I went to check out The Lighthouse, the rooftop restaurant at The Fullerton Hotel, as I’ve always liked Chef Carlo Marengoni’s cooking. I also wanted to try some of its southern Italian dishes to see how it compared to my experience from a recent visit to Sicily. In short, I enjoyed the starters and the pasta dishes but our meat courses disappointed especially when compared to what Chef Carlo used to offer at his own restaurant.
Firstly, the views in the evening from The Lighthouse’s rooftop bar make it a great place to start with a cocktail. The restaurant itself also has decent views of Marina Bay. At around 7:30 pm, the sky turns a deeper blue making this the ideal time to get some nice blue hour photos of the city skyline.
We decided to try two antipasti, two pasta, two meats and two desserts from the a la carte menu. The Lighthouse also offers a decently valued five-course set menu for SGD118 but it didn’t have a couple of the items I wanted to specifically try.
We started with the Polipo alla Luciana – essentially braised octopus in a light tomato and black olive sauce and a Frittura di Paranza (mixed fried seafood). I think both antipasti were good, albeit not mind blowing. While I prefer octopus simply char-grilled, the octopus here was nicely done and the accompanying sauce was good. The Frittura had a nice combination of prawns, white bait, calamari and fish.
The standout dishes for us were the pasta. The Tortello Ripieno (essentially a large tortellini) was filled with burrito cheese and served in a light tomato sauce with basil.
Our other pasta was a Spaghettoni alla Bottaga – a spaghetti tossed in chili, olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs and shaved bottaga (salted cod fish eggs). I regret not ordering more pasta and skipping one of the meat courses.
I think we may have done better trying the breaded pork chop – which is highlighted in the menu. However, my friends wanted to try the ribeye and we opted for the sea bream to contrast with the beef. I thought the sea bream was nicely cooked – the whole fish is simply oven baked with leeks, cherry tomatoes and basil and accompanied with potatoes. But it did need an extra squeeze of lemon (which is provided with the dish) and olive oil. As otherwise, it was a bit dry. I think a sea bass (branzino) would be better than the sea bream but on our night, the more traditional sea bass was not available. The Merluzzo (cod) alla Pizzaiola may have been a more robust fish dish to try.
The issue we had with our rib-eye was that it was overcooked – a no-no for a fine restaurant serving high end steak. We ordered medium rare and most of the meat came out medium. This was all the more disappointing partly because Chef Carlo used to do a really good Bistecca Fiorentina at his restaurant. I wish this was on offer at The Lighthouse instead of the rib-eye. He also made some amazing sausages too. Perhaps we should have gone with the ossobuco.
We had a really nice sfogliata dessert – light layers of puff pastry and cream with thinly sliced strawberries. My husband had a pannacotta, which was decent but he said was not as good as the sfogliata.
Although I think the restaurant was a little short-handed, the service level was actually good considering the limitations that many Singapore restaurants are facing at the moment. You did have to flag down the wait staff occasionally but otherwise, they were knowledgable and amiable.
We paid SGD140 per person excluding wine – but we had ordered the two most pricey meat dishes on the menu. There was also three of us sharing the food – as otherwise, I think having four courses per person from the a la carte menu is really a lot of food. Portions were healthy. So price-wise for the food, pleasant service and views, I think it was fair.
Reservations should be made, especially as space is limited on the rooftop. Fullerton Hotel website: http://www.fullertonhotel.com/dining/diningCategories_3-en.html
Reservations for The Lighthouse can also be made through Chope: http://www.chope.co/singapore-restaurants/restaurant/the-lighthouse-restaurant