Wooloomooloo Steakhouse

Came down to Wooloomooloo for restaurant week and wow, no regrets. You may know that I have had several ho-hum or bad experience with Restaurant week, with the exception of this place. I am glad that I have found another worthy contender for 'best restaurant week meal'

Menu. We went with the crab tower and steak (duh). I must say I had my doubts when walking in because how good can steak be if it costs only $55 (and part of a set meal)? 

Piping hot onion bread which tasted heavenly with the butter. We wolfed this down in no time 

Very generous crab tower stack (all crab!) that was sweet and delicious. Paired perfectly with crunchy asparagus over tangy hollandaise sauce. The sauce was great, now I am tempted to come down for brunch. 

Filet mignon with roasted potato. No there wasn't just one potato wedge, the rest were hidden under the steak. I was surprised that we got a substantial chunk of meat. The steak was great, well cooked and seasoned.  Though we were told that for restaurant week, portions were smaller than usual - perhaps they can consider introducing these portions (at this price) as a regular item. Much more palatable. 

Wooloomooloo graciously allowed us to "upgrade" one of our desserts to their chocolate lava cake. One of the better lava cakes around, dense and rich and altogether too much for me (yes I am too old to eat that much chocolate).

We had a very lovely evening with excellent service. One of the best overall meal I had this year (Restaurant week or not) , in terms of service, ambience and food. 

2 Stamford Road, Level 3, 

Swissôtel the Stamford,

Singapore 178882

Restaurant Week - Bar-Roque Grill

This Oct, we only attended one restaurant week dinner, yup the novelty of Restauarant week has really started to die out - generally not very value-for-money and shitty service.

The good thing about Bar-Roque is that we are given a choice between aka-carte and the restaurant week menu, yay for flexibility! The restaurant week sets weren't that bad actually, items from the menu and at quite a good value but we also wanted to try the chicken here. 

The restaurant is decorated with a heavy touch- true to the "Bar-roque" style with tapestry and paintings resulting in a dark and almost sensual vibe? Too bad for food photographers. Alas the tables were too close together, something very clearly felt during the busyness of restaurant week. 

 Starter - tomato soup. Pretty one-note.

 Main - The Ravioles "Royan" - one hella of a messy looking dish made of pasta, mushroom and other mixed vegetables spattered in a thick creamy sauce. It was very rich and pretty delicious. Such a comforting and sinful dish

Free range chicken was super moist, sweet and very good. My only grouse - why the bird so small!  

Desert was a lovely apple pie, the crust especially was flakey and buttery. One of the better apple pies out there.

Overall I thought the food here was decent but we did lucked out on the orders. Some of my dining companions ordered the steak and were disappointed so stick with the house speciality. One major letdown was the service, not sure if its the restaurant week curse but only the manager seemed to be doing a good job with the rest of the wait staff just ambling around, messing up our orders (or asking us to repeat our orders 1 hr after we had ordered).

Perhaps it will be better on a normal day.


165 Tanjong Pagar, #01-00 Amara Hotel, Singapore 088539

6444-9672

Restaurant Week: Bistro Du Vin

I have already raved about my restaurant week experience at Bistro Du Vin here so I wont go into too much detail; just that the food was just as good and service just as excellent.

Huge portions of foie gras and the most tender melt in your mouth beef cheeks. Bistro Du Vin still remains the only place I will come back in all my restaurant week experiences.

Walnet Tart with vanilla ice cream - very nice dessert but a tad too much after the 2 heavy dishes

Looking forward to my next visit :)

Bistro Du Vin
1 Scotts Rd
#02-12 Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208
T: 6733 7763

Restaurant Week: Absinthe

I think I just started a new tradition for Restaurant Week - Pick one I never tried before and then pick Bistro Du Vin.  The most recent one, my "new" pick was Absinthe - I am always walking past the quaint little shophouse so this was the chance to try it. 

Prawn and avocado salad with sweet chilli and lime dressing. I am a big believer in putting avocado on everything so this dish went down smoothly with me. 

duck and pistacho terrine - salty and erm spam-like. 

Sea bream, potatoes and a parsley emulsion - The fish was nothing fantastic, decently cooked. I can never understand the appeal of foam on your food. It is not aesthetically pleasing and my tastebuds are not discerning enough to actually identify what its supposed to be.

Best dish of the meal - Lemon Meringue tart. I love lemony deserts and this was wonderfully tart (yes I went there) with a buttery flaky crust.

Overall, service and food were decent but not impressive. Portions were tiny, probably due to Restaurant week prices (which defeats the whole purpose of course)

Absinthe

72 Boat Quay
6222 9068

Restaurant Week: Bistro Du Vin

I have taken part in Restaurant week about 3 times and eaten at about 10 different restaurants. 

Bistro Du Vin is hands down my favorite experience and so much so that unless there are any places I really really want to try, I am going to go back to Bistro Du Vin come next restaurant week. 

Bistro Du Vin is warm, cozy and unpretentious, with bright red walls lined with picture frames. 

Now bear in mind that Bistro Du Vin does not have a dining city star (i.e. dinner is $35++ instead of $55++)

started off with warm crusty bread and butter. Simple and good we had 2 baskets!

We were blown away by the quality and quantity of the foie gras. Nicely seared and oh so creamy (and so sinful!). Wolfed it down with the bread.

The cauliflower soup was equally rich. Perfect on a cold night.

Both of us went with the beef cheeks in red wine for our mains. The beef cheek was oh so tender and flavorful, the mash was smooth and fluffy and buttery - basically everything you want in a mash.
Sadly, the portion was too big. The heart was willing but the stomach couldnt take it.

