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Beauty & Wellness
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Fifteen days. As we ushered into the Chinese new year, this time, our cow friends. The date at Straits café, cong-er and feng-er indulged for the finest feast. It has been the longest time since cong-er remember the last time she had lo-hei, and the first time for feng-er to try Poon Choi. The rabbits, the goat, and the pig. Triple harmony.
The finest. All in one pot. The best to start a brand new year. A traditional Chinese new year delicacy, Poon Choi ($198 for 5 person), composed of many layers of premium seafood, meat and vegetables. Abalone, shark fin, scallop, sea cucumber, prawns, Chinese sausages, duck feet, roasted meat, mushroom, fa-cai. A total of 14 ingredients, & 6 hours of effort. A symbol of wealth and prosperity, the abalone and shark fins in the middle. The whole taste was simple divine! Sea cucumber, or Hoi sam, a secret for our ladies to stay eighteen every year. Although the roasted pork wasn’t crispy anymore, but the meat was brought to another level after immersing in the pot with the other ingredients. And not to mention the Chinese sausages, which had the normal red colour ones, and the darker coloured, liver sausages. The duck feet was there in place of goose feet; my first time trying it. Without being overly salty, the gravy absorbed the essence of all the top ingredients. Worth its weight in gold.
The Prosperity Yu Sheng, with the vibrant colours, that so reminded us of the joy and happiness during the festive season. Every year without fail, the auspicious Chinese salad will present itself. Tossing the vegetables, the aim is to attain a higher high, just like our life. Wishing Gong xi fa cai, Nian nian you yu, all the lucky greetings for our family and friends. With a choice of salmon or ikan parang, Straits cafe rendition comes in $38, $48 and $58 for its small (2-4 person), medium (5-7 person) and large (8-10 person) portions respectively. All buffet at Straits cafe with the exception for high tea, includes free flow of Fa Cai Yusheng.
After the new renovation of the restaurant during Oct 2008, Straits cafe reopened amidst much fanfare, with the contemporary design and transparent windows which allowed natural lighting to fill the restaurant, and for those interested, people-watching as well.
By order, one will usually start with the salad counter, with some appetising greens to clear the palates before moving on to the savouries. Not that I care anyway, the temptation to resist the desserts were too much for me. Those pretty, petite sweets, we started taking photos of them first, of course. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the pork belly for my stomach to begin on a light note.
Another great appetiser, the chicken salad was just as refreshing as any green salad. The slightly sweet and sour Thai sauce, enhanced the chicken, making it a welcoming starter.
The cold seafood station which has the likes of fresh oyster, cold crabs, squids, and prawns. You know Singaporeans being Singaporeans, the likelihood that they attacked the most expensive food in the buffet is palpable to all. And with fresh oysters, it definitely helps.
Special praises must be reserved for the chefs whom consistently cooks up each bowl of the infamous Straits café Nonya laksa. For that day, there’s also the bak ku teh available. There will changes everyday, with wanton mee, satay been hoon, lor mee rotating, alongside the mainstay laksa.
The infamous Straits cafe Nonya laksa. A bowl of this local favourite, was enough to justify the popularity and status of this dish to the restaurant. Nonya laksa comes slightly sour sweet, with rich and strongly spiced coconut gravy. However, the oiliness of the laksa meant that not everybody could accept it. One man’s meat is another man’s poison.
Jumping from the local dimension, we found ourselves in the Japanese era. The sushi platter was easily another favourite of diners there. Within minutes of a new plate brought out, the platter looks sad, not that the sushi wasn’t good, but because everything was finish.
The freshness of the Sashimis were maintained by keeping them inside a transparent closet, to minimise the contact with the air. Also to let people take as little as possible! Well, just her mischievous thought, I’m sure the chefs would be more than happy to let you have your fill of sashimis.
Lo-and-behold! The key player for Straits cafe’s dessert counter. Without a doubt, the Durian Pengat definitely was the one we were eagerly anticipating. Well maybe not we, since i’m not a durian lover. The D24 durian smell was so evident that we would have wager our fortune betting on it. I’ve two spoonful, since almost everybody says it’s so, so good, and the sight of people taking a few of the shooter glass at one go, it’s certainly in the bag.
