On the day of our 10th monthsary. the boyfriend picked me up from my work place and made me guess where we were going. I only knew that we were heading to an Italian restaurant at Bukit Timah and didn’t bother to entertain him futher. Haha he was obviously having a good time teasing me on the way there. I was pleasantly surprised when we stepped into Restorante Da Valentino for its interior was very pretty and the place had a homely feel 🙂 Anyway, I’m now experimenting with a new theme layout so the photos are larger than usual!

As usual, we would pick a pasta and a pizza, but never a main course. Sometimes, I really think we are creatures of habit. Haha not that I’m complaining of course. Whenever we spot squid ink pasta on the menu, we would smile at each other cheekily 😛 It’s ok to expose your black lips to your partner but not to the other diners. I think it’s just embarrassing! Hahaha. Yeah and thus we had the Fettuccine al Granchio ($25.90). Instead of squid ink sauce, it was squid ink fettuccine tossed with crab meat in creamy tomato sauce for us! It is almost always linguine for me. Fettuccine is pretty interesting too because it reminds me of ban mian (handmade noodles) except that the one we had at Valentino’s was thinner and had a firmer, chewier bite. The crab meat was unbelievably moist and smooth! As for the sauce, you have the best of both worlds if you want something in between 🙂

I really love this shot taken by the waiter as soon as our pizza was served. We look very normal right? Actually we couldn’t wait to nom our pizza! 😛

What can I say? Our Frutti di Mare ($21.80) smelled really mouth watering (we kinda noticed that when we were posing for the above photo)! Plus, the prawns were just so huge! Didn’t think much of the clams but we loved the scallops as well. Scallops were juicy and slimey (in a good and not gross way mind you). On a sad note, I felt that the pizza was a little wettish and the base was too soft. I prefer the pizza at Al Forno’s!

As the restaurant was about to be closed for the next sitting, we went over to Perla’s Pastry Boutique which is situated just next door. Apart from its own shop, the pastries are also available at Valentino’s. The little shop sells colorful candies and some of the restaurant’s memorabilia, on top of desserts and cakes.

All the cakes, tarts and other sweet treats looked so pretty, we had such a tough time deciding! Yeah and then I saw the Hazelnut Panna Cotta ($8)! There was a pistachio one but we wanted to be safe 😛 The lovely dessert was taken out of its cup and served to us on a plate, sprinkled with nuts. As we pulled the plate closer to us, the panna cotta wobbled in the most enticing way and we caught a whiff of the fragrant hazelnut. Panna cotta was melt-in-the-mouth silky smooth and the hazelnut was of the right sweetness. Very nice! I would want to try the pistachio one and also the cakes and tarts next time! 🙂

As we were not entitled to a 5% discount for dining in, the waiter (Hussain, who was also of our age) looked apologetic and was kind enough to let us sample these mini cream puffs 🙂

The shop was really small and there were no other patrons who dined in. Hussain was more than happy and really enthusiastic in helping us take photos with our dslr and polaroid. He played a part in making our 10th monthsary celebration so memorable and we are really thankful for that 🙂

Ristorante da Valentino, Perla’s Pastry Boutique and Valentino Private Dining will be closed from now to 23rd June 2011.

Ristorante Da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka, Mayfair Park
Singapore 588908
Tel: 6462 0555

Opening Hours
Tue to Sun
12pm – 3pm
6pm – 10.30pm