Run by the folks behind Greenwood’s Donna Carmela, Soprano purports to be a place to wine and dine in style. And stylish it is—set in one of Wessex Estate’s lovely colonial bungalows with chic tables indoors, alfresco big garden sofas and leafy surrounds. There is a wide choice of good wine too at reasonable prices and an extensive menu of mostly pasta, an appetizer section dedicated to Carpaccio and a sprinkling of other dishes. But this is where the stylish veneer starts to crack. For a place that looks so promising, the food did not quite measure up. It didn’t make for a good start to the meal that the bread was cold, and that we were expected to share one roll between us. The appetizers continued much along the same lines—the prawn carpaccio which sounded so interesting on the menu, wasn’t tip-top fresh as raw prawns need to be and was too heavily doused with onion and balsamic vinegar. The cheese and cold cuts platter was nothing to shout about either. Things perked up with the main courses—our truffle ravioli with a herb cream sauce and pumpkin ravioli with bolognese were delicious, and the pasta was obviously fresh—but slipped back into mediocrity with the complimentary coffee sorbet the restaurant presented us with at the end. While we appreciate the gracious gesture of a free dessert, the sorbet was unfortunately bland and too watery, tasting like weak milky coffee that someone had left in the freezer rather than a properly blended sorbet. It didn’t help that the alfresco seating (which is the most sought after) was either too close to traffic or the bathrooms, with only a few tables in a pleasant section. Shame about all this as the service was really quite good and the ambience charming. But unless Soprano does something about the food, all that it has going for it might not be enough.
