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2013-06-08
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Platypus Kitchen (Bugis) offers this extensive range of pastas, including their signature squid ink pasta, and an extensive selection of pastas with truffle. A group of us decided to give this place a try. Located at the corner of the third floor many of you will find that you have trouble looking for this place.They offer set meals ranging from $16.90, $17.80 to $19.90, depending on the pasta choice. This comes with a choice of pumpkin/mushroom soup or a salad, and a wide range of drinks. Their
They offer set meals ranging from $16.90, $17.80 to $19.90, depending on the pasta choice. This comes with a choice of pumpkin/mushroom soup or a salad, and a wide range of drinks. Their drinks include lychee peach tea, mojito tea, pomegrenate tea -SUPER INTERESTING! Drinks are also upgradeable to their Sol beer and their fruit based alcohol beers.
The interior is really big, but its a huge pity they are terribly understaffed. The staff also took ages to take our order, serve them, refill our water glasses and generally attend to any orders. I wouldn't blame them, they had to serve this entire space with only 3-4 staff, including the service staff behind the counter... dreadful.
I ordered a Sundried Pesto Chicken pasta, which was honestly quite good comparing to the other pasta dishes I tried. My set cost $16.90, with no additional addons. The pasta, in my opinion, was a bit too salty, but other than that, it was really full of flavour. I could taste the sundried tomatoes, and the chicken was cooked til it was tender. One of the better pastas of the lot, we recommend you choose this! (Unless you like truffles, because then you'd want to try their truffle tagiatelle and their other pastas with truffle)
(sorry for the blur picture). This is the Angry Chicken -amused at the name, my friend ordered this hoping to be pleasantly surprised. When it was served though, the pasta had grown all sticky and clumped together in a starchy mass. The chicken was spicy (I guess that's why it's called Angry? haha) and other than the general saltiness, there wasn't much to speak about this dish.
The wild mushroom risotto had a grain that tasted more like chinese rice than anything. Unlike most risottos, the texture of this one seemed more like gluey porridge. The grain hadn't really 'come together' to form a mushy risotto, the grain can still be separated from the gluey sauce it was in that held the grains together. Other than the texture, the risotto had a nice flavour -very, very strong on mushrooms. I was glad they didnt use truffle oil in this -it would have been too strong. That's how aromatic the mushrooms were.
The side salad -assorted greens in a presumably Italian dressing. We suspected that the oil to balsamic vinegar ratio had been reversed because it seemed to have more oil than flavour, which didn't seem quite right. The vegetables, as a result, just tasted raw and oily. No real flavour except for the bitter leaves.
Also trying their squid ink pasta ($17.80), I was honestly a bit surprised. The pasta wasn't cooked in squid ink -instead, the ink had been incorporated into the pasta ITSELF. The pasta was tossed, aglio olio style, with something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It had a slightly earthy flavour that was strangely sour/tangy(?). A bit odd because we were used to squid ink sauces. I suppose the tangy flavour was appetising, but my friend didn't really like it. To her, it felt more like a pasta salad.
The mushroom soup was lumpy and worse, lukewarm. Way too salty -you're better off having the salad!Waiting time was ridiculously long though, the mains took up to 1 hour to 1.5 hours to be served. The sides took on the average 30-40minutes. The adjacent tables also went uncleared for a good 45minutes before the staff hurriedly came over and brought in the glasses that had been left sitting.
Try platypus kitchen only if you're in a pair, or a maximum of 3-4 pax! The service is much, much faster. Although we were slightly disappointed by the quality of the pasta (especially after hearing so much about this place), it could have been because they were severely shorthanded, and they had to churn out 10 plates of pasta to be served at one shot. (Oh yes, they serve the orders for the table all at one go so no one has to wait for others' dishes to arrive before digging in!! )
We recommend the Sundried Pesto Chicken, and if you aren't very picky with your risotto, the Wild Mushroom Risotto is decent. If you're completely picky with textures and preparation techniques, don't bother with their "dry" tossed pastas without sauces, and steer clear of the risotto -I wouldn't exactly call it the most authentic of the lot. If you like your food salty, you'll probably enjoy the dishes much more than I did
Price wise, it's a good deal, but that depends on your experience here.
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