Just Pasta (Hong Lim)

Got to know about the new Just Pasta stall that had just sprouted up at the second level of Hong Lim Food Centre whilst scrolling around social media. Just Pasta takes over the former premises of the now-defunct BurGrill, which is also located right beside the stall tenanted by Midas Every Touch Is Gold — a stall which had originated from Kukoh 21 Food Centre that is best known for serving up baked prata. Just Pasta adopts an almost identical look to the tenants whom have previously occupied the stall before being taken over by Just Pasta; the signage being one with a black background and a white font, though the menu board can be found on the right as one approaches the stall rather than being hung on the top below the signboard. As the namesake of the stall suggests, Just Pasta is a stall that is focused on serving up pasta dishes — the creations at Just Pasta aren’t particularly fancy, with the offerings being more of familiar pasta dishes that are comforting rather than being all-out creative; think of choices like the Spaghetti Bolognese, several variations of the Aglio Olio and a Carbonara being listed. Interestingly, Just Pasta also does serve a number of sides for those whom are looking to share a dish across the table — this includes items like Spicy Popcorn Chicken, Onion Rings and Roasted Drum, just to name a few.

While we have been seeing an uprising of build-your-own-pasta establishments opening up even around the food courts and hawker centre locations within the Central Business District such as the likes of Swirled at Market Street Food Centre and Pasta Craft at China Square Food Court, Just Pasta isn’t quite that sort of concept. Where customisability of their pastas are of concern, Just Pasta only allows patrons to pick their choice of pasta type against the few variations of base selections that they have to offer; there isn’t the flexibility to mix-and-match sauces and the choice of meat / seafood here. For our order, we went for the Carbonara and opted for the Fusilli — other pasta types available at Just Pasta includes the spaghetti and the linguine. The pasta dishes are prepared a la minute here, and patrons are paged to collect their order via a buzzer that would be issued at the counter after the order has been placed and payment has been made.

Truth to be told, there really isn’t much to shout about when it came to the Carbonara; the Carbonara here belongs to the slightly wetter sort that locals might possibly enjoy — not the true-blue Italian type that may come with less sauce. It does seem that the Carbonara here is not too heavy on cream; the base seemingly almost reminiscent of something similar to a Cream of Mushroom without that much of an earthy note that would have made it feel weird — but this also made it fairly easy to finish considering how much sauce it comes in. One would also be able to find small slices of onions that helps to refresh the tastebuds and gives a bit of crunch factor, while the Carbonara sauce does also come a little peppery for a bit of heat without being exactly fiery. The strips of bacon were done a little chewy; we quite liked how the texture of the bacon here quite matches the Fusilli; also provides just the right touch of savouriness to the dish as well considering how it carried that typical saltish-ness that one would expect from cured meat. One thing we weren’t particularly a fan of was the use of plastic cutlery whilst being served a plastic plate for dine-in; just a mismatch that bothered our OCD for such things though its probably really down to a matter of preference and nothing major. That being said, it is a little difficult to convince ourselves to go for the Just Pasta’s offerings unless we are going for the plain Spaghetti Aglio Olio that is priced at $3.90; after all, Hong Lim Food Centre already has Eddy's that already serves up pasta at an affordable price tag — which makes our $9.90 Carbonara a little less convincing than it would be if it were to be in an area with more typical Western food offerings …