New Plant Based Menu at Casa Roma Grandstand

Home cooked Italian food like your Nonna used to make - if you had an Italian grandmother - is at the pinnacle of beloved comfort food. It is made and served with love and you can taste it in every bite. Casa Roma evokes those same feelings of home and family in its intimate and cozy restaurant filled with the aroma of old world cooking. Much to my surprise, Casa Roma invited my dinner date and I to taste their new vegan set menu to report for Expat Choice Singapore. Let me preface this by saying I am not a vegan. And the word vegan does not correlate in my mind with aromatic, home-style, grandma telling you "to eat more because your too skinny" food. I picture tasteless blobs of soy, processed meat substitutes and a lot of cauliflower used a lot of different ways. Given my expectation, to say I was pleasantly surprised by the set menu would be an understatement. 

Casa Roma is off the beaten path for most of us in Singapore but only fifteen minutes from Orchard Road and can be found at the Grandstand. It's worth the travel time. Casa Roma is not a fancy place but it is a friendly place. The manager opened the door upon our arrival. Our table was reserved which was appreciated as the restaurant was full on a Thursday night at 7:00 pm. And it smelled wonderfully. We were in for the plant-based five course set menu. Casa Roma has partnered with Ania of Living Veggie by Ania to create this vegan and healthy meal without sacrificing any flavor. They have succeeded. We started with a lovely vegan certified Italian red wine which was a little spicy and fruity. Ania came to our table to introduce the menu, explain her choices and the commitment to have vegan food available to all of us on our Red Dot.

This Expat Choice reporter learned that the popularity of vegan food is growing by leaps and bounds. The reasons driving the increase to veganism and conscious eating are to be humane, support sustainability and health . I learned while most vegan choices are humane and sustainable, many are not very healthy. Processed vegan foods are unhealthy, just like non-vegan processed food. They often have too much salt or too many calories to be truly healthy. Thus, Casa Roma is fully committed to use only whole food which is unprocessed and made in house. This is an impressive undertaking and the food is delicious.

Our dinner was the one listed above - minestrone soup, panzanella salad with vegan in-house baked bread served warm and smelling divine, spaghetti pomodoro with the signature chickpea meatballs. Dish four was gnocchi with sundried tomato pesto served with grated "parmesan" which is made of cashew, garlic, salt and olive oil. It was an incredibly good substitute for a traditional Parmesan cheese. It was our favorite dish and we asked for extra cashew made Parmesan. The dessert was a panna cotta made with soy and coconut milk topped with a light and tangy berry coulis. We couldn't have been happier with our meal. 

In addition to the set menu, there is a full vegan offering including risotto and pizza and the traditional Italian food made with meats, fish, chicken and cheeses. Dishes are affordable and appropriate in portion. 

Casa Roma is a great choice for a casual meal with your family, date night or evening with friends. The service was kind and warm, just the right amount of showing up at the proper time and just enough leaving you alone to have conversation and appreciate the full experience. 

The meal has spurred me to have a vegan week of homemade food with a few friends. Recipes are being gathered and shopping lists are made. It's nice to know if I completely mess things up, I can pop on over to Casa Roma for my meal. When food can be healthy, whole and delicious, I'm in!  Thank you Casa Roma, Ania and Expat Choice Singapore. 

Casa Roma restaurant is located in Bukit Timah, a chilled-out and exclusive residential area located about 15 minutes’ drive away from the vibrant Orchard road. The restaurant was established in 1996 as Ristorante Roma, and later on it was renamed to Casa Roma. During the last 20 years, we have worked with many Italian chefs from Piemonte, Roma, Napoli, Puglia and Sicily, carefully maintaining the traditional Italian taste and quality until this very day. Each cuisine is carefully prepared with the best ingredients imported from Italy and Europe to maintain its authenticity.