The Royal Mail

The Royal Mail had been around for about 2 years but it was never on our to dine at list for one reason or another. We finally decided to give it a shot one Friday evening before the wife took off for an extended work trip to Korea.

Occupying a spot in Ascott Raffles Place, the restaurant's name is inspired by its location, where a former British post office once stood. And it serves up "modern British cuisine" of course.

The restaurant is situated on the second floor, up a flight of stairs that open up right into the oddly shaped dining area whilst the bar takes up a small corner on the first floor. If you value your privacy, it might be a good idea to request for seats further in and not along the stairway, especially on a busy night.

Complimentary Bread - Puff pastry with brie cheese - Now that's something you don't get very often. Soft and moist with a nice cheesy nuance. I did find it a wee bit too oily though.

Amuse Bouche - The amuse bouche was a classic duck rillette on toast; nice but not creamy enough with a mildly spicy kick. Still a good start nonetheless!

The Royal Mail Caesar Salad - Our quintessential greens for the evening, the humble Caesar salad. Spiced up with bacon strips, a nicely poached egg, strips of cheese and toasted bread. Nothing too fancy but it kept the positive momentum going.

Sous-Vide Half Maine Lobster - That's a pretty small lobster if you ask me but it was good. Crunchy meat cooked to a perfect consistency and served with a shard of crisp ibérico ham and a slice of mildly sweet Japanese pumpkin, sitting in a pool of rich emulsified butter sauce.

Roasted Whole Chicken - The roasted chicken needed quite a fair bit of work, coming across as bland and uninspiring. The accompanying chermoula sauce was just plan oily and we had a hard time finishing the chicken, small as it was.

Roast Prime Rib - A signature of the restaurant, we had the classic cut (280g), which came served with delicious sauteed Brussels sprouts topped with pine nuts and blue cheese, a roasted whole garlic and Yorkshire pudding. Done up medium well instead of medium as per my request, the prime rib was quite good; Thickly cut, succulent and tasty. I didn't quite fancy the Yorkshire pudding though, which was neither crisp nor hot.

Truffle Risotto - The side of truffle risotto was al dente and beautifully creamy and fragrant with chunks of mushroom in it. Delicious!

Chocolate Fondant - Nicely moist fondant with a molten chocolate center and served with a scoop of lacklustre vanilla bean ice cream and deliciously crunchy chocolate soil with freeze dried raspberries atop. I personally loved the texture and tartness that the chocolate soil, dried raspberries combination brought to this dessert.

Banoffee Tart - A pretty decent rendition of one of my favourite western desserts (I have many by the way), the banoffee tart sported a crisp tart shell with a filling of banana, crumble and toffee, topped with a dollop of cream and dusted with cocoa powder. The salted caramel sauce could have featured a little more prominently and the bananas could have been a little more moist whilst the tart would have been better with a little more baking in my humble opinion.

With a 50% discount, the bill for the both of us came up to a mere $105, which is a rather good deal considering the very decent quality and quantity of food (with the exception of the chicken). Service was excellent; Personal without coming across as overbearing. At such a price point and quality, I'll be hard pressed to find an excuse not to revisit.

See all my pictures here.