress at the reception was quick to show me to my table. My first impression of the restaurant was that it had a nice, lively ambience, with the music playing a little too loud (but not to the point that it bothered me too much). The interior of the restaurant reminded me of another restaurant I had been to at the
My dinner companion arrived and we placed our orders. From the prix fixe menu, i selected the homemade cured salmon with citrus, sour cream and chives, while my dinner companion chose the only other starter of soft zuccini cake with creamy's cow milk cheese and cherry tomato confit. For the main course, we chose the homemade fresh pasta filled with "amatriciana" sauce served on a light pecorino cream and crispy guanciale, and the salted codfish slow cooked in tomato sauce with olives, capers and oregano to share between the both of us. For dessert, i had the butterscotch custard, whipped cream with salted cashews. As the two dessert options on the menu contained nuts, and my dinner companion was allergic to them, we asked if the restaurant could provide an alternative option, and they offered 3 scoops of different flavored ice-cream as all the dessert options on their a la carte menu apparently contained nuts too. I was a little disappointed that the restaurant did not notice the remarks that i had made during the restaurant week reservation that one diner would be allergic to nuts, even though I can perfectly understand this does not affect the selections they offered on the menu.
Our starters arrived and both my cured salmon and my dinner companion's soft zuccini cake were very good -- delicious and full of flavor. We eagerly awaited our main course to be served. A waited brought the two dishes to our table and placed them in the middle, so we could share them easily. He recommended us to have the pasta first, then the codfish, which was a nice gesture. As we were hungry, we quickly tucked into the pasta and man, it was a huge disappointment!! Although it did not taste bad, the pasta was very bland and there were only 8 pieces of it, which seemed really little for a main course. It was also very surprising that this dish was an absolute letdown, considering we were in an italian restaurant, it should have been a safe choice. We finished off the pasta very quickly (as it was only 4 pieces for each of us) and proceeded to try the salted codfish. This dish was a lot better than the pasta, but it was nothing to shout about in the sense that both my dinner companion and i were very confident we could have prepared this dish ourselves in our own kitchens!
As the plates for our main course were being cleared, some tables started to be empty as diners finished their meals and left, and the volume of the music was turned down a little. This was nice as we were able to then have a proper conversation without having to make an effort to raise our voices. Dessert was then served, and I was unable to finish my butterscotch custard as the texture of the custard was too thick and heavy, and each spoonful of it made me feel like i was eating chunks of butter on its own. As for my dinner companion's ice-cream, the picture I have posted apparently does not do it justice as I was told that the ice-cream actually taste really good and was a much welcome treat given the heat outside.
Our dinner cost the both of us a little over $,1000, as we had also ordered a large bottle of san pellegrino to share. While i cannot say the food was bad (we really did enjoy our starters and most of the other dishes were ok), it does sadly seem that this restaurant has been overhyped and the food, in our opinion, was definitely overpriced for what it was.
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