Moving on from the durian pengat, we have the equally famous durian cake. But after tasting the strong D24 durian in the pengat, I found the taste for the durian cake relatively subtle and light. And it’s a good thing since i’ve no qualms finishing the cake. This might not be the case if i’ve start with the cake first before the pengat.
The macha mousse had one of the strongest macha taste, and it’s good for the macha lovers. Most places scrimped on the tea leaves to cut cost obviously, but the generous fulsome mousse definitely surprised us.
We heard good things about their cheesecakes, however the signature New York cheesecake was nowhere in sight.The blueberry cheesecake was there to save the day. Between the boundaries of the heavy cheesy purist favourites, and the light airy rendition, I’ll say it’s somewhere in the middle. And the best part, you can have as many slices as you want!
There are some who boomed and come of age later than others. The Mandarin orange cheesecake was our reward for being adventurous, not giving up without another walk to the desserts counter for the New York cheesecake. Instead of that, we found ourselves with this new cake, in celebration of our Chinese new year. But, the dessert disappointed us as the cheesecake was rather crumbly, not as firm as we thought it will be, and the mandarin oranges were too sweet, which we suspected that it had some help from the sugary syrup.
On first sight, the ice cream bar looks just to be an ordinary one, featuring the likes of your Walls, and Kings ice cream. But boy we were wrong. The black sesame and raspberry gelato were great, definitely not your cheap ice creams. And my favourite, the vanilla bean flavour!
I must say I’m impressed with the variety and spread of the buffet, given the pricing and the location of the restaurant, it’s good that Hotel Rendezvous recognised that they can’t position themselves against the high-end buffets with the likes of The Line, Melt the world cafe. But by bridging the distance between the expensive and the cheap buffets, Straits cafe provided a good alternative to those who wanted good food, without spending too much.
My thanks to Christina, the marketing communication manager of Rendezvous Hotel Singapore, who invited me for the food tasting session. And also my dining companions, who provided me with great knowledge of the food, good company and fun. A happy Chinese New Year to all of you!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Another overdue post which happened more or less during the New Year time frame. Was invited along to this food tasting by FZ once again. Special thanks to both FZ and Christina, the marketing manager for graciously accepting my presence at this tasting.
Straits cafe has a very down to earth feeling to me. Glass panels separate the business crowds and roads from the interiors and even more glass panels are used to separate the kitchen from the patrons. The interior is simple with LCD televisions adorning some parts to provide more entertainment while dining in.
The selection is diverse and well thought out. Basically, i think it covers pretty much everything a buffet should cover. This is rather surprising because at first glance, it looked limited but when i went back to actually look and pick the food, there was a whole lot of variety and to say the least, having one item from each managed to stuff me to no end.
What Chinese New Year would be complete without some Yu Sheng? So it was with Straits Cafe, they actually do it more DIY style which is found from the DIY counter. But as we were invited, we were fortunate to have the staff rehearse the entire routine for us. In terms of taste, the yu sheng is balanced but didn't really manage to wow anybody. Overall decent with thick fresh salmon and fragrant crackers.
Needless to say, their rendition is glorious with overflowing ingredients. Lots of sharks fin, lots of pork belly, fish maw, abalone, prawns, lup cheong, mushrooms and dried scallops. Each individual pot is supposed to have been stewed for at least 6 hours before serving. In terms of taste, the abalone is certainly stewed till soft with a nice fragrance from the rest of the ingredients. I liked the pork belly, mushrooms, abalone and fa chai that was in this dish. Because i had a few other renditions of this after the meal, i have to say that this was one of the better ones i've had this year. Worth a try.
The above shows the amount of items you can take from the counters and its not even the full picture yet. I felt that the food served here is pretty decent, items that are supposed to be fresh are fresh, with some exception in a few prawns i had. Worth mentioning will be the laksa which is suitably spicy and tasty also being surprisingly light. The sashimi counter is worth returning over and over again. So is the chilled seafood section with its oysters and shrimp. I also liked the meat section which had different versions of beef and the yam ring which i felt was pretty decent as well. The dessert section's cakes didn't quite catch my fancy apart from the durian pengat and durian puff. They were lighter and less concentrated then i would have liked though.
