Italian Food @ Il Padrino, Menara UOA Damansara, Damansara Heights

no Mafia spotted at "The Godfather"'s bar

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"....says the Godfather (or Il Padrino in Italian). Fans of Marlon Brando and that iconic movie will remember that famous line (voted the second most memorable movie quote in cinema history). At this newly opened restaurant in the middle of Damansara Heights, Godfather fans will feel incredibly at home. There are posters of Brando in his famous movie persona, quotes from the movie and its sequels including one from The Sopranos in the menu but don't worry, there's no Mafia ongoings here (as far as we can see). Instead it is all about good Italian food here.


1. Brando would be proud here to call this part of his empire, 2. braised pork shank, which we would prefer with a teeny weeny little more fat, 3. well seasoned insalata e ruccola, 4. glass of house pinot grigio blush for the night

Dinner here was a toss up between Leonardo's on Jalan Bangkung and this place. Reading the reviews online, we settled on this place as the home made spinach ravioli sounded good. Parking was relatively easy at night, since space could be found around the street in front of the restaurant. I vaguely remember visiting a famous law firm starting with S in this building before and parking used to be horrendous there. This place combines a bar and restaurant tucked within. On a Friday night, it had a pretty decent crowd dining here.


the gorgeous home made ravioli ai spinaci drizzled with butter sauce and sage

Despite it being relatively full, service was very attentive (the nice waiter was informative and kept asking if everything was fine). The menu had salads, appetizers, homemade pasta, dried pasta, main dishes, pizzas and desserts. Not wanting to follow the Italian style of having a pasta for primi (first course) and a main course for seconds (secondi), we decided to share a nice crisp salad - the Insalata e Ruccola (RM18), a pasta and main meal from the daily specials. The simple rocket, button mushroom, cherry tomato and parmesan salad was well seasoned (every leaf seemed to be sprinkled with salt and pepper). I especially liked the reduced balsamic vinegar dressing drizzled over the leaves - so much better than the balsamic and olive oil dip they gave with the sliced bread and grissini (bread sticks).


red rules the sweet endings here, 1. pannacotta that failed to make the cut, 2. sfogliatine di mille for a crunchy finish

Missing out on their popular dish - the roast belly pork from the board specials, we settled for the braised pork shank (RM45). While the dish had a nice red wine flavour to it, we didn't care much for the meat that lacked enough fat to give it a melt in the mouth texture. Seems the chef used a very young pig for this meal for a healthier alternative but somehow, we preferred the sinful avenue instead since it would have tasted better. We fared so much better with the ravioli filled with spinach (RM32) and served with a butter sauce infused with sage leaves. Only 6 pieces to share between both of us (not a lot I know but enough since it is so blardy rich!) that we both loved and slowly savoured each bite. Yums to the last morsel of green coloured pasta! It definitely piqued my interest to return here to try their other home made pastas - the saffron pasta, the squid ink ones and etc. (My friend went back last night with another group of people and they also loved the food here, so I guess it wasn't just a one-night-fluke).

For desserts, rather than go for the traditional tiramisu or the chocolate fondant (which I thought is more French??), we went for the pannacotta (RM18). My friend who is a pannacotta expert deemed this not worthy since it had a little too much gelatine to qualify for the crown of greatness. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it with the strawberry sauce. Weirdly enough, we also went for another red dessert - the average tasting multi-layered filo pastry dotted with strawberries concoction known as the sfogliatine di mille (RM18).

Overall, a pleasant dining experience here with attentive service. Like I mentioned earlier, one would not mind returning here for another plate of homemade pasta. My only complaint about this place was the music was quite weird - a medley of 1980s songs played a little too loud for my liking as it felt just a decible lower than pub music. While I don't hate 1980s music, I found it a little weird to dine on Italian ravioli while listening to Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue belt out their tunes.

Il Padrino
Unit No. 50-G-1
Ground Floor
Wisma UOA Damansara
Damansara Heights
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03 - 2093 8596

(Non Halal. To get here, from Sprint highway, when on Jalan Semantan, take a left turn at the Wisma UN building and you will see the restaurant on the right hand side.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with: Italian Food + Kuala Lumpur

Others who have also eaten here:

• Eat Drink KL
• Memoirs of a Chocholic