Cicheti

Rustic Italian in Little Arab
Arab quarter’s Kandahar Street welcomes Cicheti (pronounced chi-keh-tee), another hip restaurant into its fold, offering diners a smorgasbord of its namesake Venetian one-bite snacks, wood-fired pizzas and Italian mains conceptualised by its former hotel chef Lim Yew Aun and his cousin and co-owner Liling Ong. Start with small bites like cuisine classic spicy prawns ($11), and wood-fired, herb-buttered mussels ($12) before going big on mains like the hearty Cioppino seafood stew ($27) or thin-crust pizzas ($17-$19) that are coaxed into a crisp in under 90 seconds in the behemoth brick oven, imported from Italy. A menu of grappa-driven cocktails is in the works, as is a weekend brunch menu for the cosy shophouse space.