Overall Score: 6.5/10
Last word:
I actually found the food here decent. Maybe its because Christina advised on how the executive chef is one with superb potential in his cooking or that their standard that day was above average. One honestly cannot expect too much from a buffet, after all, how good can food prepared en masse be? So taking it for what it is, this restaurant and this buffet works pretty well for me. It helps that the poon choi is the best i've had this year as well. Good effort.
Rating given:
Another belated post but no fear, this is still very much relevant. No Signboard Seafood is one of those hawker fairy tales with a humble beginning that slowly built their empire from nothing. Beginning as an honest-to-goodness Zhi Ca stall serving good tasting Chili Crab and using white pepper as the unique selling point of their crabs to a big name restaurant that still attracts hundreds of patrons daily. This is a coffee shop fairy indigenous to Singapore and a much sought after dream of many.
No Signboard Appetiser Platter - Overall, the platter was rather decent but nothing too flashy. Honestly, i've pretty much forgotten a majority of the items i've tried here. So the conclusion is that it was average.
Shark's fin Soup With Crabmeat - The shark's fin came across as rather starchy and sticky but had generous chunks of crab meat within. It also came across as being too salty for some, nothing vinegar and pepper could not salvage though.
Chicken with Pork Floss - I actually took to this quite well. It was served hot and crispy with sprinklings of pork floss on top. The floss added sweetness and fragrance to the juicy chicken meat. Not too bad IMHO.
Steamed Garoupa HK style - The fish was overcooked. Short and simple. The meat was obviously too tough due to over steaming. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with this form of cooking.
Broccoli with mushrooms - The mushrooms and broccoli were both really nice and soft.......I think thats about all i can say about this dish. Next!
Yam Ring With Spicy Fillings - This one is rather tough to judge, simply because some liked the spicy fillings which consisted of squid, prawns, fish and lots of balachan chili. While others felt it was too weird for their liking. I belong to the latter, i like my yam ring traditional and with the usual items. Especially cashew nuts, which there was none here.
White Pepper Crab - Now this is more like it. The reason why No Signboard made its mark, good old fashioned white pepper crab with big juicy Sri Lankan Crabs. True to form, i thoroughly enjoyed this dish because its equal parts spicy, equal parts sweet and 100% fragrant. If there's a reason to go to No Signboard, its this dish. (Note: I've heard that the original Geylang branch is even better at this dish. So maybe you can try there.)
Cereal Prawn - This was decent. The cereal was sweet and fragrant but the prawns were hit or miss. Some were fresh and some simply weren't. Take your own chances.
Fried rice - Quite fragrant but nothing else worth mentioning on this one.
Longan and Almond - I'm guessing canned dessert but please correct me if i'm wrong on this. Nothing too special about this dish either.
Overall Score: 4/10 for everything else (7/10 for crab only)
Last word:
Service in the restaurant was alright but there was this impression that they didn't quite like our group there. Food was below average for most and honestly, i can name quite a few Zhi Ca areas with better food then here. I didn't see the bill for this meal but i'm betting on it hitting at least $1000 because it was a set meal plus some ala carte orders for a group of above 10 people. For the unflattering score, its because we expected more from such a famous establishment and it simply wasn't met apart from the crab.
Special thanks to Steward who gave us such a big feast and was so generous and kind to us throughout years. Sure, the review isn't good for the restaurant but we still had a good time. Cheers and i'm sure there's a better year for all this 2009!
Rating given:
After a sunny day of shopping with my BF, both of us were tired and want to find a place to rest and have some cooling dessert. Happen to pass by Ice Monster and we decided to give it a try.
We order a Mint chocolate Ice and Mix Fruits Ice.
Mix Fruits Ice(small) - $6.50
A scoop of mango ice-cream on top, with mango, strawberry and kiwi fruits at the side, lots of shave ice on the bottom with mango syrup and sweet milk over the dessert. The mango ice-cream were normal but I don't like it when we eating the ice cream it has the mango seed with it. Mango and strawberry fruits were not bad, except for kiwi fruits it has artificial colour and taste.
