Chef Daniel’s Kitchen At Bounce - Tornado (Illuma)

Picked this place for a birthday lunch as suggested by the birthday girl and boy. I have heard about this place but never got around to trying it until now, and I didn’t even know what cuisine it was and went along thinking: Chef Daniel can’t be too wrong.

Perched on the rooftop of the 7th floor of Iluma, the place was not packed at all for a Saturday lunch. I think more publicity can be done about the place in fact. The interior of the place was brightly lit thanks to the glass panelling. The place had quite a nice intimate feel despite the brightness and I liked the whole set up which felt a little like fine dining.

With quite a sorry selection of ala carte, we settled for the Executive Set Lunches which was priced at $16.50 per person with an option to add another $2 for coffee / tea / soft drinks. Between the 5 of us, we had 3 types of main courses.

Bread – served complimentary, the focaccia was warm and pleasantly, but thought it was too dense for my liking.

Soup of the Day – the cream of mushroom was quite good and not overly thick, which was quite good for soaking the bread in.

Sautéed prawns on spaghetti – served with roasted eggplant, mushrooms & zucchini – The pasta was al dente and served in big portion which I couldn’t finish. The tomato sauce was alright and prawns quite fresh. Grilled salmon mentaiko – served with teriyaki sauce & fettuccini – didn’t try this but it looked okay to me.

Grilled sirloin steak – served with roasted vegetable and potatoes – didn’t try this as well but my friends did complain about it either.

Dessert of the Day – it wasn’t explained to us what was, but it turned out to be not bad. It was alternate layers of hazelnut, custard, and chocolate and on the side were lychee balls with liquid centres which I thought was quite interesting. It would have been better if they explained the item to us though, such a waste of the delightful dessert.

Pricing was very affordable; I was expecting the meal to be more costly.

But service seems to be an issue here which needs to be bucked up. When we arrived, we were informed that the soup of the day is clam chowder, but when it came, it was cream of mushroom. When I enquired, I was told that it was just changed, and that within a span of maybe half hour. I’m not sure if there was any miscommunication but if the soup had really changed halfway, they could have informed us prior. What is some of us are allergic to mushrooms?

Bread was also served to sporadic tables (not sure how they ‘chose’) so we had to ask for some after seeing ourselves being by-passed a few times.

And I get quite annoyed when something as basic as coke / coke light is served flat. It happened to the whole table and we found out that they had taken the drink from a pitcher which was being used for a company lunch. The company lunch had free flow of coke / coke light and thus was pre-poured into the pitcher instead of fresh from the can. We asked to change it, and they did, but it still came back flat. The server insisted that it was fresh from the can, which I suspect not (if it was, then its time to change your cans). Eventually, I changed mine to coffee instead.

Apart from the service issues, the value for money set lunch and food will make me want to come back, when I have the chance that is.

If you are a Mediacorp Channel 8 fan, you'll definitely know Chef Daniel Koh who recently started the Chef Daniel's Kitchen by working with Bounce@Tornado. It's kind of easy to miss out this place cos its way up at level 7 the sky roof instead of where we would assume all eateries are seen at level 5.

Here's some of what we ordered (sorry i can't remember the exact names of the dishes):

Six Sense and Clam Chowder soup - $7. big bowl, moderate portion that won't fill half of your stomach before the main course arrives, which is good for ladies. It comes with a thin crispy slice of bread, nice genuine ingredients too. Cod Fillet - $20. value for money. Salmon - $18. this was what i had, it goes with really nice half-mashed potato which is abit like rosti too. and the kidney beans was an appropriate side. Chicken burger - app $16. doesnt look very nice to me, maybe cos I personally do not like chicken burgers, but my friend swept it off pretty fast so it shld be good. Pizza - app $9. I didn't try this cos it was for the kids but it looks nice and is big enough for 2 to share. Crispy fillet (finger food)

everyone was given a little free warm bread which was really fragrant and appetizing.

The ambience is really good for families and couples who want to spend quality time together. Dimly lit, peaceful and spacious place to have your meals and a good chat. The service crew doesn't keep lurking behind you and we do not feel pressurizing staying for almost 2h despite not ordering alot. The food quality is pretty good, moreover it's at very reasonable prices and just-nice portions so that you won't feel too full but rather satisfying after having a two or three course meal.

Worth a visit!