e decided to pop down to Bella Pizza,
We learnt our lesson and made a reservation in the afternoon.
We started with a salad of bocconcini, cherry tomatoes and rocket to share. This was quite a tiny portion but it was only $7, after all. Nothing spectacular,
One of their specialities is a boat-shaped pizza, the Barca. It comes in two flavours – one with Italian sausage and sautéed onions, and the other with buffalo mozzarella wrapped in Parma ham. We each had the banana crepes with mascarpone cheese and nutella – this dessert is just too good to share
I like the pizza here but a bit expensive

must say my first impression wasn’t great – we arrived earlier and waited outside to be seated to no available
We said we had to check with our friends first, and she told us they’d clear the counter and asked us to take a seat outside.
We waited outside for a good 5 minutes without any progress
we just breezed into the restaurant and plonked ourselves at an available table.
Anyway, on to the food. The chicken rice is Sam Leong’s grandmother’s recipe and is apparently outstanding, so I ordered it.I like that you can choose whether you want the thigh or the breast portion. I had the thigh, of course, and I must say it was very good. The chicken was tender and moist, and the sauce had a hint of Chinese rice wine that I really like. The rice was fragrant yet not oily, and it came with a double-boiled soup. All for only $9.90.
The menu is pretty limited, but there are a couple more dishes I wouldn’t mind trying, like bak kut teh with lamb ribs
Very slow service and one of the waitresses was not very polite. The food however was excellent. Not exactly cheap, but not expensive considering the quality of the ingredients. Definitely worth considering if you’re at the Esplanade.

The selection is huge, and when faced with so many choices I tend to overestimate my appetite and always end up ordering too much
grilled swordfish skewers-This was my favourite. The fish was really fresh, with a wonderful texture and an almost buttery flavour.
pork belly stuffed with kimchi-I’ve recently acquired a taste for kimchi , and I think it goes perfectly with pork.
chicken hearts-Some of the best grilled chicken hearts I’ve ever had. They sliced these really thinly and grilled perfectly so they’re nice and tender
After a heaty meal like that, we needed some kind of dessert to cleanse our palate. They only had 2 choices – a green tea ice cream and a yuzu sorbet.
Yuzu sorbet-The flavour was delicate and a perfect balance of sweet orange and bitterness.
Service was excellent – they kept topping up our tea without being asked, and were very polite and efficient in taking our orders

We didn’t make a reservation on Friday night, and just about managed to get a small table outdoors.
In addition to a pretty comprehensive menu, they also had some specials written on a chalkboard. We decided to share the ravioli stuffed with porcini in a truffle cream sauce as a starter. This set our hopes pretty high for the meal – the ravioli wasn’t too thick or chewy, the filling was generous and the cream sauce was good,
The pasta, which was apparently home-made, wasn’t rolled out very thin so it didn’t have the smooth silkiness of the home-made stracci at Pasta Brava.
Prices seemed quite cheap, with the premium pastas going for just $22, but portions are on the small side – definitely meant for a first course rather than a proper main. Service wasn’t too bad!!

They have really interesting flavours, like Wasabi, Green Tea, Curry, Tom Yum…
There’s 2 ranges of popcorn the ‘Candid’ and ‘Savoury’.
Candid being the sweeter ones and more expensive
Savoury consists of the more interesting flavours.
I mixed White Cheese, Cheddar Cheese, and Wasabi. Asked more of Cheddar. I got the largest size
My new fave is Cheddar Cheese!! Super addictive I can keep eating and eating without getting sick of the taste
(unlike Butterscotch cos it gets a little sweet and sick of the flavour after awhile.)