Top In Asia | N.I.C.E. Bistronome: PJ's perfect lunch spot for modern Italian & French fare, including handmade pastas

If you love the fresh flavours of handmade pastas in vibrant recipes, plan a pleasant lunch at N.I.C.E. Bistronome, Section 17’s stylish stop for reimagined Italian and French fare.

Linguine, chitarra, tortellini and everyday specials are crafted each morning for pasta at its prime, prepared with modern flair, inspired by Mediterranean seafood and vegetable markets.

Executive chef Andy Choy, head chef Kenny Tang and their team offer perfect pairings for your pick of pasta: With luscious burrata in lively pomodoro; with plump tiger prawns in robust crustacean sauce; with wild mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes for earthy sweetness.

N.I.C.E. skilfully reinterprets Italian and French classics, transforming their burrata salad into a fig-filled fantasy and Niçoise salad into a medley of tuna and anchovies with vegetables.

For hearty appetites, feast on tomato-crusted halibut with caper vierge and zucchini fritto misto or house-aged lamb rack with herbs and parmigiana-style eggplant. For the sweet tooth, finish with decadently divine tiramisu and house-churned pistachio gelato.

All this and more in a cosy contemporary space for families, friends and colleagues, bright and bustling in the afternoon, elegantly engaging in the evening.

Look out for more excitement: In August, N.I.C.E. Bistronome will collaborate with F Bistronome Beijing to showcase inventive creations here. N.I.C.E. will also soon debut a cart to serve irresistibly fresh gelato, with possible flavours like burrata gelato with gula Melaka.

With an open kitchen that’s visible from every comfortable corner, N.I.C.E. Bistronome features action-packed allure. Choose a plush upholstered booth for intimate meals or a counter seat for close-up views of the chefs at work.

For pastas, customers can choose linguine or chitarra (thick spaghetti-like pasta with square-shaped strands, from Italy’s Abruzzo region). Both prove brilliant for robust recipes, topped with burrata in tangy pomodoro (RM52), tiger prawns in crustacean sauce, hearty with slow-simmered prawn-head stock (RM48), or wild mushrooms with truffles (RM48).

Also try the tortellini with forest mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes, each satiny parcel releasing a rustic woodland nuttiness (RM48). And check for potential daily specials like seafood ravioli, gorgeously aromatic, garlanded with a bounty of prawns, squid and ikura.

Beyond pastas, N.I.C.E. Bistronome serves distinctive delights from start to finish.

The Burrata Salad is uniquely rounded out with three styles of figs – fresh, dried and cooked into chutney – for nectarously ripe succulence, crunched with buttery hazelnut crumble to bring extra texture to the pillowy-milky cheese (RM38).

The Niçoise Salad is a sun-kissed tribute to the south of France, centred with tender tuna and slick anchovies, encircled with potatoes, egg, fresh leaves, French beans, tomatoes and bell peppers, tied together with the briny coastal allure of creamy anchovy dressing (RM48).

Main courses stretch from sea to farmland, from halibut brushed with olive oil and layered with marinated tomatoes for juicy-skinned, moist-bodied flakiness, balanced with fritto misto of battered zucchini wedges, plus lemon, coriander and caper vierge (RM62), to chunky slabs of house-aged lamb rack, showered with uplifting herbs like parsley and dill to slice through the richness of the firm-fleshed meat, cushioned with parmigiana-style eggplant (RM128).

End with Pistachio Gelato (RM20), luxuriously churned in-house with notes of Iranian pistachios for naturally aromatic nuttiness, and the Tiramisu ‘Dello Chef’ (RM30), perhaps PJ’s dreamiest rendition of the beloved Italian indulgence.