I was half hour early to lunch with my wife near Keong Saik road, so I decided to look for a new place where to eat. I passed by Griglia and read on the menu: zucchine a scapece. The last dish from my Italian in-family meals that I expected to find ten thousand kilometers away was zucchine a scapece: sun-dried zucchine marinated in oil, vinegar and mint. It is a rare find in a restaurant even in Italy, except maybe for some southern regions where the dish is from. At Griglia it is served with burrata. I had found our lunch place.

Long story short, we have already been back three times in a month, and everything we have tried so far was between great and spectacular. Here are some of the dishes we found spectacular:

The bread with tomato sauce. More interesting stuff will come, but besides being a perfect mis-en-bouche, this appetiser already proves the point: the best indicator of the quality of an Italian(-inspired) restaurant is its tomato sauce, and Griglia’s sauce is fantastic.

The scallops. By far the best scallops I have ever had, cooked to a perfection that I did not know before, with an unexpected twist: the bed of sweet corn and capers is a perfect match, it tastes like sweet corn has never tasted before, and I would have never have imagined praising a dish with sweet corn in my life.

The aubergines. Start from a parmigiana di melanzane: layered fried melanzane re-baked with mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil, a very traditional Italian dish that for mysterious reasons is not nearly as famous as the similar moussaka. Get rid of anything undesirable: a bit of a burnt taste, some excessive greasiness. As in many other dishes at Griglia, what remains is an exceptional taste in unprecedented purity.

The tagliolini. Here the taste of another Italian classic meets the local flavours. The tagliolini are topped with bottarga (dried tuna eggs) and an uncommon kind of shrimps that is typical of the Sicilian town of Mazara. The execution of this classic alone is worth parking yourself in Griglia, but also in this dish there’s a twist underneath: the tagliolini can be dipped in a sauce that tastes of everything good in a laksa.

The pappardelle. This is one of the most traditionally-executed dishes in the menu, probably the most comforting, something you would typically find in a trattoria in Tuscany, also this one brought to a superior level.

The octopus. I wondered if Griglia is a good name for this restaurant, where every single ingredient is cooked in the best possible way, and often it does not involve grilling. Well, the octopus is grilled and I cannot imagine doing it better. Another perfect match: the cream of fava beans that comes with it. (And speaking of creams, the cream of the spicy sausage ‘nduja that comes with the squid is even better; another exceptional taste liberated from all disturbances.)

The soufflé. Italian sweets do not make for good desserts. They are usually too sweet, too heavy, or too dry. So start from a simple soufflé, put the right amount of sugar to satisfy the after-meal sweet craving, add rosemary to make it special. It really is special, like the Negroni-flavoured gelato that comes with it. The side-effect is that it leaves the mouth ready to start all over again.