Mint Chocolate Ice - $4.90
The first sip, it has the mint taste with the chocolate, after that the mint taste wasn't that strong. It was so-so.
Total Bill: $11.40
No service charges & GST.
Overall was so-so..
Rating given:
Heard lots of recommend about this cake station, my BF and I decided to give it a try on his young sister birthday.
The shop only sell 2 type of flavors durian or chocolate fudge whole cake with different shape and size. They don't sell cake in slice. We choose the standard size of chocolate fudge cake.
Price: $30/ 8"
The cake coated with lots of chocolate fudge, inside a layer of soft sponge cake with another layer of chocolate fudge follow by another soft sponge cake at the bottom. The cake were very soft while cutting into slice.
Taste of the cake is something like arwfully chocolate cake. The cake is soft and the chocolate melt in your mouth. Not too sweet, just nice.
Overall cake was not bad, just that their service need to change abit. Maybe it their style. If I'm not wrong, Mon - Fri open till 6pm, Sat open till 4pm. Sun & PH is close. Anyway, can give it a try.
Rating given:
Beginning in 1998, Awfully Chocolate brought a concept and slowly but surely, turned a simple idea into a region spanning franchise. One of its founders, Stella Huang, is a resident Singaporean celebrity who sang and acted in various sitcoms during her university days earn "some" pocket money. The result of a simple concept and limited selection of items is what you get from Awfully Chocolate.
I guess this franchise is proof that a simple idea can blossom and spread with a good amount of financial backing and some really tasty chocolate.
Ice Cream: This is the first time i tried their ice cream and it was smooth. Despite the extremely thick chocolate its made of, the bitterness was mild. It also had just the right amount of sweetness to push you towards the next mouthful. However, i can't help noticing that the ice cream has a taste very much familiar to extremely thick Milo concentrate. Not to say its a bad thing, but its an observation.
My two cents? Reasonably good enough to stand on its own, but more then a few mouthfuls and be prepared to call in sick the next day.
Cake: I've tried a slice of their cake before and its rich, slightly fluffy and easily messy to enjoy. The fudge is smooth and moderately sweet which once again, gives it a balanced taste. I felt it was pretty similar to 3 other cakes i've had before though. Lana's cake shop, Choc-a-bloc and even Secret recipe. I think its a fair comparison since they all belong to the moist chocolate fudge category. The difference is mostly on the ratio of chocolate to sponge and Awfully Chocolate's version has most in common with Lana's version, albeit having a thicker fudge layer in the middle and on its coverings. Whether you like it or not depends on how much you like chocolate.
Final Score: 6/10
Last Word:
I like chocolate and this is definitely pretty good for both the ice cream and the chocolate cake. I also like the attitude of the founders for their arrogance and daring in sticking to this concept but honestly, there are lots of chocolate cakes around. And when the differentiation factor is not as apparent, its less of a draw to return. Still, give this a try if you have not tried it yet.
Rating given:
Its difficult to miss Canele in Raffles City Shopping centre since its situated in the middle of the pathway and further accentuated with a jet spraying fountain as its centerpiece. Of course, another draw would be that Canele is a part of the Les Amis group and has an excellent display of tasty treats adorning its front counter. I've heard much and felt compelled to try it out to see if it was worth the fuss. Conclusion? Coming soon.
Jupiter ($7 )
Strawberry Shortcake ($6.50 )
Price wise, its acceptable given the pedigree and given the brand. However, portion size for both is much smaller then first perceived.
I'd like to talk a little about the service because i felt that the man who started off serving us had a stand offish attitude the moment we mentioned we were only here for dessert. In fact, he took away the menu and for some weird reason, did not bother to take our orders. In the end, i had to flag down another waitress to get the job done. Management take note on this please.
On the plus side, i was informed that Canele does not serve ice water but was pleasantly surprised when we received a glass. That is worth commending.
