Da Mario Pizzeria

So Camemberu, Keropokman and I finally decided that talk does not cook rice... or pasta. We headed down Da Mario Pizzeria and we fell in love the food there... or something like that.

While we were deciding on what to eat, they served us with a complimentary basket of bread. I was looking for olive oil + balsamic vinegar dip... but alas, beggars cannot be choosers, its our first time there, its complimentary, its not nice to ask for freebies on top of freebies... ;)


We ordered calamari as I "overheard" earlier on that Mario mentioned out loud to another table that "Teh calaaahmaaareeeee eessss freessssh!" ahhh... love the Italian accent! The batter used for this calamari is quite different from the pretty standard boring same old same old batter used everywhere else. Little bit more crunchy, little bit more floury, little bit nicer and not oil soaked. The tartare sauce dip was also light and tasty. Calamari is otherwise commonly known as Sotong(Malay) in Singapore and Malaysia.


I've been secretly craving for parma ham and rock melons for quite a while since my last visit to La Noce. I was delighted that Mario's had an antipasto salad that has a bit of everything(Grilled eggplant/zucchini, sundried tomatoes, buffalo mozarella with fresh tomatoes, parma ham with rock melons, some greens and olives) and even happier that we decided to order it. On paper $30 for a plate of salad seems expensive but the quality of ingredients used were impeccable plus the LARGE serving makes it pretty bang for the buck! See those lovely purple/green olives? I so glad that I have food buddies that dislikes olives. nom nom nom....


We were quite overwhelmed by the various type of pizzas and pastas in the menu so we asked for recommendations. We were told that the Spaghetti al cartoccio was quite popular together with their Pizza Rustica and we went ahead with the recommendations.

Serving pasta al cartoccio means to cook the pasta, sauced, wrapped in parchment paper and then bake. Cooking like this takes some L337 skillz to get the timing right else the pasta and shell fish may be overcooked or undercooked or both extremes. They got the seafood right but the pasta was too soft for my liking.


We had a little incident with one of the mussels with its beard still stuck. I was quite peeved as this has happened to Camemberu before at another coffeeshop Italian stall that need not be named. They just have to "keep on cooking" but I digress. ;) Without going into details, Mario came out to explain the cooking method, showed us the frozen mussels, apologized eventually, threw in a tiramisu, which was NOT the purpose of our feedback, we'd like to pay and we're able to pay for our food thank you very much, nevertheless a nice gesture and all was good after that.

IMHO, any restaurant worth its salt would make sure that slip ups like this should not have happened or in any case if it did, not let pride take over, own up and all would be good.

The pizza was OK for me but Keropokman and Camemberu seems like it a lot. Ah taste IS subjective!


Their tiramisu is delicious! A little easy on the alcohol but is still a very nice piece of tiramisu. I'll definitely bring the better half over to try this.


I'd love to pop by this place as often as I can to sample more of Mario's creation. Both Keropokman and Camemberu agrees as well.

Da Mario Pizzeria
60 Robertson Quay
#01-10 The Quayside
Tel: 6235 7623
Open Tue to Sun: 12noon - 3pm, 6pm - 10.30pm (closed Mondays)