iO Italian Osteria @ HillV 2 Hillview ● Menu & Review ● Probably the Best Italian in the West

I can always rely on buddy Sean for the best places for Italian in Singapore. It was Sean who introduced me to Pastaria Abate, and on this Labour Day he brought me to iO Italian Osteria. I didn't expect to get such quality of Italian fare so far away from the city, but iO Italian Osteria got me excited even though we only had a small sampling of dishes. Two of us only mah... . Actually, I think we ate a lot for two people 😄

Restaurant name: iO Italian Osteria

Address: 4 Hillview Rise, #02 - 01, Singapore 667979 (HillV 2 mall)

Nearest MRT: 5 minutes walk from Hillview station

Tel: 67107150

Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm (opens 10am on Sat & Sun)

I am not a big fan of cookie cutter mall eateries and food. The exterior of iO Italian Osteria also wasn't that eye catching. Had it not been for Sean's recommendation, I would have walked past without stopping 😬

Pushing past the glass door and I was greeted with a full house on this Labour Day holiday. Sean tells me that it is about the same even on normal days. There were families, couples, young, senior, local, expatriate, etc.

The food is Italian, the vibes are rustic Italian and charming but this place is very Singapore (maybe because it is so busy 🤣 ).

Sean snagged us a couple of cool bar seats as he is a regular here 💪 Membership has its privileges 😀

Ordering is pretty straightforward i.e. just tell the friendly, helpful waiter your orders. The menu is on the paper placemat. No need to fidget with QR codes, whatever 🕺

Our first dish, porchetta - roasted pork belly with wild fennel, came quickly despite the crowd.

It's like good sio bak or siew yok. The golden brown skin was thin but crackly crisp. The layer of fat was not thick and it was soft, and juicy. The lean pork section was thick but soft tender (more so than sio bak).

The taste was savoury with subtle porcine sweetness. It was a lot less salty than average sio bak. Doesn't feel fatty or salty, it is easy to overindulge, so it is a good thing that Sean just ordered a small portion 🙏 If you love roast pork, you got to get this. This is more like Philippines lechon, than Chinese sio bak but it is uniquely Italian.

Traditional Stuffed Roman Schiacciata. Almost every table ordered this - yeah...., I always look at other people's tables for inspiration 😜

The bread was crackly crisp and chewy outside while inside it was moist and spongy (I love moist spongy bread and pastries). Flavour was mostly layers of savouriness from the bread and fillings. There was also toastiness from the well browned crust.

Must order this Roman bread. When in Italian Osteria, do as the Romans do 🤭

Pizza with Parma ham, mozzarella cheese and pistachio.

Nice crisp and chewy crust topped with mozzarella cheese, savoury ham and soft crunchy nutty pistachio.

We had a couple of aperitifs before indulging in our main course 😁

Our main course, salt baked seabass fish, made a dramatic entrance with flames and all. But, I (old uncle) was too slow with my camera and most of the flames already burned out when I took this picture 🤣

The seabass fish encased in salt was carefully deboned and served.

The deboned seabass was given a drizzle of olive oil before we dug in 😋

The seabass is served with a large salad.

Truth be told I am not a big fan of seabass fish as it often has an earthly taste. But, I need not have worried as there was no earthiness at all in this salt baked seabass.

The white flesh was soft and flaky like crab meat but softer. It tasted very mildly briny with natural fresh seabass sweetness. Stalks of rosemary and cloves of garlic helped in bringing out the fish's natural sweetness.

The fish was perfect with the crunchy salad.

We enjoyed this salt baked seabass.

Time for dessert.

This tiramisu was soft, the ladyfingers saturated with coffee liqueur, the mascarpone cheese was light yet creamy, and there was a layer of pistachio dust on top. Not overly sweet, served chilled, everything melts in the mouth, nice.

Forgot to order an espresso to complete this 🤭

The lava cake was good too - the chocolate lava was molten, flowed well, not too sweet, and had nice chocolaty taste. The cake was soft and moist, while not too sweet too.