Belated Birthday Dinner @ Inagiku TST~

I must admit I feel a little guilty as I have more than indulged myself in fine dining as an excuse to prolong the celebration of my birthday. This dinner at Inagiku was actually organized by Mr. C quite in advance as a belated celebration for my birthday (thank you~, and also thank you for celebrating on the actual day too :p) and as an additional surprise, he managed to book the special Teppanyaki chef Inoue Masami who combines both Japanese and French touches in her cooking technique and her demand is culminated even further as she only serves a limited number of tables per night.

We were served a Japanese version of amuse bouche from L-R sea cockle, grilled fish and marinated jelly fish. I quite enjoyed the jellyfish as it was marinated in a zesty citrus dressing which helped whet the appetite.

Our sashimi platter came next and although it was more simply presented than other platters I have seen, the glistening luster from the generous cuts of sashimi was just as alluring. From L – R we had the Botan shrimp, scallops, toro, salmon belly and yellow tail. This was absolutely amazing. The botan shrimp were so sweet and had a pleasant bite to the texture, the scallops were meaty and very tender, the toro and salmon belly were to-die-for, so perfectly marbled that it just melted in the mouth and the sweetness from the yellow tail lingered in the mouth even long after the last bite had been swallowed. Loved it~

In addition to our sashimi, another raw delicacy we had was the glow-in-the-dark squid. Yes it looked quite unappetising so I was a little reluctant to try, but Mr. C said it tasted better than it looked so I thought might as well. There was no doubting that the squid was very fresh, but you could really only taste the strong flavour of the marinade which was heavy on the soy sauce and citrus. I found the texture to be too chewy for my liking though.

Inagiku aside from being renowed for their teppanyaki are also famed for their tempura. However, since I am not a huge fan of fried food, we only ordered a small serving of tempura and were served a small assortment of deep fried sweet potato, shrimp, fish and corn. Mr. C seemed to enjoy it, and under his urging I did end up sampling a morsel of the corn. The corn itself was sweet and juicy, it actually sprayed juice when I bit into it, but what was surprising was the batter.The batter was fried to a good texture with a slight crunch showing that it was not overcooked and it tasted pleasantly light and not overly greasy. Even though I am still not partial to fried things, I can appreciate why this is considered one of their specialities.

After all our entrees, I was already starting to feel full, but our meal had barely even started. It was now Chef Inoue’s time to shine.

Our first teppan dish was a Japanese oyster with red bean and oyster sauce. This was quite normal, the marinade was quite strongly flavoured and salty, but I liked it, It actually reminded me of the Chinese black bean sauce.

Next we had two types of fish. First was one of my favourites- cod fish. The meat was perfectly cooked where it was firm, but still flaked off easily with the prod of chopsticks and the natural fattiness of the fish gave it a beautiful buttery texture. The skin was seared to a nice crisp and I found myself enjoying that the most.

The other type we had was sole fish. This was also quite good, where the meat was more soft and tender. Chef Inoue concentrated on making the edges of the fish (the fins) extra crispy so it added a contrasting crunchy texture.

Our last seafood dish was abalone with green peppers and ginger sauce. The abalone was very fresh by the pleasant chewy bounce on the teeth and the peppers were surprisingly not spicy, but rather provided a hint of flavour that complemented the ginger sauce.

The meat selection for that night was a portion of beautifully marbled A4 Saga beef. When asked by Chef Inoue how we would like it cooked, we requested for her to decide, and she seared it to a perfect blushing medium rare. The exterior of the meat was seared to a slight crisp, sealing in all the goodness of the melted fats which resulted in a gorgeously juicy mouthful of good quality beef. I really enjoyed this, but would have loved it more if I was not so full =.=

During the cooking of the steak, Chef Inoue sliced off the trim of fat from the saga beef and cooked it separately till most of the fat had liquified, leaving behind the solid bits fried to a crispy golden brown. The oil was used in cooking our fried rice and the fat leavings were scattered on top of our vegetables. The fried rice was cooked quite well, where the moisture had evaporated enough so that each grain of rice was cooked to a pleasant chewiness and there was a slight sourness to the rice from the addition of ume (sour plum). It could have done with a bit more soy sauce though as it was a little bland. The vegetables was the standard addition to any teppanyaki dinner, very fresh and cooked just right, but like the fried rice it was lacking a little in the sodium department.

