Foodle Reviews
In Neapolitan tailoring, sprezzatura is shorthand for cool, effortless style, where the shoulder of a softly padded $5,000 blazer is mischievously pleated; the breast pocket curved like a small boat; and the wearer looking as if he had ordered the second-cheapest Barolo with conviction.
At the upper end of dining, this studied nonchalance is refreshing. And @somma.world , housed in the former library of a midcentury-modern school, understands the appeal.
Last year, I (endearingly)... More
In Neapolitan tailoring, sprezzatura is shorthand for cool, effortless style, where the shoulder of a softly padded $5,000 blazer is mischievously pleated; the breast pocket curved like a small boat; and the wearer looking as if he had ordered the second-cheapest Barolo with conviction.
At the upper end of dining, this studied nonchalance is refreshing. And @somma.world , housed in the former library of a midcentury-modern school, understands the appeal.
Last year, I (endearingly) took aim at the way Somma choreographed the midpoint between dinner and dark theater. A few of those elements still remain, but the fervent huddle of chefs behind those doors no longer startles; the room feels brighter; and the sermons feel more lived in. What holds today, more clearly now, is that the chef @iammirkofebbrile has turned Somma into one of the most dynamic restaurants in the city.
It’s also one of the rare tasting menus that feels more alive on a return visit, as I found in May. “Relaxed” more aptly described the tenor, though Febbrile’s food is still precise and deeply layered. Consider the humble corn husk broth, whose sweetness and nuttiness arrive first, followed by a wash of gently spicy Coratina olive oil that elevates the sip; the manicured asparagus, cooked to a rebellious al dente, paired with a shockingly clean distillation of sugar snap peas, here as ice cream; the deceptively complex pasta course — a full-bore expression of eggplant, whose skins are used with burnt honey and parmesan whey to anoint the water in which the pasta is cooked. Nonchalant is one way to describe its sauce, which is the custardy flesh of the eggplant, loosened with olive oil. Another is unreasonable.
So, too, the lamb: a 3-month-old Pyrenees breed wearing a salt-and-pepper skin as brittle as chicken skin, served simply with spring vegetables. One of the city’s great lamb dishes.
The only slight downer was an unnervingly sweet palate cleanser — Amalfi lemon blighted by Gariguette (!) strawberry — but that shouldn’t detract from the obvious: Somma may still be waiting on a benediction or two from a tire company, but it’s already cooking at that caliber.
📍Somma
🍽️ May ’26 Less
Our fun night at @somma.world actually started at @barsomma which is adjacent to the restaurant. The design-led Italian cocktail bar features gorgeous drinks and delicious bar bites including pastas. My favorite cocktail was the Ciccone served in a custom-made Madonna corset cup - it was so pretty I wanted one for myself! After some drinks, we hopped over to the R&D lab to see some of the behind the scenes magic that goes on in the food and drinks at Somma. Finally we made our... More
Our fun night at @somma.world actually started at @barsomma which is adjacent to the restaurant. The design-led Italian cocktail bar features gorgeous drinks and delicious bar bites including pastas. My favorite cocktail was the Ciccone served in a custom-made Madonna corset cup - it was so pretty I wanted one for myself! After some drinks, we hopped over to the R&D lab to see some of the behind the scenes magic that goes on in the food and drinks at Somma. Finally we made our way to the restaurant for a lovely night in Puglia cuisine (see my previous reel for more)!
The Folklore menu in pictures:
Potatoes
Montoro onion - burrata - lentils shoyu - cotechino
Grano arso - pink radicchio - tomato tamari - EVOO
Blue lobster - razor clams - köji - smoked trout roe - bergamot
Ditali - eggplant - lardo di Colonnata - red chimichurri
Spaghettone khorasan - mantis shrimps - red carrot - sea snails - ossetra caviar
Mountain lamb - pumpkin ceviche- blood orange - arctic thyme
Pigeon tortellini - winter black truffle - brodo
Grapes - fennel
Clementine - chestnut - blackcurrant jam
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Somma
Singapore
#supermelSG Less
Before entering Somma, a host will nudge you towards a set of doors. This isn’t reflective of lax service standards. It’s a ploy.
As you open these doors, a huddle of chefs greet you with a fervent ‘hello’ before you’re ushered to not one, but two kitchen islands, where snacks are served: pumpkin broth in their shells, dotted with olive oil pressed by the chef’s uncle; purple shrimp tartlet in a sauce made from their heads, crowned with a hibiscus flower. By the island is a frosted... More
Before entering Somma, a host will nudge you towards a set of doors. This isn’t reflective of lax service standards. It’s a ploy.
As you open these doors, a huddle of chefs greet you with a fervent ‘hello’ before you’re ushered to not one, but two kitchen islands, where snacks are served: pumpkin broth in their shells, dotted with olive oil pressed by the chef’s uncle; purple shrimp tartlet in a sauce made from their heads, crowned with a hibiscus flower. By the island is a frosted wall of glass projecting ghostly shapes of what resembles scientists tending to an autopsy. At 7:30, servers emerge with candles in hand, disbursing these to tables, moving in a pack as they would in the Handmaid’s Tale.
Nothing else suggests that a meal here unfolds like the plot of ’The Menu,’ nor any dystopian film. The Somma experience, happily, choreographs the midpoint between dinner and dark theater. It’s an expression of ‘harvest’— this season’s theme — and, or sum of (per the restaurant’s name), the chef Mirko Febbrile’s wild imagination, which he draws from his Puglian upbringing, global travels and the decade spent honing his craft in Singapore.
Knowing the standards set by the top-rung New Bahru locale, the regional Italian compass is neither fussy nor frumpy. The ingredients do please, and the uni ‘special,’ like many of the dishes, is both novel and inspired. Febbrile told us that he grew up scavenging for sea urchin off the (Italian) coast, and the one served here is a Murasaki breed, laid on almond custard; above it is a confit of Amalfi lemon, reduced to a bright molasses.
It’s an ‘I want seconds’ type of dish only until the other dishes arrive because they are compelling, too: an unnervingly shaped pigs snout, braised till gelatinous, then grilled; lamb skewers with pinenut and chestnut pesto under silky handkerchiefs of wild boar lardo; the reduction made from a prodigious amount of carrots (20:1) to fortify the lobster sauce, so it’s dizzyingly sweet; the pitch-perfect pigeon a broth gently coaxed from bay leaves; a tortellini in brodo, bookending a meal that started with one.
Expectations were high for Somma. It’s nice to see them exceeded. Less
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Address
46 Kim Yam Rd, #04-02 New Bahru, Singapore 239351
Hours
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 18:00 - 22:30
Thursday: 18:00 - 22:30
Friday: 18:00 - 22:30
Saturday: 18:00 - 22:30
Sunday: Closed
Phone
+6597561590
