Restaurant week anyone??

Heres a post adapted from Camemberu about Restaurant week:

Restaurant Week has come to Singapore! This culinary event in cities like Amsterdam and New York sees fine dining and mid-market restaurants offering a three-course menu for a special fixed price during a one-week period. It's pioneered by DiningCity.com, an online restaurant guide which now features Singapore restaurants as well.


For Restaurant Week in Singapore, you'll get to choose from more than 50 restaurants including Absinthe, Garibaldi, FiftyThree, Bedrock Bar & Grill, The Cliff, Mimolette, The Nautilus Project, Novus, Brasserie Wolf, One On The Bund, Oso Ristorante, OTTO, Picotin, The Prime Society, The White Rabbit, Krish, Private Affairs, Tatsuya, The Song of India and Takumi Tokyo. They will be offering a S$25++ three-course lunch and S$35++ three-course dinner from 22 to 28 March 2010.

Bookings are online only via www.restaurantweek.sg, and open 23 Feb 2010 (but it's not yet available as of time of posting). The website looks a wee bit spartan but at least all the basic information is there. Hope they will put up an updated list of restaurants soon, but at any rate, here is the list as of 4 Feb.

LIST OF RESTAURANTS AS OF 4 FEB 2010

1 Absinthe

2 Al Qasr

3 Bedrock Bar & Grill

4 Bollicine Restaurant

5 Bonta

6 Boulevard

7 Choupinette

8 Dim Joy

9 District 10 Bistro Wine Bar

10 FiftyThree

11 Garibaldi Italian Restaurant & Bar

12 Gattopardo Italian Grill & Pizzabar

13 KHA

14 Mimolette Restaurant & Bar

15 Novus Restaurant, Bar, Café & Courtyard

16 One on the Bund

17 Orgo Bar & restaurant

18 Oso Ristorante

19 OTTO Ristorante

20 Picotin Bar Bistro Epicerie

21 Private Affairs

22 Red House Seafood Restaurant

23 Red House At The Quayside

24 Ricciotti at The Riverwalk

25 Ricciotti at China Square Central

26 Takumi Tokyo

27 Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant

28 The Cliff @ The Sentosa Resort & Spa

29 The French Kitchen

30 The Garden @ The Sentosa Resort & Spa

31 The Song of India

32 Tiffin Club

33 Pasta Brava Restaurant

34 Brotzeit Bier, Bar & Restaurant

35 Restaurant Da Mario

36 Seven on Club

37 The Prime Society

38 The Nautilus Project

39 Brasserie Wolf

40 Esmirada At Orchard

41 Esmirada At The Pier

42 Bodega Y Tapas

43 The White Rabbit

44 Il Lido

45 Forlino

46 Capricci

47 Krish

48 Senso Ristorante & Bar

49 Original Sin

50 Michelangelo's

51 Julien BOMPARD

52 Braise

53 Chiharu

54 Zento

55 Villa Enrique

56 Bacchus

57 CM-PB
 
Let me know if anyone is interested to try any of the restaurants for this once-a-year-only deal!

dinner by the sea....

a new place which i went to try after reading about it in a fellow  flogger's blog...ambience looks nice, as you are literally dining by the sea (ok, above the sea in an air-conditioned restaurant)...

simple and rustic design

that's your "dining by the sea" for you...

soft drinks and juices are inclusive in the buffet...1 waiter told me wines and beers are inclusive too, but i didnt really believe them to order it....but anyway i didnt really want to drink that night...

my 1st course, is obviously the irresistible fresh seafood!

fresh oysters

fresh mussels

fresh prawns

assorted canapes

the assorted seafood were very fresh...no stinky/fishy smell from the oysters and mussels....although there are an occasional 1 or 2 oyster that are slightly below standard....but on the whole, pretty good...including the succulent prawns...went for 2nd helpings at the end of my meal.....canapes were pretty forgettable....just the usual egg mayo, tuna mayo and sun-dried tomato on cold hard bread....

corn soup that was forgettable too...worse than campbell's...

assorted hot dishes (that was all the selection they had)

 smoked salmon and sausage cocktail canape...nothing much to rave about also...

siew mai and har gow...tastes like those you get in convenience stores....

stir-fried spaghetti and black pepper beef tenderloin...spaghetti was a slightly oily-er and less spicy rendition of aglio olio, beef tenderloin was ok...but black pepper taste quite light...

crab croquette on the left, braised lamb with mushrooms on the right....croquette tastes pre-packed too....no evident taste of fresh crab meat in it....braised lamb tastes not bad...i prefer it to the beef tenderloin....

