The Place There are a couple of new restaurants in Marina Square after its massive revamp. We checked out Nuvo recently, a contemporary Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant helmed by Executive Chef Mark Richards. Mark shared with us that a lot of his dishes on the menu are conceptualised through his own experimentation and he looks to introduce new dishes to the menu periodically. In the competitive F&B scene, we could only agree that this is certainly welcoming.
We saw the below accolade for Nuvo in 2014.
The dining space is relatively casual and open concept, with its own indoor bar lounge and outdoor bar tables. It helps that they have big tables to accommodate bigger dining groups.
The lounge area is quite cosy and offers quite a good view of the F1 track. There is an extensive selection of rums, whisky and gins.
The outdoor bar area is quite spacious.
The Food Other than the a la carte menu at Nuvo, it also offers weekdays set lunches at $15++ which includes a starter, main and dessert, where the menu changes every month. Set dinner is also offered at $35++, which is a 4-course dinner menu including a soup, starter, main and dessert. From the a la carte menu, some of the signature dishes include the Smoked Uni Carbonara, Angus Osso Buco Stew and the Japanese Australian Lamb Shank.

We were served the complimentary house-made warm bread with butter. The bread had a cheesy taste and we appreciate that it was served warm.
For starters, we tried the Warm Japanese Mushroom Salad ($18) which has truffle oil component. I found the salad to be very refreshing, especially so with the tinge of truffle taste and baby spinach.

For a more different starter, try the Angus Osso Buco Stew ($28) which was stew made from roasted bone marrow, quite unique! Another selling point was the Tsukiji oyster fritters for oyster lovers!
The pasta at Nuvo is one of the main highlight, especially with the creative concept of Italian-Japanese infused elements in the dishes. We had the Angel Hair Wakame ($18) which was cooked al dente. The angel hair was not too oily though the taste was a little too bland for us. We went along with the Kurobuta Pork Belly (
$32) as well, which is served with seaweed fries and salad (not depicted in the picture below).

We much preferred the Smoked Uni Carbona ($38), one of the highlights on the menu. The carbona had truffle soil garnishing with an onsen egg in the middle, as well as small bites of crayfish. The Uni taste was quite creatively infused in the sauce, which we found very unique. This dish did not taste like the usual carbonara we imagined, in a good surprising way.
Another dish we had under the mains was the Baked Olive Black Cod ($35). I always find cod fish taste very predictable, but what was unique in Nuvo’s version was that it had an espresso layer on it! Wow, combining the taste of espresso and cod fish was a first time for us, and needless to say, we were won over by this creation as well. We loved the mix of taste which seemed so clashing, yet it actually enhanced the overall taste of the cod fish. Well done.

Finally, time for some desserts! We tried the Wild Honey Panna Cotta ($16) which had once again infused the Japanese element into an Italian dessert. The panna cotta had dried fruits with it, such as the Japanese mikan, lychee and plum jelly. I was surprised by how good they were as I was quite sceptical initially by the combination. The dried fruits were all crunchy and tasty, while the panna cotta had a silky texture which was indeed a sweet ending to our meal.
Rants The prices at Nuvo are on the higher end. It would definitely be more welcoming if the prices could be revised.

Will I return again? We love the creativity of Nuvo, where most dishes we tried did not fail our palate test. Fusion is never easy and it is usually a fine line between trying too hard and excelling. Glad Nuvo belongs to the latter category.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 4/5
Hole in the pocket: 4/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Overall Experience: 4/5

Nuvo
#02-100 Marina Square
6 Raffles Blvd039594
Tel: +65 6822 2097

Opening Hours
Daily 11am-11pm