T+L Reports: Singapore Slings Italian

While restaurants worldwide look to Asia for inspiration, Singapore's emerging food scene is taking its cues from Italy, convincing locals that char kway teow (fried rice noodles) and pepper crab are by no means the only reasons to break bread. Already a local celebrity for his rock-star looks and French-Japanese dishes at the restaurant Saint Pierre, executive chef Emmanuel Stroobant now turns out inventive plates at the silver organza–swathed dining room San Marco (1 Fullerton Square, eighth floor; 65/6438-4404; dinner for two $120). Try the creamed-spinach gnocchi with lemon thyme–smoked cod or roasted scallops with cashew salsa and tomato oil. At an unlikely location in an office park, Infuzi (10 Biopolis Rd., Chromos Block; 65/6478-9091; dinner for two $132) serves its own version of Italian modern: yellowfin-tuna carpaccio with anchovy–white truffle mayonnaise, and braised lamb shank wrapped in Parma ham and smoked eggplant. The pocket-sized trattoria Oso Ristorante (27 Tanjong Pagar Rd.; 65/6327-8378; dinner for two $130), set amid brightly hued shop-houses, prefers to update the classics (like bistecca fiorentina with melted scamorza). But the real buzz is over the minimalist Spizza (26B Lorong Mambong, Holland Village; 65/6468-1982; dinner for two $20) with its wood-fired version of the street snack, indulgently topped with salmon and mascarpone.
—ROB MCKEOWN