Chicco Pasta Bar on Telok Ayer Street is a fun new addition to a part of town that's already chockful of great eats. The casual pasta bar occupies a cosy space beside Napolean Wine Bistro, its walls plastered with flowery patterns and lit by inviting warm light. Behind the busy serving floor lies an open kitchen, where you can peep at the chefs whipping up plates of pasta from scratch.
Chicco Pasta Bar prides itself on its pastas which are made fresh and by hand on the daily. Crowd pleasers include the mafaldine, a ribbon-shaped pasta that Chicco served in a savoury sauce made of slow-cooked beef and smoked tomatoes ($22) or in a spanner crab bisque ($24). If you're looking for a rich, creamy pasta, then you can't go wrong with the rigatoni with guanciale, egg, and pepper ($18). Alternatively, the conchiglie with broccoli and cashew pesto ($20) is light and pleasantly fresh.
Moreish Italian street food dominates Chicco's line-up of side dishes. Get your veggies in with the Chicco House Salad ($10) and cauliflower with garlic chilli sauce ($12), or satisfy your cheese obsession with fried mozzarella ($12) bites and burrata with melon, cucumber, and rocket ($20). A selection of foccacia is available during lunch, while a heavier menu of mains kicks in during the dinner service. The latter includes 500g Australian grass-fed ribeye steak ($58), roasted suckling pig belly ($32), and tiger prawns ($32).