Had the Restaurant Week set lunch--so there was no Citibank discount--which is just a trimmed down version of their usual set lunch menu. In fact, I think their usual set lunch might be more worth it--nearly 100% more choices at slightly less cost. Opted for the lobster bisque (choice of that or cold capellini with cured salmon and avruga caviar), duck leg confit with sauteed potatoes (choice of that or miso cod with lotus root) and tea (or coffee). The dessert was fixed--creme brulee with earl grey sorbet.
First up, bread and butter. The others really liked the bread (roll).. It was good, chewy, tasty and hot/warm. But I wasn't quite convinced. The butter was at a great temperature, though. But the taste... forgettable. The rest of the party got second servings of bread before the entrees arrived.
(Braise photos are all courtesy of Andre (: with editing by yours truly.)
Cold Capellini with Cured Salmon and Avruga Caviar
For starters, the lobster bisque was very tasty, rather heavy on the palate and super thick in terms of flavour. However, one of the guys commented that it was too lobstery for him. Anyway, the taste was ok but the consistency was too watery for my liking. The croutons in the soup were... not crispy. They had soaked up all the soup and annoyingly stuck to my teeth when I chomped on them. Stole a bit of my friends cold capellini (above)--which came with angel hair--was pretty decent. Think that that would've been a better choice. The lobster bisque gave me a bit of a headache and I had to gulp some ice water to secretly ease the thirst from the odd 'saltiness'.
Duck Leg Confit with Sauteed Potatoes
The mains arrived shortly after we finished. This was the worst of the lot for me. The duck was very hard, and I could not poke it with my fork. I made 10 attempts before giving up trying to be "demure" and barbarically stabbed it. Which turned out to be useless, since it just stuck there shallowly. Had to saw tirelessly with my knife to remove the meat. This isn't the way duck confit is supposed to be! Man, I could've gone to La Petite Cuisine to eat my fill and still have left over money. I think I ate less than a quarter. The accompanying salad wasn't particularly appetising either--the vegetables were slightly bitter. The guys finished theirs (both had duck, too) but mentioned that they didn't quite enjoy the sauce, which they described as "Asian". I didn't order the miso cod (I had miso tofu the night before.. more on that later), but the other girl did. But she hardly touched it, explaining that she was very full after her appetiser and lots of water. She described it as not melt-in-your-mouth, and neither smooth nor rich, like cod usually is. You make your own deductions. The lotus root--thin, fried slices--adorning it didn't look particularly delicious either.
Miso Cod with Lotus Root
The dessert was also a disappointment. The creme brulee was undercooked and more creamy than custardy. The topmost layer of burnt sugar could hardly even be called "burnt". In assessing the taste of the cream, failed texture notwithstanding, it was sweet and I didn't really taste anything other than the cream/sugar. The accompanying sorbet tasted quite authentically earl grey, but wasn't truly a sorbet in my opinion. I found it too sweet for my liking, and too heavy. The others said that it was refreshing and cleansed the palate though. One man's meat is another man's poison, I guess. The tea was alright, nothing spectacular (though I did note that the sugar tongs were rather stiff. Hahahaha.). All in all, a rather fail meal. It was super empty, though the place was supposed to be fully reserved. When we arrived around 1pm, the restaurant only had 2 other tables of 4 who were finishing up.
Earl Grey Sorbet and Creme Brulee
Later, we were stuck in the restaurant because it was raining--thank goodness it has at least fairly nice ambience.. though a rainy Sentosa beach is not much of a view.
The Four Fantastic Foodies.
(The 2 ga guys had fine dining every single day during Restaurant Week, yo! Twice in a day, even.)
The one thing which brightened up the day (other than the fantastic company :) was the pretty good service. We requested umbrellas to get to the carpark and got one umbrella each. And, a staff followed us to the carpark so that we wouldn't have to walk all the way back to return the umbrellas (: most of the staff at the restaurant are pretty friendly-ish, helpful and polite.