We were apprehensive when desert came, we had been having such a wonderful meal so far it would be horrible to end the meal on a low. Thankfully, desert did not disappoint. The warm chocolate cake was rich and perfectly cooked. The apple tart was flaky, crisp and sweet but not cloyingly so.

The icing on top of this very delicious meal was how great the service was. Our glasses were frequently topped up and everyone was pleasant and friendly even though the restaurant was so packed, a very rare occurrence in Singapore I must say.
This place knows how to make good, satisfying meals and I will definitely be back for more especially to try out the set lunches.


Bistro Du Vin
1 Scotts Rd
#02-12 Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208
T: 6733 7763

Restaurant Week: Salt Grill & Sky Bar

After hearing many good things from my friends, I couldnt pass up the opportunity of dining at Salt Grill & Sky Bar at this year's restaurant week

Perched on top of Ion Orchard, Salt boosts an impressive view. Makes for a great lunch time meal; entrance to the restaurant was via a semi-private lift lobby which for some reason was really dark and mystifying ( I wonder if its symbolic of the dark sky or something) 

Started off with warm crusty bread, warm bread almost always signals the start of a good meal. 

The sydney crab omelette with miso mustard broth. A very good appetizer, the broth emphasized the delicate sweetness of the fresh crab meat. And lets be real, everyone loves a good omelette.

Grilled Spatchcock with parsnip puree 

Took a bite from my friend's dish, the spatchcock was very tender and sweet. 

Red wine poached barramundi with cauliflower puree

Yet another delicate dish, my fish was fresh though a tad overcooked. The cauliflower was melt-in-your-mouth awesome.

Dessert was a duo of sorbet - rock melon and raspberry. I understand that because this was a lunch menu, it was meant to be light but I couldnt help but feel disappointed. The rock melon was sweet and delightful though the raspberry a tad too sour for my taste. But I cant take sour stuff so dont trust me on this.


Best thing about Salt is the service. Warm and friendly without being too intrusive. Our orders got slightly mixed up and was late for about 5 mins, no biggie but the waiters were so apologetic about it (even offering more bread/ heating up the other mains), great service is rare in Singapore so I feel that it should be called out as often as possible.

Salt Grill and Sky Bar
2 Orchard Turn, Ion Orchard, lvl 55,56.

Restaurant Week - Il Lido

Il Lido is a really beautiful restaurant perched on the shoulders of Sentosa overlooking the sea and the nice green golf course. Headed down for lunch on a week end and it was surprisingly empty; Il Lido is a star restaurant on diningcity (i.e. lunch is $45++)

Bread roll with balsamic, pretty boring. 

 Amuse bouche was an interesting cold cantoloupe soup. I found it a bit too sweet and the soup came off like a dessert. Would have prefer more acidity or spice. 

Wild prawn salad with artichoke cream was delicate and fresh. Nicely done.

Crab Cappelletti - best dish of the meal. The pasta was fresh and cooked perfectly, well paired with the sweet morsels of crab meat. If only I had a full serving of this. 

Pan Roasted Wild Snapper was presented beautifully. Everything was done competently but I found the dish quite boring. 

Tiramisu for dessert. Unfortunately not great, I like my tiramisu with a kick and this was nothing more than a mere nudge (and probably in the wrong direction).

This is my 4th restaurant week and I am starting to feel fatigue - it seems like deals might not be as great as it seems. Next restaurant weeks, I think I might just stick to places I know are winners 

Il Lido

27 Bukit Manis Road (Sentosa Golf Club)

099892 Singapore

Restaurant Week : Table at 7

For a restaurant week diningcity starr restaurant, I was really disappointed with the menu at Table at 7

Portions were tiny and food was mediocre. 

The steak was about half the size of Trattoria Lafiandra's, did not taste as good and cost $15++ more (similar 3 course meal too) 

THere are some who avoid Restaurant Week because they believe that some restaurants make use of this opportunity to test new dishes which may or may not be well received. I think this was the case here. While I am not sure if a normal meal at Table at 7 will be of a similar quality, I am not eager to find out. I did go check out their menu for Restaurant Week this year and it looks much better - 5 course and truffles to boot. 

Restaurant Week: Trattoria Lafiandra

Restaurant week - March 2012. 

Restaurant gave us complimentary bruschetta :)

At $35++, this was one of the more value-for-money restaurant week meals around. 

Beef Carpaccio 

Really great beef tagliata

home-made Ravioli 

kick-ass somewhat intoxicating tiramisu 

Restaurant Week- Gaia Ristorante

long overdue post, went to Gaia over at Goodwood park hotel for Restaurant Week in Oct.

Unusual breadstick arrangement, I wonder if the more traditional chinese will consider it extremely inauspicious? 

Deep fried sardine with onion and mixed salad. I am not a huge fan of sardine but this was a surprisingly pleasant dish

Fried ham w ricotta cheese

I must admit the cheese bits made this dish look quite unappetizing but the salty ham+ cheese goodness packed a great punch of flavor. Delicious

tagliatelle with softshell crab. Cant remember much about the pasta dish so it must have been well,pretty unmemorable.

Oven-baked Cod fish

Braised chicken

Both mains were melt-in your mouth tender and flavorful.

Ended the dinner with a decent tiramisu.

Although it was quite ironic that the only dish I didnt enjoy in an italian restaurant was the pasta, overall this was one of the better Restaurant Week experiences that I have had. Kudos.

Gaia Ristorante and Bar

22 Scotts Road Goodwood Park Hotel

6735 9937