Terra is a “Tokyo-Italian” restaurant in the trendy dining area on Tras Street near Tanjong Pagar MRT. The head chef / owner of Terra is Chef Seita Nakahara who was formerly the Executive Chef in Japanese style Italian restaurant Enoteca L’Operetta restaurant in Boat Quay. Chef Seita labels his restaurant as “Tokyo-Italian”; not to be confused with “Japanese-Italian” which is a fusion of Japanese and Italian cuisine, Tokyo-Italian remains faithful to authentic Italian cuisine without using any Japanese cooking techniques but it incorporates celebrated fresh ingredients native to Japan.
Terra has an Executive Lunch set menu on weekdays which consists of a starter, pasta and dessert for $42 or a four course lunch set with an added main course for $58. For an extra $10 you can get their signature Hokkaido sea urchin pasta. I went there last week to try their Executive Lunch and chose to get the 3 course set with sea urchin pasta. We were first given some freshly baked rosemary bread with porcini mushroom butter. The bread was served warm and the butter had a strong mushroom flavour with tiny pieces of mushroom in it that went well with the bread.
Soon after our starter arrived. The waiter explained that instead of the usual starter of burrata, the chef had given us a starter of raw mackerel with Japanese okra. The mackerel had been seasoned in lemon juice and it came with some okra puree and tomato puree along with some pieces of okra, some other vegetables, fish roe and flower petals for garnish. It was a very pretty dish but perhaps slightly too acidic and needed something sweet and some more salt to balance the overall dish.
The sea urchin pasta was very good, the sea urchin was fresh and the sauce had a nice strong sea urchin flavour with a hint of yuzu and it had a generous amount of bottarga (salted, cured fish roe) as well as fresh basil sprinkled on top. The sea urchin pasta was definitely one of the better ones that I’ve had and definitely more tasty than the one in Enoteca L’Operetta however the spaghetti was unfortunately overcooked and soft.
To finish our meal, we were given a berry tiramisu. This was probably the best course in the set and I couldn’t fault it. It had chocolate soil and mini berry flavoured meringues on top which went well with the sweetness of the berry sauce, creaminess of the mascarpone and the rich coffee soaked sponge at the bottom.
The meal on the whole was nice, the restaurant itself is small but has a good ambience. It’s brightly lit and simply decorated – it reminds me a lot of Italian restaurants in Tokyo. The service though could be improved as there were only two waiters serving for quite a busy lunch time. On arriving at the restaurant I was waiting for a while before someone noticed that I was there and showed me to my table and after ordering some sparkling water this didn’t arrive until the other waiter asked again what we’d like to drink. The waiters were polite though and the efficiency of service did pick up when it became less busy later on. Chef Seita was also very friendly and personally thanked us when we left the restaurant.
LOL, just noticed this on their signboard below 🙂
Terra
Address: 54 Tras St, Singapore 078993
Tel: 6221 5159
Opening hours: Monday – Friday: 12pm – 2pm, 6.30pm – 10pm, Saturday: 6.30 – 10pm, Sunday: closed
Hope you’ve enjoyed my Terra restaurant review, please feel free to leave a comment below with your own review of the restaurant or if you have any questions!
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