We were also served a bowl of hot miso soup which was very comforting on the stomach after such a heavy meal.

For dessert, I was quite happy to be served a couple of slices of fruit and a scoop of sesame ice-cream. Mr. C had the yuzu sorbet, but I did not try it.

And so I thought it was the end to quite an incredible meal, until the waiter brought out a beautiful pink rose cake. I was so stunned! The rose cake is actually the signature cake made by The Royal Garden Hotel (yes you may be thinking it looks the same as the one from Tony Wong, but that is because Tony Wong used to work at The Royal Garden Hotel prior to opening his shop hence maybe the similarity). Layers of thin pink tinted white chocolate molded and teased into the petals of a gorgeously blushing rose in its full bloomed state. Hiding inside, was a layered sponge cake with fresh cream and strawberries sandwiched inside. When I cut into the cake, the alluring fragrance of strawberries permeated the air, making me eager to taste it. I must admit I am not normally a fan of sponge cake and cream, but this was quite good, the sponge was firmer than what I expected, giving it more substance and the classic combination of strawberries and cream did not fail to please.

Thank you to Mr. C for going to all the trouble of preparing the cake. Really really appreciated~!

I loved the sashimi immensely and the teppanyaki part of the dinner was good too, but it did become a little monotonous after a while. Despite this, I was still glad to have had a chance to try Chef Inoue’s cooking skills.

Disappointing dinner @ L’Altro

Met up with friends for a Friday night dinner at the newly opened L’Altro situated inside the L Place. Headed
by the two star Michelin chef Philippe Leveille, we were anticipating something quite different as promised by the menu to be Mr. Leveille’s interpretation of Italian cuisine between ‘tradition and new’.

The decor of the restaurant was very modern decorated with stark colours of white and grey. It had quite a futuristic feel which gave me an odd sensation that I was about to be served a meal of something created entirely from gastronomy rather than Italian cuisine.

The menu had two set menus and a selection of dishes for a la carte. After much consideration, and a little negotiation with the person who I assumed was the manager to swap Miss and Mr. K’s original entree for something else, we all decided on the second set menu.

A bread basket was served shortly after placing our order. There were four varieties, woodfired Italian bread, lavosh, olive roll and foccacia. Normally, there would be olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the dipping of the bread, however the waitress explained that the chef wanted diners to appreciate the flavours of the bread in its natural state so they do not intially serve it unless requested. Well, after taking my first bite of the wood fired bread, I decided I did need the condiments as not only was the bread served disappointingly cold it was also bland. However, I must commend the quality of the olive oil as it was full bodied and very smooth.

The amuse bouche was a seared tuna hamburger served with lemongrass foam. This was quite good, the tuna was still semi-raw, with a meaty texture and it went surprisingly well with the creaminess of the fragrant foam.

For entree, Miss E and myself had the scallops which was original selection on the set menu. The scallops were cooked in two ways, where one side was cooked rare and the other to a medium rare. Atop was a slice of fried bread with a stalk of tempurared asparagus. The accompanying sauce was an aromatic dressing which consisted of white wine, vinegar, tomatoes, carrots and celery. The result of this method of cooking was a very tender piece of scallop which melted in the mouth and the aromatic dressing was quite tangy and rich in tomato flavour which went very well with the dish.

Miss and Mr. K were served fois gras for their entree since they had replaced the scallops with this. It came as a seven layer terrine and was served with a slice of toasted brioche. I did not try this, but I gathered this was only so so since neither of them finished this.

