So the big news is that Jamie Italian’s Singapore branch opens tomorrow!
Ok, so it’s only big news if you’re a fan girl, which I must confess that I am. I’ve been a fan since the first time I watched The Naked Chef in a friend’s room in the hall in UK. It was how he made cooking seem so… easy. Jamie Oliver taught me to cook, and I’ve never looked back.
Needless to say, I was quite excited to try a couple of his restaurants when in London in May/June this year. We celebrated my birthday at Barbecoa, and then for our last meal, we tucked in at Jamie’s Italian’s in Reading.
I thought it might be fun to show you some pics of Jamie’s Italian in Reading on this day, to whet your appetite for the new local branch.
It was quite a cool restaurant, in a stand-alone location over the water, but I didn’t take any pics of that. All you get is the door. Oops.
A word from the man!
There’s branding everywhere. You can buy these napkins too, and pretty much all the servingware they use. I expressed some incredulity at the commercialism, only to be told that people were stealing the napkins from the restaurant, so yeah.
The bar. Alas, the drinks aren’t ours.
The eye-catching main counter with it’s huge slabs of cured meat all hanging in a row. Mmm.
Meips, impressed with the Stokke Tripp Trapp. Definitely one of the classiest high chair options we’ve ever been offered at a restaurant.
(DD just rolled his eyes when I pointed it out!)
Now, what shall we order?
Our food! Here’s a close-up of the Meat Plank.
Definitely got Noey’s stamp of approval.
Crab & Avocado Bruschetta. Good but disappointingly smaller than expected. (Our friends had ordered the bruschettas on previous occasions and the portion was larger.)
Crab Spaghettini. DD’s order. Delicious with sweet crab.
Sausage Rigatoni, which was a special for the night, in a starter portion for Noey. I thought it tasted really good and full of flavour, but it was a bit spicy for Noey’s liking. A bit on a boo-boo on my part to have forgotten to check the spiciness level of the dish before ordering!
Me and my Seafood Bucatini. They have this on the SIngapore menu! I loved the sauce though it was spicier than I anticipated, and the yummy fresh seafood. Wasn’t so much a fan of the tubular spaghetti though. Would have preferred regular spaghetti, which I’m going to ask for if I order this in the Singapore restaurant.
The messy mouth says it all! Meips had a starter portion of the Sausage Pappardelle, which is also on the Singapore menu, and she really LOVED it. This one was a good one!
Happy faces all round, with our dear Aunty D!
It was a good meal, albeit a rather pricey one. Such was eating out in UK. How would the local Jamie’s Italian measure up? You can bet I’ll be going down to find out.
The hanging jamon reminds me of Spain! <br /><br />Really looks like you all had a great time!
It was a good way to end the trip 🙂 I've never been to Spain!
Yum! This made me hungry. Gotta try Jamie once it opens here. 🙂
It made me hungry too, writing the post! Haha. I think it's probably a good idea to let the kitchen settle down first but Ilm definitely going too once everyting is organised 🙂
This post made me hungry! I hope I get to check out the restaurant here soon!<br />I agree that I love JO's cooking programmes because of the way he makes things look so very easy. It is encouraging and inspiring for me!
Yes, I think he makes cooking very accessible! It helps that most of his recipes turn out well too, despite being easy. It really helped me when I was starting out.
Oh my!!! The pictures of the food are awesome!!! I want to try the local branch too;) [But i think i can wait till the crowd are lesser, heeee…]
pc, me too! don't like fighting with crowds!