Medusa serves up hearty Roman classics

SINGAPORE – Despite being named after a Greek mythological figure, Medusa Osteria Romana is a Roman restaurant through and through. Just have a look at its carbonara ($32++), made the old-fashioned way without a single drop of cream. 

Five ingredients are used – spaghetti, egg yolk, black pepper, pecorino and guanciale – and they come together beautifully in time-honoured alchemy. Velvety, luscious and freckled with intensely savoury bits of fried fat, this is one dish worth the trek into the Gorgon’s lair. 

Opened in January by the same group that runs Fortuna and Fortuna Terrazza Cafe in Craig Road, Medusa seduces with a formidable line-up of Roman classics. Three of the city’s four great pastas can be found here – carbonara, cacio e pepe ($28++) and amatriciana ($32++). The fourth, gricia, is transformed into a topping for flat bread.

It also ports over less well-known traditions such as Saltimbocca ($32++), breaded veal loins fried to perfection and adorned with sage, prosciutto and breadcrumbs. Underneath swims a dangerously addictive butter sauce – save it for the pizza crust.

Other times, the aggressively red restaurant threatens to turn your arteries to stone. The burrata fritta ($26++), for instance, is a Russian doll of high cholesterol. Burrata is wrapped in batter and deep-fried, then drenched in a carbonara-like cream sauce and finished with a sprinkle of guanciale. Lemon zest is added to the mix too, but this paltry scrap of acid never stood a chance against the onslaught of fat. 

With Medusa, balance is the key to making it out unscathed. Creamy pasta is best offset by a tomato-based pizza, such as the Prosciutella ($36), which piles tomatoes, fior di latte, prosciutto, rocket and parmigiano onto a 180g thin crust.

For a crunchier bite, try the Pinsa Romana – an oval-shaped flatbread – instead, served in two slices. One of the four toppings on the menu is the Gricia ($20++), transmuted here into a topping of fior di latte, pecorino fondue, guanciale and black pepper. 

Where: B1-22 South Beach Avenue, 26 Beach Road
MRT: Esplanade
Open: Noon to 3pm daily; 5.30 to 10.30pm (Mondays to Thursdays), 5.30 to 11pm (Fridays to Sundays)
Info:

medusaosteriaromana.com