Mad For Garlic's Italian-style dishes from Korea

Yeoh Wee Teck | The New Paper | Tue Jul 27 2010

Singapore, July 27, 2010 - I’VE always had a thing for garlic – I love it in my food – so when I came across a restaurant called Mad For Garlic, I thought a visit might be interesting.

Mad For Garlic is a popular decade-old chain of restaurants in Korea. And the Singapore franchise – open since December – is the first outside of Seoul.

Almost every item on the menu is the same as it is in Korea.
The food is Italian style, so expect salads, pastas, pizzas, baked rice and meats.

Of course, the first thing I had to order was the garlic bread tower ($7.90).

Wrong move.

For something as basic as garlic bread, if you get it wrong, you get it all wrong.

The garlic tower was disappointing. It was too mild and hardly fragrant.

I ate there three times, twice on my own and once invited by the restaurant owner, and it was the same all three times.

But let me hasten to add, almost everything else I tasted was good.

My favourite was the zuppa frutti de mare (or spicy seafood soup, $21.90).

It was very tasty although a tad too spicy for me. Still, I was hooked because of the generous portions of seafood.

Another winner for me was the mushroom risoto ($17.90).

There is a smooth texture to the dish and I love the subtle mushroom flavours.

The stock is made out of three types of mushrooms – shitake, oyster and button- as well as mussel stock.

Pizza
Also good was the garlic snowing pizza ($18.90). It was delicious.

The dough is hand-rolled each time an order gets in.

A sweet white sauce (made with mayonnaise, cream and garlic), cheese, shrimps, pineapples and plenty of garlic are thrown on top.

The Koreans, I was told, eat this like they would a popiah. They roll it outside in and bite into it.

I tried it.

It doesn’t make the pizza taste different, but if you want a novel way to eat or if you like to take photographs of yourself eating in strange ways, this is it.

For me, the restaurant’s biggest stumbling block is service.

The service was as good as expected when I was hosted.

But when I was there on my own, it could get trying.

Serving staff seemed to have very little knowledge of the menu.

When I asked for a recommendation, the waiter hesitated and had to ask for help.

And when I asked what sort of seafood was in the zuppa, he didn’t know.

For some, the large servings of food will make up for the hesitant service.

I think this is merely a stopgap measure.

Good food brings the diners back but good service seals the deal.

Mad For Garlic
Address: #01-039 Suntec City Galleria (next to Topman)
Opening hours: Sunday to Thursday 11.30am to 10pm; all other days and eve of public holidays 11.30am to 11pm.
Tel: 6333 1507 for reservations.