Halia Restaurant

Villa Halia, a Malay word for Ginger neatly tucked away in the midst of the Ginger Garden in the Singapore Botanical Garden is an exquisite place to bring your loved ones or for a much awaited quiet dinner. Its not a very big place however it will make a memorable dinner date.

Before dinner, we manage to stroll around the park for some photos and to enjoy the environment. The setting sun cast a beautiful orange hue in the sky and makes the entire place weirdly sensual. This is also the time where the worker bugs go home and meet their families awaiting another day of survival, you could hear them calling and these sounds of nature is like music to my ears.

Halia is a beautiful glass hut set in the midst of the park. The glass facades makes us feel like we are surrounded by the lush nature yet basking in a nice cool temperature of 28 degrees with no bug irritation. They also do have al-fresco dining however we decided it might just be too warm for a luxurious dinner date such as this. The menu was small however it held a good spread of interesting dishes and some signature Halia cuisines.

For drinks, I've decided on their specialty: Ice Halia Infusion ($10) which is a concoction of sun-dried ginger & wild mountain honey. It tasted sweet and tangy with bits of ginger, refreshing and interesting after taste of sweet spicy ginger.

Starters we had the Baked Hokkaido scallop soufflé on puff pastry with Hollandaise sauce and Madeira reduction ($32). The pastry tasted crispy and scallop juicy placed on a bed of fresh salad leaves. Love the way the food was being presented and I could taste the freshness of the sea and the bitterness of the salad goes well with the sauce.

For mains we had: 1) Cape Grim grass-fed eye of rib fillet, 150 gm with buttered baby leek, basil and tomato concasse( $58)

I love it medium done so that the outside is crispy and inside juicy and full of flavor. The beef is yummy and fresh and I love the buttered baby leeks, not soggy or too hard, properly cooked with the crunch and easy to chew on. They even put a flower on my mash which I ain't too sure if I can eat the flower too! The dish is amazing and presentation perfect, however the serving size is tiny.

2) Roasted New Zealand rack of lamb marinated in Javanese spice, with ratatouille, purple potato puree and lamb jus. ($55)

The rack of lamb is marinated with a good concoction of seasoning and is well prepared. It tasted crunchy and juicy, full of flavor and took away enough of the musky sent of the lamb to make savoring it comfortable. Love the purple potato puree though it tasted much like normal mash it had a hint of sweetness and is great on the looks.

We also had a bottle of Torbreck Old Vine GSM which is a full bodied easy drinking Red wine. Interestingly, GSM stands for a mixture of Grenache - Shiraz - Mourvedre grapes.

Location: 3/5 (Its romantic and beautiful but hard to get to even when we drove) Ambiance: 4.5/5 (The park is romantic, setting fantastic and love the glass windows however the furniture could be more exotic) Food: 4/5 Price: 3/5 (Ingredients used are pretty fresh however we love to see more excitement in the menu. There just too many similar restaurants around these days.) Meal Portion: 3/5 (My tummy says not so satisfactory)

Will I come again: For special occasions or when i feel especially indulgent. Will I bring my friends: Overseas Visitors perhaps with the exquisite setting and historical value of the location.

I knew about this well hidden place when my cousin decided to hold his ROM there. I was dropped off from the main gate and it was a long walk from there. I was sweating like a pig when I reached there.

It was a buffet and found the place to be a good place from some romantic moments. They got both outdoor and indoor seats. At every 2nd and last sunday, they will have a jazz band playing as well.

The food to me is quite up to standard.

One of my fav is the crisp black pepper soft shell crab with wasabi sauce. I personally dun like wasabi, but their sauce is really so good that I can simply lick it of the plate. The crab is also not oily yet crispy.

Their mains are quite good and their portions are quite big as well.

Their desserts limited but still got some good choices inside them. The warm bittersweet chocolate torte is one of my favs as well. With melted choco hidden inside the coc cake, together with some strawberries. Simply fantastic!

The service is pretty good and prompt as well, the waitress are also willingly to recommend their specialties for you.

If you wanna to eat in a place where it is in the city yet you dun feel like you are in the city. This is the place for you!

The only thing I dun like is this place is a bit unaccessible for those who dun have transport.