A little piece of Italy

We celebrated a friend's birthday in a local Italian few week's back. Sorriso in Kuilap is run by a colourful Sicilian character. The restaurant's reputation has preceded the chef and we became even more determined to give it a go after making his acquaintance on our Sunday BBQs and boating tips around the Brunei bay.
If you can imagine a great loud Sicilian with an excellent taste of home made sausages, you are very close. Now add an extended family and a Mamma who sends all sorts of goodies to Brunei to be shared with friends new and old, you're there.

So, we went to Salvo's restaurant and were not disappointed. Not only is the menu extensively Italian, the staff knew exactly what was going on. They had learnt the ingredients and knew how dishes were prepared. They understood to leave us to choose our dishes without standing right behind our chairs, and delivered the right order to the right person. They even brought the birthday pannacotta to the actual birthday girl. I know, sounds like - like, they were like real waiters.

We all shared the Antipasti, and the quality of meets and fish was excellent. The batter on squids was just the right consistency, carpaccio was melt-in-the-mouth and the scallops in spinach just made me want to eat spinach for the rest of my life. My mains of lobster filled ravioli in white wine and sage sauce was  delicious. Sage is a really difficult herb to come by here, so it's nice to be able to go to a restaurant and have a little taste of home. Phil's sauce with his rack of lamb was flavoursome but it couldn't compete with our friend's lamb shank.

Some of the dishes are really expensive for Brunei but we still only paid £40 per couple in possibly the most expensive restaurant in Brunei excluding the 5* Empire hotel. So with all the moaning of Brunei, I guess we are lucky that we can treat ourselves with great dinners out.