There was a second variation to the fois gras dish, from L-R it was a piece of crumbed fois gras, chocolate truffle fois gras and smoke fois gras with sweet wine. Judging by Miss K’s attempt to eat the crumbed fois gras, it was probably fried too long as the coating seemed to give her slight difficulties in chewing it as it was quite hard. There was not much comment regarding the chocolate fois gras and they both did not seem to enjoy the smoked fois gras and sweet wine.

Our pasta dish that night was home made spaghetti with vongoles, capers, tomato confit in a sea water emulsion. The spaghetti was cooked well enough and the flavour was decent with a sour tang resulting from the capers and tomato, however we all agreed that it was overly salty. They should also work on the presentation of this dish as it was not visually appealing at all.

Our meat course was the one side grilled pigeon atop diced squid and chorizo with an accompanying fois gras sauce. When the waiter was taking our order, he had suggested that as a recommendation from the chef it was best that the pigeon be served quite rare. Well after hearing that, we decided to leave the decision in the capable hands of the chef. How wrong we were. The pigeon really arrived extremely rare and in Miss E and Miss K’s case, there was quite a lot of blood water oozing from the pigeon. Mr. K’s and mine fared better as parts of ours were cooked more thoroughly. From the parts that I could eat, it was actually quite tender, but afterwards, my whole mouth had an unpleasant taste of blood. It was extremely off putting. So, I would recommend others to opt for medium rare if wanting to select this dish. I also was not a fan of the squid as even though it was cooked to a good texture, the fishiness of the flavour was quite unpleasant.

And finally to dessert. The gelato ‘Miramonti’, a home made gelato which was prepared and served at the table. I was quite looking forward to trying this, as there have been some good comments about the unique taste of the gelato. The waiters scooped blobs of gelato off a small gelato mountain into martini glasses and spooned a warm compote of strawberries on top. It smelled delightful, a very crisp yet refreshing vanilla scent with a hint of citrus zest. The gelato was so smooth and creamy that it just glided on the tongue and the taste really was quite special, everyone seemed to think it tasted different, but in a good way. My friends came to conclude that it tasted like the ice-cream inside those blue ramune ice-blocks you can buy at the supermarket, while I was so sure that it tasted of yakult. Nevertheless, I really really enjoyed this dessert~

Lastly, we were served their selection of petite ‘six’. From L-R lime financiers, raspberry (red) and coffee (blue) macaron, dark chocolate truffle with balsamico, green apple geraldine, meringue and profiterole. I only tried two of the items, the lime financier which I really didn’t like, the lime flavour just did not taste right, and the cake was a little soggy with not much butter flavour. I did enjoy the truffle though, seductively dark, it just melted in the mouth and the intense sweet yet sour flavour of the balsamico was quite enjoyable. According to the others, the meringue and the green apple geraldine were very sweet and pretty average.

I must say their coffee was quite good, my latte was done well, but the foam on Miss K’s cappuccino was so thick and stiff that it was a slight obstacle for her when she was attempting to drink it.

In general, I can conclude that none of us were particularly entranced by the dinner experience, the pigeon was definitely a bit shocking and quite literally left an unpleasant taste in our mouths, but the scallops and especially dessert provided a little saving grace for the restaurant. However, L’Altro is still very new on the dining scene and maybe just needs some time to co-ordinate itself properly. Service was hapharzadly attentive, they were always asking about how we felt about the dishes, but at the same time neglected little things like re-filling our cups of water.

Birthday dinner at Mandarin Grill + Bar~

For my birthday this year I chose to have dinner at the Mandarin Grill + Bar. I must admit that I had quite a difficult time deciding where to celebrate since there are so many fine dining options out there, but I have always been intrigued by the artful presentation of the dishes served at the Grill + Bar hence it ended as my place of choice.