Jupiter - It looks simply divine but i can't help comparing it to Ambrosia which i had in Ah Teng's Bakery. The glistening chocolate layer looks and tastes similar to Ambrosia with a slightly bitter aftertaste which i enjoyed. The interior is different since Jupiter has a slight crunch in the center layer which was quite enjoyable. However, the sponge layer which forms the base had a weird sourish taste which remained me of spoiled rice. I would have appreciated a sourish tinge of orange on that layer but thats just a suggestion. The beautiful looking top layer was also rather disappointing in that there was minimal taste. Apart from being a decorative piece, it had potential to be so much more.In the end, my gf and i concluded Ah Teng's Ambrosia tasted better for a similar dessert. It helps that it cost lesser as well.
Strawberry Shortcake - Another winner in the looks department, i liked the casual appearance of the wholesome strawberries and the thick pieces they came in. I also like the sponge layer which was moistly soft and mildly sweet. I was more or less in the mood for a mild dessert at this point. The strawberries were juicy but not sweet enough according to my gf. She compared this with Four Leaves version and voted Four Leaves version as the winner in terms of taste and price. For my part, i remember Four Leaves rendition having a stronger strawberry taste on the sponge and cream and the strawberries themselves were sweeter. The sponge on Four Leaves was dryer though. Tough call actually.
Final Score: 6.5/10
Last Word:
For the price, i honestly have to say its a little too expensive. Substitutes for the offerings seem easy enough to come by and seems as though apart from losing to Canele in the looks department, delivers in the taste and quantity department better. Overall, i'd say Canele ain't bad but really, with the price charged, it's natural to expect more and at this point, i'm inclined to say its not up to standard yet.
Rating given:
I've always been a fan of Chef Edward Voon, ever since his days at Dolce Vita. Hence it was no surprise that I jumped at the chance to dine at Atlantic Dining Room, where he joined barely 3 months ago from the now defunct Aurum as Executive Chef. Chances like this are few and far, especially when the place where Atlantic Dining Room is located, Tower Club, is exclusively for members and their guests only. And to up the exclusivity factor, membership is by invitation only.
Perched right at the top of Republic Plaza on the 62nd - 64th story penthouse, Atlantic Dining Room boasts high ceilings coupled with a posh and luxe interior with elaborate finishing and plush chairs. One thing to take note of here, all cellular phones must be put to silent mode and there is a very strict smart casual dress code.
Complimentary Bread & Olive Oil Butter - There were 2 varieties of bread, french loaf with olives and focaccia. I didn't think too much of the french loaf but the focaccia was great. Soft with pockets of herbs and sundried tomatoes permeating through, resulting in a tasty and comforting slice of bread. And the best part was, it wasn't oily.
The olive oil butter deserves a writeup all by itself, solely based on its uniqueness. The butter looked exactly like normal butter and sported a similar texture. However, it was made from olive oil, so imagine a butter with an olive oil taste. Very interesting! The butter was also a prelude to the other fascinating items to come in the menu.
Crab Salad with Wasabi Mayonnaise & Nitro - The interesting part about this dish was the black wrap covering the salad, which was a little gelatin like but bears no resemblance to anything that I know. The salad itself had lots of onions which gave it a nice crunch while the crab came across as light and savoury with the wasabi significantly mild.
Mock Caviar - This dish injected a little humour into our dinner. The cover wrote "Best Mock Caviar from Singapore. Produced and packed by Edward Voon." What was actually in the metal container was a jelly like substance that looked like salmon roe with a passion fruit and strawberry centre. There was a tinge of alcohol in the background as well.
Ocean Trout Confit with Liquefied Green Pea, Fruit Sorbet & Olive Oil powder - The trout looked really raw on the outside but slicing through it proved a piece of cake. The meat was smooth, firm and fresh without coming across as raw. A dollop of orange bits were placed on top to counter and fishiness that the trout might have. The fruit sorbet was sweet and had bits of unidentified crispy stuff below while the olive oil powder amazed me with its texture.
A really interesting play of flavours!
Scallop in Laksa Sauce with Crispy Squid Ink - This has got to be one of the best scallops I've eaten in the past year or so. Well seared with a nice smooth texture sans the fishiness. The laksa sauce was frothy, almost like foam and the spiciness kicked only kicked in a few seconds after consumption.
