La Scala is an Italian restaurant in civic that I find to be a bit hit and miss with their dishes. When you first walk in, it doesn’t look very big until you walk to the back and see another back room full of tables and another room sectioned off with a heavy curtain that can be used for functions. The décor inside is elegant with white linen tablecloths and candles on each table.
I’ve found the staff to be really friendly. For example: I’d organised a surprise birthday dinner for a friend here one night. She thought she was just meeting me for a catch up dinner. I’d secretly invited a group of our mutual friends along as well and told them to arrive at least 15mins prior to when I was meant to meet my friend. As the booking was for 9 people, we were sat at a larger table. We realised that it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if she came in and saw all of us sitting there. Should people hide under the table? Too obvious and cramped.
The staff at La Scala got in on the act. They suggested the group hide at a table in the back room until it was time for the surprise. I was still sitting at this huge table on my own, so they suggested I sit at a small table for 2 on the side. When my friend arrived and sat down, the waitress brought us 2 menus and some water. The rest of the group crept out and it was a lovely surprise. We then moved back over to our big table. It was so nice of the staff to let us mess up two other dressed tables for this occasion.
I ordered the chicken and mushroom risotto which was a pretty average dish. The mushrooms were bland and tasteless. ‘Meh’ is the best description I can come up with at the moment. I just wasn’t satisfied after this meal.
One of my friend’s dishes – can’t quite recall what they ordered, but looks like fettucine with sundried tomatoes and basil.
My friend raves about a particular dessert here. The Strawberry Princess. Layers of light flaky pastry with cream, fresh strawberries and drizzled with strawberry sauce. YUM! This was a light dessert so you don’t feel too full after finishing off a main. But you can always share between two. I love the presentation – served in an over sized glass goblet.
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| Strawberry Princess |
On another occasion, I tried the dessert titled ‘Chocogasm’. I love chocolate – I can handle 5 courses of chocolate at Koko Black’s dessert degustation nights. But I found the cake to be extremely rich and thick that half of it was left on the plate. The truffles on the side were also very rich but I managed to finish those. The ice cream was chocolately but not the best I’ve had. The dish should probably be called Chocolate Overload as it really was an overload. Too much of the same richness and nothing to really balance it out. I think they could change the dish up a bit and include some contrasting chocolate elements and textures – using milk, dark and white chocolate might be good too.
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| Chocogasm |
I’m undecided about La Scala. My friends seem to like the food so perhaps I’ve just ordered the wrong dish the last few times. The Strawberry Princess is a hit though! And service is pretty damn good.
