Incenzovised /Cenzo

T (January '23)

SCORE: Tell 'yo friends. This is good enough to bring people to.

ORDER: Pumpkin pasta| Cabbage Slaw | Desserts

VALUE: $100/head sharing a bottle of wine between 2. Quite a good value exec lunch

So, Cenzo is not a Nordic gin house as far as I could tell.

It is a good casual night out though. The menu is pretty approachable..
.. and the prices don't make me want to stab myself.

On my first visit, with S and another galpal, it was reasonably indulgent. We ordered the dishes we vaguely remembered as must haves from Drew's previous joint, and added "healthy" items like a cabbage slaw.

The pastrami sandwich was good, not (with the later discovery of /SocialSmoker) the best, but very credible. The parmesan chips made me think of Le Bon Funk, and there was something familiar about the vibe. The pumpkin pasta was mmmmm. I am a bit of a sucker for a good pasta, given that I generally avoid carbs, and the perfect cling of the sauce to the little shells was akin to that moment where my kids' breathing changes from fake-mum-out deep breathing to the damn-are-those-adenoids snores. It took the meal into that moment where you can shake off the fear of impending disaster and let the warm duvet of carb comfort settle snugly over you.

The cabbage salad somehow continued this, reminiscent as it was of a slaw.

I was glad to have opted for a token healthy option though, because next up was the porchetta.
I have fond memories of the porchetta from Salted and Hung, so was a little dissapointed on this night when the porchetta did not have the crunch of crackling I thought I recalled (this tendency for me to make up happy memories is a coping mechanism that contributed to my joining this endeavour). It was still a rock solid porchetta, and I say this as someone with a Scandinavian partner (relevant because his particular brand of Nordic seems to embrace pork and food that rolls up).

That murmur of dissapointment was meaningless though, because nothing can withstand the uplifting power of the desserts, other than my inability to take a decent photo. Be warned..

the pineapple granita tasted like a holiday. I have a vague recollection of drinking snowballs at a Club Med holiday when I was about fourteen, and this granita felt like a grown up trip back in time. I loved it and had it again when I went back, but I loved it less than I loved...
... the canneloni (yes, that is canneloni, poor photo warning was provided). I'm not generally a lover of canneloni desserts and never understood how they had won so many, often Latin, lovers. Until January 2023 at /Cenzo. There was nothing limp or soggy about the biscuit (and I already made an /etonmess post), and that tangy, creamy filling was ambrosia like. I pretty much swallowed it whole.

That wasn't even the end of it. There was one more to go...

...a mulled berry (cherry?) that I was only too happy to pop. Mulled wine on a winter's day is one of my happy places, and a rainy January in Singapore, was the closest I was going to get to that for a bit. It was divine. God, I hope it is still there.

The next time I was there, it was for lunch . My phone continued to refuse to open up the menu over QR and so I offer this insight and a quick bisou goodbye...

/Cenzo

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