I didn't make it for my Skype date in the end, since we left pretty late. I made it around 1600h SGT, as agreed, but stupid daylight savings meant that it got brought forward. The Singapore side, i.e. us, had no clue. Oh well. Next week, I guess.
The night before, I went to Marmalade Pantry at Ion for dinner. This is the first time I've been in a long time, and certainly my first visit to the Ion branch. Service was alright, food was a bit slow, ambience not so quiet (no thanks to us as well). Didn't fancy the location--felt rather exposed and there wasn't anything to look at. People watching also failed. Disliked the fact that there was a lot of human traffic especially since it's located near the escalators.
Image from Flickr. (Not mine.)
Opted for a miso tofu (SGD 18++) because they were out of quiches, instead of the usual crabmeat linguine (SGD 22++). My friend's funny rice dish smelt really gooood.. It's called green peppercorn and garlic chicken (SGD 20++). Seemed pretty filling/satisfying, too. He also recommended us to try the Ice Chocolate (SGD 9++) next time. Hurhur. Other orders included the truffle field mushroom risotto (SGD 22++) add chicken (SGD 6++) and roast chicken and avocado salad (SGD 21++). No real complaints about those. Quite enjoyed my miso tofu, surprisingly! It doesn't come with carbs, so it's diet-friendly (if you care about these things). The vegetable tempura was delightfully light and crispy and not bland. The "soup" was actually tempura dip, with some miso, but it wasn't too salty. Rather pleasant. The liberally sprinkled cress leaves were unexpectedly spicy--phew, what a kick! Hehe. The miso on the tofu actually was sweet and very fragrant. The big piece of tofu was smooth and wobbly, but not superbly soy-ful, if you know what I mean. Even though I wasn't full, I was more or less satisfied, so it was quite ok. But I got hungry again shortly after d: for desserts, the others shared the crowd-favourite sticky date & toffee pudding (SGD 12++)--another safe and boring choice, like the linguine--and tried an apricot & blackberry crumble (also SGD 12++). A couple of them wanted the ever-popular nutella cupcakes (SGD 4.20++), but they were sold out. I decided to save some money and skip dessert. The total bill for I think 12 of us was about SGD 315 after my UOB (or Citibank works too) discount :D
While we're on topic of the Marmalade group of restaurants, may I announce that Toast at Takashimaya is closed!!!! What a pity. Another secret hidey hole gone. It closed pretty long ago, but not many of my friends've realised that. Evidently, it has not been getting enough business from us. Hurhur.
It rained today so I couldn't go swimming. Boohoohoo. Had fish all of today. At lunch, I ordered my favourite Bukit Timah Market/Food Centre sliced fish soup instead of pasta from Mien (and had some carrot cake, too). Dinner with the 'rents was seafood at Clementi, where I ordered an additional handmade noodle just for the sake of having fibre during my meal. The crayfish they served us was spoilt! After
Image from Google.
To brunch or not to brunch tomorrow? Or maybe I should have a Macs deluxe breakfast I craved last week, which I had 2 weeks ago, though I don't quite feel like it this week. Hurhur. My 3 hopes for the weekend: that it doesn't rain; that I'll catch How To Train Your Dragon in 3D; and that it will be productive (: also, some shopping and/or Walas tomorrow, maybe.
My friend said something at lunch today which I think is very true, "Hawker food is Singapore is awesome, but restaurants in Singapore aren't so good." Perhaps it's time I start cutting back on my food expenditure. I can hear ye shouting "hawker food hunt!!", you know who you are. Hahaha. Good company at lunch today, yay (: it's so nice to have friends who know how your feel (because they feel the same way, too). Perhaps I should make this Friday thing a regular fixture.. except that I've to miss class d: Nearly died in my morning tutorial with 4 hours or less of sleep and no food in my tummy. 'twas awful.
(And just because I have to grammar nazi myself, it sounds absurd to say very true because "true" is an absolute, so there are no varying degrees of truth, so to speak...)
xoxo
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