I was originally celebrating with my dad, but due to some pressing issues he was unable to attend, so I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mr. C as that night’s dining companion.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was quite surprised by the decor as I was expecting it to portray more of a steakhouse vibe, rather than a proper dining room with modern finishes. The atmosphere was also not as stiff as I was expecting it to be, and the ambience was actually quite pleasant and comfortable.

We chose to go a la carte rather than picking from the set menus so we could share and try more things, but before that we were served my beloved bread basket and a couple of amuse bouches. The bread basket was served warm which I expected no less from a one Michelin starred restaurant and from the few that I tried, I was most impressed with their quality. I especially liked their olive bread as well as the black sesame roll which was quite unusual, with a slightly firm yet chewy crust where the flavour of the sesame filled the senses in a pleasant way. We were also able to choose an olive oil to accompany our bread, I picked an Italian one (with the gold ribbon) which was so smooth on the tongue, and since Mr. C let me pick his, I chose a peppery one which was made from baby olives. Out of the two I actually preferred the peppery one as the olive taste was much sharper on the tongue.

Continuing with the olive trend, our first amuse bouche was a small green liquid sphere of oliveness. No doubt there was gastronomy involved in making this, where a semi-hard gelatin casing enveloped a centre of liquid olive essence. I did not really like this, as I was not very fond of the texture of the exterior and the taste was only so so for me. Accompanying this were a pair of herbed savoury biscuits topped with finely shaved parmesean. I would have never thought I would enjoy biscuits that were salty, but they were surprisingly good, quite buttery with the herb flavour coming through strongly.

We were also presented with a pair of cheese gourgeres. So delicate looking, with the choux pastry hiding a warm gooey cheese centre. I loved it~

We started with some French oysters. I am not especially partial to oysters, but I do enjoy them once in a while. The ones we had were Fines de Claire and these were very creamy and quite sweet from their natural juices.

For entree, we started with ‘Garden’. A plate of beautifully arranged organic vegetables which were held together by a mixture of blended argula and coconut milk. The waiter then proceeded to ‘water’ our arrangement with the dressing inside a small watering can. Very cute~ Presentation wise it get full marks, but in terms of taste, the vegetables were of course very fresh, but the dressing was too bland for me. Also I did not like the flavor of the argula ‘soil’, as it was quite strong.

For soup we had the lobster bisque. This was heart warmingly good. The flavour of the lobster was very intense, and the addition of cream gave a wonderful smoothness and thickness to the texture.

We picked two hot appetisers, the scallop and fois gras. Three very plump scallops were served in a small ceramic pot atop a combintation of sea grass and kelp. The scallops were perfectly cooked so they were very tender and retained the natural sweetness of its juices. What was interesting was the addition of a few roundish green leaves, which was described by the waiter as oyster leaves. The special thing about these leaves were that they were supposed to give off a slight oyster flavour since these plants are grown in the same area where oysters are bred. And surprisngly they did, a subtle oyster ‘fishiness’, which went very well with the rest of the dish.

The fois gras was beautifully plated, but was a very disappointing dish. The quality of the fois gras was not very good, as it was quite ‘rough’ in texture and not very smooth. It was also very gamey in flavour. Disappointing.

For mains, we were served the sea bass first. This was salt baked, and came to the table on a big slab of pink himalyan salt prior to being plated. The presentation was quite cute, where the starkness of the white of the fish contrasted sharply with the colourful pureed dots of artichoke, lemon, pepper and saffron. The sea bass was perfectly cooked, very tender, and the dots of sauces helped to enhace the natural flavour of the fish. My favourite combination was pairing it with the lemon.