Tempura Prawn & Mushrooms in Shitake Sauce - The highlight of this dish was probably the olive oil, which was injected from a syringe into the Shitake sauce. Lo and behold, it turned into a strand of noodle that was similar to ramen with an olive oil taste to boot! The prawn was huge and sweet but I thought that the batter could have been a little thinner.
Sardine with Risotto & Polenta - What was intriguing about this was the polenta (boiled maize), which came in thin silvery sheets atop the sardine, which incidentally, was a little too soft for my liking. I did like the risotto though - al dente and not too creamy with carrots providing an additional crunch.
Foie Gras with Kurobuta Pork Cheek & Apple Foam - The foie gras was pan seared till crisp on the outside. It certainly wasn't quivery nor near the best I've tried but I must say that it went very well with the apple foam. The pork cheeks were melt in the mouth tender and definitely a nice addition to this already sinfully rich dish.
BBQ Japanese Fish with Smoked Water - Another amazing dish, the fish (not too sure what fish is it) had a firm texture to go along with the nice BBQ taste. Topped with little silvery pearls that were in fact smoked water, I was rendered speechless. You might question how do you smoke water? In all honesty, I have no absolutely no clue. According to Chef Edward, the water is smoked and then solidified to form the pearls. Interestingly, the pearls had a slightly chewy texture with a strong smokey aftertaste.
Garoupa - I only tried a little of this dish but the fish did seem very well seasoned and flavourful. A pity the pasta didn't seem home made and came across as overly salty.
Wagyu Beef - No surprises here, just good old fashioned tender wagyu beef that was well marinated and done up medium rare. I did find it a little too salty though.
Passion Fruit Sorbet with Coconut Cream & Crushed Mint Ice - I'm not a fan of sour stuff so this dessert didn't do it for me. But the coconut cream was nice and light.
Chocolate & Chocolate - Catchy names aside, this dessert was yet another amazing dish. The first chocolate referred to the white chocolate cake while the second chocolate referred to the coarsely grounded bits of chocolate that reminded me of soil. Here's the marvelous part. The white chocolate cake had a moist center with a hint of egg and almond and ever so heart warming. To infuse some excitement, the grounded chocolate was done up to crackle incessantly when placed into your mouth, very much like the fizz pop candy for kids of yesteryear. Very nostalgic!
I've lost count of the number of times I've used the word amazing in this single blog post alone. The dishes are truly progressive and I'm pretty sure my photos and descriptions do it scant justice. The dollars and cents portion ($400 for 2 pax) is a little on the steep side but I feel that its money well thought and well spent. And I'll certainly be back, especially with one of my favourite chefs at the helm.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Wahiro is a boutique japanese restaurant spanning 2 different outlets, one in Katong and the other in Novena. Helmed by Chef Hozumi, the restaurant attempts to bring the light flavors of Kansai to Singapore's Japanese cuisine scene. In fact, he has garnered several accolades and nods from the media for his offerings, a few which can be found here. It was with moderate expectations that we visited this humble outlet at Katong. Does it deserve its credit?
Note: This post was also done with the Nikon D60 camera. Do let me know your thoughts on the pictures.
The exterior and the mall itself is nothing to shout about. In fact, its so quiet i was surprised to find the restaurant still having a decent clientele. Is that a testament to its food? I'll find out soon.
The interior is modest with wooden furniture and a sushi counter. The tables are placed rather close together and the restaurant probably seats about 30 to 40 patrons. My first gripe is that the table is a little too small for all the food thats about to be lavished upon it. Its a small gripe but worth mentioning nonetheless.
Japanese Tidbits (Nonbei Course Meal) $40 - The first item to grace our table is the japanese tidbits from the nonbei course. 4 brilliantly presented items comprising of a very well made omelette, japanese sweet seaweed-like thingy and 2 others which i have conveniently forgotten. I do remember my opinion of this dish though. I liked it and so did my gf. Its very appetising and definitely raised expectations of what to expect next.
Wahiro Salmon Satsuma Age ($8.80) - This was not part of the 2 courses we had and honestly, we rather regretted ordering it. The salmon fish cake interesting because i've never seen it anywhere else, but it had an incredibly strong ginger taste and came across as rather dry and spicy. An equivalent in the taste department would be close to a fish-made ngor hiang.
