Tiger prawn penne ($15++)!
Thursday dinner — tiger prawn penne $15++. Italian pasta with the premium tiger prawn topping at the sit-down restaurant.
Thursday dinner with BB — tiger prawn penne at $15++. The Italian pasta with the premium tiger prawn topping at a sit-down restaurant.
We ordered:
- Tiger prawn penne — $15++
Tiger prawn penne is the Italian pasta dish that pairs the tube-shaped penne with the premium tiger prawn protein. Different from the standard prawn pasta (which uses smaller prawns), the tiger prawn variant uses the large head-and-tail-on prawns that provide the substantial protein component.
The penne was the noodle format. Tube-shaped pasta with the ridged exterior that holds the sauce better than smoother pasta shapes. The cooking should be al dente — properly firm to the bite, with the slight resistance that says the pasta has been cooked precisely.
The sauce was probably a tomato-cream variant (rosé), a garlic-and-olive-oil aglio olio variant, or a creamy variant. The exact sauce isn’t specified in the IG caption but the most common tiger prawn penne format uses the rosé or aglio olio bases.
The tiger prawns were the headline. 2-3 large tiger prawns on top of the pasta, properly cooked (the colour shifted from translucent grey to pink-orange, with the firm bite that says proper cook time without overcooking). The heads were probably left on for the proper presentation and the additional flavour release.
The eating technique for tiger prawn pasta is the manual prawn-peeling-during-the-meal. The prawns need their shells removed before eating; the shell-and-head juices add flavour to the sauce as you eat.
At $15++ for the dish, this is fair sit-down Italian restaurant pricing. The ++ adds about 18% for service and GST, bringing the final to roughly $18. Premium Italian restaurants charge $22-30 for the same format; this spot was in the casual-to-mid Italian tier.
Italian food in Singapore has multiple price tiers. The casual Italian restaurants run $12-18 per main; the mid-tier sit-down Italian restaurants run $20-30 per main; the premium Italian restaurants run $30-50+ per main.
The Thursday dinner format with a sit-down Italian dish is the small variety break in the otherwise hawker-heavy rotation. Different from the standard hawker dishes (which are mostly Asian formats), the Italian dinner provides the Western flavour profile in the rotation.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid tiger prawn penne — would re-order.
