LUCE By Davide Giacomelli

LUCE by Davide Giacomelli at InterContinental Singapore occupies the ground floor location where Ash & Elm used to be. The overall dark intimate deco, including those modern chandeliers hanging down from the very high ceiling, remains unchanged while the open kitchen provides a window behind the scenes into Chef de Cuisine Davide Giacomelli’s contemporary Italian cuisine.

We had a selection of bruschetta, pizza and pinsa to start our dinner with the sparkling. While the toppings and ingredients on the various dough bread like Parma ham, buffalo mozzarella, burrata, tomato concassé, rocket leaves and basil were pretty standard, they were fresh and delicious.

The signature Acquerello Lobster Risotto was rich and creamy. Layer of carnaroli rice, cooked and infused with lobster stock, spread thinly on the plate and elegantly served with small pieces of Boston Lobster. You cannot go wrong with such prized ingredients but it was too elegant for my liking. I personally prefer risotto and pasta dishes that are rustic and hearty like their homemade pappardelle pasta with oxtail ragout.

My dining partners enjoyed the the pan-fried Atlantic cod which was served on top of tomato-based Puttanesca sauce and finished with taggiasca olives, anchovies, pantelleria capers and fresh herbs. The chicken and asparagus with Intingolo was another classic Italian dish that was given a modern twist here. The thin flat chicken breast meat was tender and juicy (sould be sous-vide) with a layer of crispy skin and served with grilled asparagus.

When it comes to prime cut steak, I prefer ribeye as it has more internal fat marbling which provides that extra flavour. I was really looking forward to my order of the pan seared Australian “Carrara” wagyu MB6-7 ribeye but I was slightly disappointed, not in terms of the taste but how it was sliced and served. Usually ribeye is cut against the grain into steaks, with each steak having a round fat concentration in the middle. Here, each steak was further sliced into smaller strips and there were 2 such strips for each serving. My 2 pieces of the ribeye strips were right at where the fat concentration was. You can imagine the portion of edible meat I got for my main course.

A great wine list with wines from the various major Italian regions - Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto, Sicily and others. 1-for-1 corkage policy for BYO wines.