La Fabbrica – Cosy and intimate dining

After a long postponement, my Italian language classmates finally met up on Tuesday evening at La Fabbrica.

The place

As I rode uphill Dempsey Road, I noticed how distinctly secluded and quiet the area was – it wasn’t a place I’d be walking by myself as the path leading up was dimly lighted. It was starting to feel eerie while riding on my scooter. But it didn’t take long for me to locate the next building.

I quickly recognized the restaurant by the distinctive logo outside – already there were a number of people lounging and relaxing about with their friends.

I walked in, saw my friends and sat down with them. While sitting down, I admired the charming decorations and the build – from the lights to the high ceiling. But although the decorations here were modern, the building itself reminded me of a building built in the 60’s, with its zinc roof and the ceiling fan.

Veron tells me that the entire area in Dempsey Road formerly used to be an army barrack and I was amazed by the revelation. I wonder how the place would be like at that time. Can the soldiers picture that what used to be their barracks is now a posh restaurant?

The service

Both the manager and the (extremely attractive) waiter that served us was patient and helpful – giving recommendations on the food and were quite attentive to our requests.

The food itself took a while to prepare, but that gave us the chance to talk and interact in the intimate environment as well as explore the premises around.

The food

The food list was limited – there were only a few types of food here. I was surprised to see that there were only 4 types of pastas. I made my choice.

For starters, I had the Crabmeat, Apple and Sundried Tomato Salad.

The salad can be shared with another person as the portion is quite large. I think that it was an interesting combination – the combination of crunchy, sour, tang and body. It was nice enough. But I’m not sure if I would order it again the next time.

For the main course, I had Capellini with Prawn and Arugula.

This was nice, with the prawns being juicy and luscious, and the combination of the sharp tasting rughetta leaves and the savoury tomato, even the garlic cloves were butter soft. I could detect a hint of cheese. And most importantly, the pasta was al dente.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed. Even though my friends were raving about and loving their pasta, I just couldn’t feel it for mine – having tasted really good food with Cartcart while in Italy, my standards has gone up. I think it’s my curse :

But all was not lost! Fortunately for me, I found love in my dessert – Panna Cotta!

Oh the custard is smooth and delightfully creamy. Yum! I savoured it slowly, letting each heavenly silk glide through my mouth. Heaven! Personally for me, having a sweet tooth, I prefer having caramel over my panna cotta, but the berry sauce was lovely enough – Definitely the highlight of my meal 🙂

We had such a lovely time at La Fabbrica that we forgot the time and spent the night talking and finally left the restaurant at 11 pm. I very nearly forgotten that I had to go to work the next day! 😛

Here’s a quick clip

In a nutshell

La Fabbrica is a cosy and intimate place to have a meal with friends and loved ones, with friendly waiters to serve you. If the pasta could duly impress me, this place would be perfect 🙂

La Fabbrica
18-B Dempsey Road
Singapore 249677