If you’re even remotely tuned in to the Singapore food scene on social media, you would have heard about Casa Vostra, the new italian restaurant that’s occupying the formerly iconic McDonald’s at Raffles City Shopping Center. They became talk of the town when they first openend in August 2024.
Located right next to the four escalators that brings you up to the mall from the City Hall MRT Station, this restaurant is strategically located with plenty of foot traffic going in and out from the station and the mall. This, coupled with their social media success, brings snaking queue to the restaurant at all time of the day, even at off-peak hours.
However, I suspect what really makes Casa Vostra so popular is the fact that it is helmed by Chef Antonio, the chef behind La Bottega Enoteca, a wildly popular Italian restaurant on the trendy Joo Chiat Road. Another main draw for Casa Vostra is that the prices are a lot more affordable. For example, their signature Newpolitan Margherita Pizza goes for only $16 at Casa Vostra, while it is currently priced at $30 at La Bottega Enoteca.
So when my sister and I happened to walk by the restaurant at 4PM on a Sunday and there was no queue, we had to go in and try even though we had just came out of lunch 🤭
Even though there was no queue outside when we came in, the restaurant was full house. The only seats available were at the communal table – I didn’t mind though, since we weren’t going to be sitting around for awhile.
Walking into the restaurant, I was surprised by the renovation they’ve done. It looks really nice, and you almost can’t tell it used to be McDonald’s. I do still think it has a strange, narrow layout though.
I get the sense that things are a bit more.. casual here. Evident by the self-serve nature of things. If you want water, you’re free to get up and serve yourself from the tap. There is also a shelf with salt and pepper should you need them.
As we were not super hungry, we just ordered one pasta dish and one pizza to share. I went with the tried and true Ravioli stuffed with Ricotta cheese and Spinach, served in Sage Butter sauce.
I thought the ravioli was good, though I wouldn’t exactly call it mindblowing. I also thought the portion was pretty small even if we weren’t hungry.
For the pizza, we went with a Newpolitan red sauce pizza with Burrata and Basil. Again, a classic. Newpolitan refers to their signature flakey and chewy pizza dough that has gone through 48 hours fermentation and cooked at 460C.
I have to tell you, the pizza was REALLY good. I can totally see what the fuss is all about. The dough was perfect – chewy yet thin, and the red sauce was light and flavorful. I really enjoyed the pizza, and would come back for this.
But… is it REALLY worth the hype? Well, I really don’t think I would queue more than 15 minutes for it. The food was delicious, but not worthy of 1-2 hour queue that the restaurant usually commands.
So if you are like me and don’t like to queue, your choice is either to check out La Bottega Enoteca (it’s been on my list for awhile), or go to Casa Vostra on an off peak hour and pray that there is no queue. For me that’s unlikely, since I’m a creature of habit and likes to eat at set timing every day or I will become a monster.
And that’s all my thoughts on Casa Vostra! See you next time 😉
Looking for a place to eat in Singapore? This post is part of my reviews of restaurants and other food places in Singapore. For more posts like this, check out “Dining Out in Singapore” category