good ole pete's

After a late lunch with my mum at good ole Pete's Place.

I know DSD doesn't like this place but for me, it's like going to those old kopitiams which still have some flavour to them, although the flavour's probably sweat, grime and dust accumulated over the years.

Pete's Place has plenty of sentimental value - it's a place my mum occasionally took my sister and I to, ever since we were young, for their soup and salad buffet. Many of the staff have been here for ages (which my mum always likes to point out) and the basement restaurant has always looked the way it does - its checkered table clothes, its brick walls and dim lighting.

It is after all, Singapore's oldest Italian restaurant. Founded in 1973, it's older than me! And while the hotel has gone through several renovations and introduced new dining destinations, I hope they never change Pete's Place. Things move and change so fast here, I'd just like some things to remain as they are.

It did change its menus many years back, but I remember how it used to be - designed like a newspaper, and you'd have to unfold it, although it was only once when we'd actually ordered from the menu, as it was always just the buffet for all three of us.

Their bread is always fabulous - a nice selection of bread sticks, dinner rolls, walnut bread, rye, sunflower, etc...
The salad selection has improved over the years - long ago lettuce used to mean just iceberg, but today there was a nice assortment and even some baby spinach leaves.
The soup was rather disappointing today though as it was goulash and minestrone, which taste somewhat similar. But the goulash was good.
The dessert was a delicious tiramisu as well as a ricotta cheese tart, which my mum declared as pretty good.

And best of all, with the UOB credit card, we get a one-for-one deal, so lunch was only $22 for the both of us.


Pete's Place
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Tel: 6416-7113