The Beef  ‘Calotte’ was our pick from the meat course. I was quite anticipating this dish, as there have been some very positive reviews about it. The beef itself comes from the US snake river farm and the ‘calotte’ is the ribeye cap where the meat is supposed to be the most tender and flavourful. This was presented inside the signature Mandarin Grill book, but when we opened it I was surprised to find everything to be black. The waiter then explained they had just changed the presentation of this dish that day and the theme was charcoal, so essentially everything was coated in charcoal, even the vegetables which unfortuately looked like lumps of coal. However to me, this dish was just about the beef. And yes it did deliver. Cooked to a perfect blushing medium rare, I knew it was going to be very tender from the way my knife slid through it quite easily. The beef was so flavourful, and there was a pleasant gaminess to the taste which melded well with the slight fattiness of the beef. Definitely recommended~

And finally to my favourite part of any meal. Desserts! We chose three to share between us, fruit, banana split and oreo. Since we asked for them to all come at the same time, we picked the lightest one to eat first. Fruit was a mix of seasonal fresh and freeze dried fruit with two types of sorbet, mandarin and pear. Although it was very pretty to look at, it was not very special. The fruit was fresh, but the freeze dried fruit was a little odd in texture and it kept sticking to my teeth. The sorbets were good though, refreshing with a clean and crisp flavour.

The banana split was presented very differently to what one would commonly associate with the name sake of three scoops of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream with two halves of a banana and topped with fake whipped cream with maraschino cherries. Instead, three baby bananas were presented on a dish and then lashed with chocolate sauce. Mr. C was curious enough to ask how they remember which one was what flavour to which the waiter replied that the angle at which the bananas were placed represented each flavour. Each banana turned out to be a coating of white chocolate with a different filling of strawberry mousse, banana mousse and vanilla ice-cream. As cute as it looked, it was quite sweet overall and the texutre of the mousse was quite firm and not very smooth.

Our last dessert was oreo, which was a vanilla ice-cream with a crumble of chocolate biscuit crumbs and topped with chocolate espuma which is foam. The texture of the dessert was airy and light due to the main element being foam, but it was very chocolatey in flavour. However I did find that it became cloyingy sweet after a couple of mouthfuls and in the end I seemed to enjoy the honest flavour of the vanilla ice-cream most.

As a little surprise, since it was my birthday I also had my very own chocolate candle. Quite cute really, a dark chocolate coating with chocolate ganache inside where the red flame was made from firm icing.

And to end we were served our own his and hers petite fours. Mine was a sherbet powder compact with lemon and raspberry sherbet which came with my own white fairy floss puff, while Mr. C had a chocolate cigar in it’s own cigar dish. I only had a slight taste of mine, because again it was just way too sweet for my liking, and I soon monopolized the chocolate cigars since the dark chocolate was just what I was seeking to end my meal. It was no surprise that the chocolate was so good since the Mandarin Oriental does excel in it. Smooth and rich, with the intense flavour of good quality dark chocolate. I wonder if they would serve it to the ladies upon request.

Although there were hits and misses where the dishes were concerned (dessert was unfortunately quite disappointing for me), I did have a fabulous evening. Thank you for celebrating with me, it was much appreciated 🙂

Mediocre dinner at 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana

Needing to make a booking more than one month in advance, I must say that I was more than a little excited when Friday night arrived heralding the long awaited dinner at 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana.

Upon entering the restaurant, my friend and I were greeted by two hostesses in a small alcove to the left and directly oposite is a small bar where guests can chill and have a casual drink. As we walked through to the main dining area, it struck me that it was not a very big dining area, but the far wall was a sheet of windows which helped open up the space. The sombre tone of brown used coupled with the dim lighting created quite an intimate setting, which would have been a perfect ambience for many of the couples I saw dining there that night.

We chose to go with the degustation that night so as to try as much as possible, despite the fact that some of the items on the a la carte menu were very enticing too.

We were served their bread basket first which as my favourite form of carb is something I always look forward to. It was quite a standard version, with crusty olive bread, grissini, sun-dried tomato foccacia and lavosh bread, but it was all fresh and what made it better was it got replenished when we were half-way through 🙂

Our amuse bouche for the night was a cheese scroll with parma ham. The scroll was croissant like, with buttery and flakey layers while the parma ham was mildy salty. Quite normal.