Sashimi - Regardless of which set you chose, it came with a sashimi platter of tasting proportions. This means the portions were rather small but reasonable in the grand scheme of things. The sashimi is generally of a decent quality and fresh. The texture of the fish ranges from melt-in-your-mouth to those were slightly tough depending on the type of fish but were generally good and pleasing.
Tempura (Yuuge Unagi Yanagawa Course) $30 - Their rendition of tempura had a very light and thin batter which was easy to stomach. It helps that the batter did not cover the taste of the prawn as well. Albeit the prawns being of a smaller size then usual.
Kushiyaki (Nonbei course) - Japan is famous for their grilled sticks and this is supposed to be a faithful representation of their much loved art. Despite the small serving, i found the chicken wing and bacon with asparagus nicely done with a smokey taste to it. It also retains its original juices and is still tender despite the grilling. A bigger portion would have helped loads.
Grilled Eel and Burdock Omelette (Yuuge Unagi Yanagawa Course) - Unagi omelette in hotpan. I actually liked this pretty much. It had thin yet generous slices of unagi and a thin later of onions and burdock. The unagi is literally melts in your mouth and is slightly sweet. The omelette did not come across as oily at all. Burdock was added to it which has medicinal and dietery properties which is a plus.
Oden (Nonbei Course) - Naruto with braised raddish. Naruto is essentially japanese fish-paste cake. This version is rather big but scored fairly low in the taste department as it was basically tasteless. The braised raddish, however, ended up being the one thing that wowed me that night. I'm not someone who likes raddish but this has to be tasted to be believed. It must have been braised for a ridiculously long time to have absorbed the tasty broth it now resembled. Texture was soft and surprisingly tender with it remaining hot throughout the meal. In fact, its perfect for a cold day to warm your body. Very nicely done indeed.
Ochazuke (Nonbei Course) - The perfect way to end a full course japanese meal. Ochazuke is basically rice submerged in either tea or hot water with certain condiments comprising of tsukemono and umeboshi (both pickles). Truth be told, i was not used to having rice as an ending dish but this proved to actually be appetising due to the pickles used. In fact, the pickles were rather overwhelming in huge quantities and gave the rice a sourish taste throughout. This is an example of the traditional methods used by Wahiro which may or may not be agreed upon in Singapore. I found this quite interesting though.
The final bill came up to $90.40 for 2 people for an interesting meal.
The food here really isn't too bad. Its very traditional and honestly, i think the Nonbei course would be perfect as a winter meal for the amount of warmth the meal brings. The quality of food is above average but the portions were indeed small. Still, we left stuffed to the brim in the end and rather satisfied. I actually found my gf's meal more worth the money as opposed to the Nonbei course though. Will i return? Maybe for lunch one of these days for a more budget experience.
Rating given:
In my dreams, there is this beautiful place, with blue skies and clear sea. I dreamt of having my favourite brunch here with the one I like. We eat to our hearts content, and relax there while the hourglass freeze, just for us.
In my dreams, we have a cup of cappuccino. The aroma of the bean and the wonderful scenery of the place somehow makes the ordinary coffee taste better. And oh yes, there’s a cute cookie to go along with too.
In my dreams, I can never forget the taste of my beloved Eggs Royale ($14). The ever-favourite poached eggs, I just wish we can be together everyday. There is nothing more satisfying in life to have you by my side. O’ my dear, just the thought of you makes me sleep better.
In my dreams, I always envisage places where we will never run out of desserts. I have a sweet tooth you see. I dreamt of meeting the royal Sir-Deli’s, but it was a pleasant surprise with Privé Carrot cake ($6.80)
In my dreams, everything and anything can happen. There are bad dreams, and of course sweet ones like you. I’m glad I can still occasionally dream of you, that is enough. Enter my dreams, and give me a kiss.
***
Privé bakery café is a wonderful place to visit if you haven been there after i posted my previous entry. Well, I couldn’t afford the restaurant main course yet, that’s why you will probably see more of my post on their brunch and desserts, which are affordable and good. See you there!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given: