Had caught wind about the new Clovelly which had opened its doors in the past week — a spot that had seemingly been mentioned quite a fair bit on social media ever since they had commenced operations. For those whom are unaware, Clovelly takes over the former premises of the now-defunct Wimbly Lu at Jalan Riang — Wimbly Lu had ceased operations for all of its outlets fairly recently. Being located in the same stretch of shophouses as Bernie’s and also right beside the outlet of La Pizzaola at Jalan Riang, Clovelly requires a little bit of walking to get to from either Lorong Chuan MRT Station or Serangoon MRT Station alike. As one takes a look at Clovelly from the outside, the shophouse is still very recognisable from its days of being Wimbly Lu — most of the exterior fittings had been retained. The same can be said about the interior as well; the area that sees the glass ceiling allowing natural light to enter the cafe is largely familiar to what Wimbly Lu have had, though there is a noticeable change of furnishings where there was a mix and match of rustic furniture to compliment the interior decor. Clovelly is probably best described as a bistro serving up contemporary European fare; the items on the menu are split across categories such as Handcrafted Pastas, Appetisers, All Day Brunch, Mains and Sweets — we also noticed that they also do carry a range of gelato which is prominently displayed in their display chiller at the front of the restaurant. Beverages available at Clovelly includes specialty coffee, drinking chocolate, tea, wines, cocktails and soft drinks.

One thing that seemed really clear about Clovelly as one pays attention to the details in the whole set-up and in its menu is that Clovelly does seem like an establishment that places a lot of care in their pasta offerings. One glance around the entire establishment and one can easily find traces of their handmade pastas all around the space — some being prominently on display at a glass window that is situated beside an entrance, while there seems to be an entire glass room that is dedicated to pasta-making right beside the counter where one can also spot the the handmade pasta hung from above being in the process of drying. For all items that are listed on the Handmade Pasta section of the menu at Clovelly, patrons are offered a choice of four different pasta types to choose from — this would include the Handmade Mafalde (“Little Queens”), Handmade Gemelli (“Twins”), Spaghetti and Linguine. It is obvious that we would have went for either of the handmade pastas considering our love for all-things handmade; we eventually found ourselves settling with the Handmade Mafalde (“Little Queens”) for our order of the Mushroom Pesto. The menu describes the Mushroom Pesto to come with elements such as mushroom, basil, garlic, pine nuts, lime juice and olive oil — it is also being marked as one of the items on the menu which is vegetarian as well. Digging into the Mushroom Pesto, we knew that the choice of opting for the Handmade Mafalde (“Little Queens”) was a good call — the pasta was done al-dente as per what it should have been, but we really liked how there was a good bite considering how the pasta did came with a substantial thickness here. The pesto sauce catches on to the ridges of the Handmade Mafalde — this also meant that each and every strand of the pasta came with evident notes from the elements of the pesto sauce; a little zingy with evident notes of basil and a slight nuttiness from the pinenuts. All in all, a flavourful pesto that gets one yearning for more; well-coupled with the chunks of assorted mushrooms that gave a good bounce and earthy bite that made it really easy to eat.

We were actually blessed to have the opportunity to try out a number of dishes during our visit to Clovelly — we were served up with quite a number of complimentary dishes apart from our initial orders and we were incredibly stuffed from our meal at Clovelly. For items from the appetiser menu, the Truffle Fries and the Butter Clams Pot (served to us complimentary) were items that we had managed to try — between the two, we did feel that the Truffle Fries was a safer bet (duh, probably?). Whilst an item that is probably done over and over again by all sorts of F&B establishments over the years, the one at Clovelly is one that we were not disappointed with — here, the Truffle Fries came with a good shaving of parmesan cheese and comes with just the right drizzle of truffle oil for flavour. This means that the truffle fries here aren’t overwhelmed with the notes of pungent oil being all too soggy; they remained crisp whilst perfuming lightly of a truffle aroma that runs at the back of the tongue. For those whom need a flavour burst of truffle; the truffle aioli served on the side does exactly just that, adding a creamy texture amidst a slightly stronger note of truffle to satisfy the tastebuds. Another dish that we really had a liking for from the “All Day Brunch” section of the menu was the Mixed Mushroom Baked Eggs — the combination of melted mozzarella, caramelised onions, soft boiled eggs with a runny egg yolk and earthy mushrooms was especially umami and was pretty comforting with the country bread being the vehicle to mop up all the goodness in; we also liked how they did not use any cream-based sauce in the dish that would have otherwise inched it closer to being jelak. One things can be said about most dishes that we have had at Clovelly — there is a lot of emphasis placed in the making of elements from scratch here; a very evident case being in their handmade pasta which seems to be a highlight here, and it does show in the food quality. Prices of the pasta dishes at Clovelly ranges from $14.90++ to $24.90++ here; rather reasonable considering the effort place. Needless to say, a gem worth checking out despite the trek to experience what they have to offer!