The first course was the lobster and iberico ham atop a melon emulsion with fresh mint. This was literally it’s description, however underneath the ham were spheres of rock melon and bites of lobster. I have to admit that I was not enamoured with it as I found the melon emulsion to be cloyingly sweet, however it did help tone down the saltiness of the iberico ham. The lobster almost seemed to be an after thought and did not provide much depth to the overall dish.

The second course of roast scampi on a mushroom ragout with sea urchin arrived looking quite unexciting, but the first bite I took really blew me away. The scampi was fresh and lightly crumbed and the earthiness of the mushrooms in the ragout melded well with the brininess of the sea urchin. Loved it~

A porcini risotto took place of the homemade fettuccine, and when it arrived, the wonderful aroma of the porcini mushroom wafted temptingly towards us. I can not remember what ingredient was included to make the risotto green, I’m guessing it was peas, but it didn’t matter since it tasted quite amazing. Rich, with a cheesy flavour it was so comforting to eat and the fresh porcini mushroom contributed a delightful earthy flavour to the risotto. However, the only issue I had with the dish, was that it was cooked to an Italian’s standard of al dente where each grain of rice was still raw in the centre. If it was a little softer, I would have enjoyed it even more.

For mains, there was a choice between M9 Tajima sirloin and a Spiced Roast Challan’s duck supreme. Both of us chose the sirloin.I must say the Italians don’t seem to be big on artistic plating, but it looked hearty enough on the plate. The sirloin was cooked to our specified medium rare, seared nicely on the outside with a slightly bloody centre. The texture of the meat was tender enough with a slight chew and there was a pleasant gaminess to the beef which I enjoyed.

The description of the dessert was not very enticing to me on paper since there was no trace of chocolate, but I must admit I was extremely pleased with what was served. Essentially it was a vanilla panacotta with peach jelly and a small cylinder of almond short cake with a small sphere of vanilla ice-cream. The panacotta was delightfully light on the tongue and the sweet taste of the peach was very refreshing. I also really enjoyed the creaminess of the vanilla bean speckled ice-cream. A surprisingly sweet ending~

Petite fours were also served, a pistachio short bread, milk chocolate studded with dried fruit and nuts and a jelly. I only tried the milk chocolate, but it was not very sweet and funnily enough it did not seem to have much of a cocoa taste. I would pass on this.

Overall, I am glad to have finally tried the famed 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana, but needing to wait one month for this meal, I was truly expecting something more spectacular with the dishes. Aside from the food, service was attentive, but politefully distant and the manager did come over a couple of times to see how we were enjoying the meal which was a gesture we appreciated.

If I do return, it would be to see what a la carte has to offer.

Pre-bday lunch at Le Jardin de Joel Robuchon~

And it’s September… The year is really flying by even though August to me was just dragging on and on, but nevertheless we’ve crossed that hurdle and into my birthday month~~ wheeeeeeee!

This year my birthday lands on a Sunday and since I would like to reserve celebrating the moment with my dad, I decided to have my birthday gathering with friends one week earlier. Event: Lunch, Destination: Le Jardin de Joel Robuchon.

As there were 9 of us, we were seated inside the private room, which was a surprisingly comfortable area with the back wall of windows providing enough natural lighting to brighten the room pleasantly. As we were perusing the menu, one of the staff presented me with a bottle of Dom Perignon with the vintage date being my birth year, saying it was with compliments from the manager! I was very impressed :). I’m not a big alcohol drinker because I don’t really like it, but this was very fruity and sweet with no sour tang of new champagne. Very enjoyable~

The lunch menu at Le Jardin (and for L’Atelier) is a set where you can decide how many courses you would like and make a selection from each section. You could select from five sections namely: Les Entrees, Les Soupes, Les Poissons, Les Viandes and Les Desserts. For us some decided to have 4 courses while others went with the full 5 courses. 

