Visually appealing and tasty dinner @ LPW~

Having heard many positive things about Liberty Private Works from friends, I finally went online to see if I could reserve a seating in the oncoming weeks (this was in October). There are two seating times, 7.30pm and 8.30pm and you can only reserve a table 30 days in advance. For those that do not want to wait that long, I would suggest you reserve a seating during the weekdays rather than weekends as it seems there is more availability then. They serve a 10-course degustation set by the chef with an optional wine pairing. If you have any food allergies, you are able to specify on the online booking form and they are more than willing to substitute ingredients.

Even though I picked a Wednesday (three weeks in advance), I was still put on waiting list for a seating for two, but they confirmed the reservation two days before so I guess lucky C and me~

LPW is located on Stanley st and sits on the 26th floor of the Stanley 11 building. In order to reach the 26th floor, you will need to go up via the disabled elevator around the corner from the concierge as not all the elevators go up to that level. We were greeted at the door by the waitress and then led us to our assigned seats. The dining area is not large, but coupled with a high ceiling and floor to ceiling length windows that account for two adjacent sides of the room, it gave the illusion of spaciousness. Quite nice actually. The open kitchen is based in the center of the room and guests are seated on red cushy bar stools aligned against the rectangular layout of this area.

While waiting for the degustation to start (guests are served the same dish at the same time according to their time of seating), we were able to watch the chefs at work, carefully plating our dishes as well as enjoying the pita crisps with guacamole as pre-meal nibbles.

The amuse bouche looked so artsy, chicken liver parfait thinly spread using a stencil into nine minature squares. Accompanying the parfait, clockwise from top left, fried brioche with fresh fig, hibiscus flower, almond jelly napoleon and a square of chicken skin. This was quite fun to eat, we were able to try out different combinations with the parfait to find our favourite pairing. The sweetness from the hibiscus flower and almond jelly worked really well with the rich flavour of the chicken liver, while the crunchy texture of the brioche and crispy chicken skin gave a nice texture contrast to the smoothness of the parfait.

The next dish was one of their signature dishes. Very striking in appearance, with the vivid lime green brushstroke clashing with the bright orange sea urchin. Essentially this was a tuna tartare, topped with fresh tongues of sea urchin.and caviar with a scatter of puffed rice surrounding it. To the side of the plate, on the left was a frozen grape and on the right was a frozen longan. We were instructed to first eat the grape as a refresher before starting on the tartare and the longan was for afterwards. The tartare was really good, both the tuna and sea urchin were very fresh and the puffed rice added a crunchiness to the mushy texture of the tartare. The longan helped cleanse the palate from the slight fishiness of the tuna which was actually quite thoughtful.

Scallops were next. One solitary scallop sliced in half accompanied with Jerusalem artichoke puree, black garlic and a crispy pork rind. The scallop was seared perfectly with the inside still slightly raw and the artichoke puree was very creamy. I only had a small bite of the pork rind as it tasted too much of bacon which I am not too fond of, but this was just my problem as other guests left their plate clean. C is allergic to shellfish, so she had fish to replace hers. She seemed to enjoy it.

The market fish served that evening was turbot with autumn black truffle and white celery root cut into perfect spheres and laid as an intricate pattern of scales. The fish was fresh, with a slight perfume from the truffles, but compared to the other dishes this was nothing out of the ordinary.

When the next dish was being prepared, I honestly was not looking forward to it as excuse my shallowness, the wrinkled up package in the center of the plate looked very unattractive. As the server described to us that this was their second signature dish, I was a little shocked, but definitely more intrigued. And oh how wrong I was to judge! This was very very good~ The wrinkled package was actually a creamy spinach and ricotta ravioli which when you cut into it, revealed a gorgeously runny egg yolk. The yolk was supposed to mix together with the truffle and parmesean espuma foam bathing the ravioli and a freshly baked baguette was served to mop up the liquid. Both C and I enjoyed this a lot 🙂

The first meat dish served was rabbit done in two ways. A rabbit ragout with pasta, topped with rabbit roulade wrapped in crispy pancetta accompanied with a single chestnut, brussel sprouts and a smear of carrot puree. The braised ragout was flavourful and despite the roulade being wrapped in bacon, I still enjoyed the tender rabbit meat inside. The carrot puree was sweet and I was pretty sure that the brussel sprouts was there to cleanse the palate from the richness of the bacon.

A trio of beef signaled our final savoury course of the evening. A side of sirloin cooked to a beautiful rosy pink with ox tongue presented in two ways. One as a slow-braised finger seductively caramelised and also as a cold cut. This was accompanied by fresh porcini mushrooms, fois gras and braised onions. The sirloin although it looked very tender, was slightly chewy, but had a beautiful natural flavour while the braised ox tongue just melted deliciously in the mouth. C had a portion of pork sirloin replacing the beef, and from the bite I had it was perfectly cooked. The meat was soft and despite there being no accompanying sauce (since it was made with beef) it was perfectly juicy and flavouful with just a touch of saltiness.

While we were still finishing our main course, we could see the chef preparing dessert, drawing lines and dots with a squeezy tube on a black surface. Upon looking closely, the black surface was actually individual plates set together, so that once the chef finished his ‘artwork’ each guest received something a little different. Quite summery looking, this dessert displayed the main element of pineapple. They used pina colada cream in two ways frozen solid with nitrogen and blobbed as a fizzy cream. Honestly I am not partial to the flavour of pina colada, but it was interesting to taste the very cold, solid cream created from the nitrogen while I felt the fizzy cream tasted a bit like off milk? I preferred the other components of the dessert more, the olive oil sorbet was smooth and delicate in flavour while the condensed milk mochi was really good, cutely plump with a pleasant chewy texture.

The final dessert was much more to my liking~ A deconstructed PB&J sandwich which consisted of a dome of rich chocolate and peanut butter ganache accompanied by a quenelle of vanilla and jelly ice-cream with a piece of airy sponge cake. Scattered underneath were candid peanuts and crisp chocolate balls for a little textural contrast. We were instructed to combine all the elements in one spoonful for the full experience, and I must say I really enjoyed this. The dome of ganache tasted like a more elegant version of a Reese peanut butter cup and the ice-cream was perfect in relieving the palate from the overall richness. So so good~

And to end~ Freshly baked madelines and coffee. Happy Birthday C~! Hope you liked it 🙂

The meal was very enjoyable and service was attentive, but a little haphazard at times . Each dish was supposed to be announced by either the chef or the server, however a couple of times we had to remind them to give us the descriptions, but this was very minor. When our coffees were served, C’s cup had a very unpleasant sour smell and when we relayed this to the server, he immediately replaced it with a very positive attitude. Appreciated. This is definitely somewhere I plan on returning to~

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.