First to come (aside from their always always spectacular bread basket) was the amuse bouche. Left was a prawn jelly and to the right was a brocoli soup. I didn’t try the prawn jelly because I was afraid it might give me allergies, but the brocoli soup which was served cold was quite creamy and smooth. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t rate as one of the better amuses I have had at Robuchon previously.

For me I picked four courses. My entree was Les Legumes which was a colourful display of crunchy vegetable salad in artful disarry with a lemon mayonaisse dressing accompanied with a chicken/herb waffle. Such a light yet pleasant dish, the mix of vegetables provided a crunchy texture and the tanginess of the dressing helped to open up the appetite. The chicken waffle didn’t look like much, just a thin toasted sandwich, but it was extremely flavourful and I wished that it was slightly bigger :p

My second course was Le Mais which was a suggestion from the manager. A very summery looking dish which was delightfully alluring with the cool pale yellow sweet corn veloute contrasting with the nude twirls of fois gras shavings and radish. The veloute filled the palate with the heady sweetness of fresh corn and the richness of the fois gras added a touch of luxury to an otherwise light dish.

I had another soup as my third course, La Courgette Violon. This time it was a warming zucchini veloute with parmesan foam. The veloute and foam arrived as two separate elements and required a little action from the servers in pouring the veloute into the foam. The zucchini flavour in the veloute was very subtle, but it was a perfect texture, not too thick or thin in consistency and it was smooth and creamy in taste.

The signature La Caille was my main course.This was actually quite a small portion with only two pieces of quail and a quenelle of mash potatoes, but since I was already getting quite full, it was the perfect size. The skin of the quail was caramalized lending a delicate sweetness to the slightly gamey taste of the meat. However I found the texture to be quite tough and I couldn’t really taste the fois gras. The mashed potato was delicious as always. So utterly smooth, I can only imagine how much butter and cream goes into creating such a heavenly texture.

Other dishes that my friends had that I was able to try was the Le Carabineros which was a squid ink /Acini/ pasta with tempura Spain Carabineros prawn. I took a bite of the squid ink pasta and fell in love with the texture. Slightly ball like with a lovely al dente chewy texture. I really had food envy haha.. The L’Onglet, steak tartare with black truffle and gold-foiled quails eggs was just as good as always. Finely minced steak with a tart flavour, I helped T finish hers off when she failed to do so :p I also had a taste of C’s La Volaille which was Challans chicken in a honey mustard sauce and seasonal mushrooms. From the bite I had I could really taste the honey mustard flavour and the texture of the chicken was very tender. It seemed to be quite a comfort dish, but C felt it could improve with the addition of onions.

Le Carabineros

L’Onglet

La Volaille

And onto my favourite part of the meal.. desserts~!
For me as something special, I had the Le Pomme Verte which is from the a la carte menu. It was so pretty~ A ball of apple sorbet sitting atop a cushion of caramalized green apple compote on a pool of vanilla cream. What enhanced the presentation were the literally paper thin slices of dried apple that were pierced interspersly into the sorbet and the sugar ring that hung delicately from the apple slices, gave it an outer space kind of feeling. The apple sorbet was refreshing and sweetly tart, and the slices of dried apple were of a crisp texture which melted in the mouth. The vanilla cream was pleasantly smooth, and helped subtly tone down the tartness of the sorbet.

When my friend’s dessert was set down in front of them, I was hit by another bout of food envy =.= The oh-so alluring fushia colour of the Le Pamplemousse was just so appealing. A combination of grapefruit and lychee jelly with raspberry mousse and raspberry sorbet, it looked so flirty and fun. It tasted amazing too! I definitely need one for myself next time~

And I guess no birthday is complete without a cake. A delicately rich chocolate mousse like cake, made from 70% cocoa and chocolate with a liquid raspberry centre and scattered with hazelnuts. It was so good! I enjoyed it so much that I ended up eating the rest of T’s cake too haha..

Paired with my cute bear bear skim decaf latte, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ending to such an enjoyable lunch 🙂