chicken in lemon butter sauce in the foreground, grilled unagi in the background....chicken was pretty dry, even though i picked the thigh meat...it didnt absorb any lemon or butter taste from the sauce....grilled unagi was nothing fabulous too...i didnt really like unagi anyway....abit too salty though...

potato gratin on the left, grilled unagi on the right...potato gratin was ok...cheese didnt taste bad, and the potato wasnt too overcooked...ok dish on a whole...

my platter of desserts to share

lemon mousse and new york cheesecake....it seems that this restaurant likes to make mousses for dessert...half the whole dessert section consists of different flavour mousses...thumbs down for creativity....but this lemon mousse is prob the nicest among all their mousses...the tart-ness of the lemon gel on top balances the creamy-ness of the mousse below...not too bad....their cheesecake is not bad too...very soft and light....

mango pudding on the left, strawberry mousse on the right...mango pudding was too soft and no mango taste...worse than those selling in supermarkets....strawberry mousse was sweet and creamy...didnt like it...

blueberry mousse on the left, vanilla mousse on the right...no comments on these 2, just another 2 variations of mousse again...boring and not nice...

apple crumble and pandan cheesecake....these 2 were pretty ok...apple crumble wasn't as crumbly as it should be, more on the soft side....but can do.....pandan cheesecake didnt have a very strong pandan flavour, but was pretty soft and not too rich....

all these desserts i took were about 75% of the whole dessert selection...the rest were ice creams and choc cakes....not too interesting in terms of selection....and the individual desserts (and some of the hot food) were not named, so guests don't really know what they are taking (thats why i ended up with so many mousses!)...it was after i tasted the desserts, then i knew what they were....not exactly very good to prevent wastage...

overall, pretty decent....the service was not too bad....friendly staff...ambience is nice (but please come before 7pm, because after that the sky turns dark and you cant see much anymore) and the seafood is pretty good....was told by the waiter that their menu changes everyday, so you will still see something new on your 2nd trip there....i am not sure if i will come back again for the buffet, but might try their 1st floor al fresco dining area which serves ala-carte and drinks next time....

Iluka Seaview Dining (member of Amici Group)

2 Andover Road, Changi Beach club

UOB cardmembers 10%, HSBC cardmembers 30%

and its Friday!

yes, thats my new haunt last friday, T.G.I.Friday! first saw it while walking along orchard road couple of weeks ago, and hey, who can resist trying a new food place?! finally made my way there last week after reading a couple of reviews on it...seems that they are pretty big in the US...so lets see how they will fare here...

closer look at the bar...theirs is a bar cum restaurant establishment, you have a non-smoking dining area on the 2nd floor, and a smoking area on the 1st floor....you can order both food from the restaurant menu and drinks from the bar in both areas...

since there are only 2 of us, and we weren't super hungry, we just ordered an appetizer and a main to share...for appetizers, we tried their take on buffalo-style popcorn chicken(above)...served with celery sticks and sour cream on the side, those chicken bites are spicy! at first bite, it seems ok, just a little tangy probably from the marinade...but few seconds later, the chilli hits ur tastebuds with a slight bam! phoah! but i find the chicken too tough and dry...probably because they use breast meat, and they cook it for too long...won't come back for this again...

for mains, we shared a Jack Daniels half rack ribs....the Jack Daniels marinade/sauce is supposedly their specialty, and its concoction is a big secret....after tasting it, to put it simply, it tastes like sweet bbq sauce...lol....but the ribs were not bad...pretty tender and not too dry....fries were nice too, especially after being sprinkled with cajun spices....much better than the buffalo chicken!

however, i find their food prices pretty steep...sure, their portions are big enough...but hey, this is an American restaurant, so isnt that size NORMAL?? so i still find their prices expensive....but i feel that the drink prices are pretty reasonable....especially the beers....probably will come back for the drinks and try some other finger food...

T.G.I.Friday

The Heeren, 1st & 2nd floor

a night of new places...Canton-i & 7ate9

After a drought of exploring new places, it is back to my favourite (and expensive) hobby again! This time, me and a friend started with dinner at the often-talked-about Hongkie sister of Crystal Jade, Canton-I....Located at Ion Orchard, its expected to be pretty packed when we arrived close to 7pm, considering that town area is almost always packed on a Friday night....well, its not as packed as we expected (thankfully!), but it was more than half full.

At first i thought the prices would be quite steep, looking at the design and location of the restaurant, but it turned out to be pretty reasonable....pretty much similar to Crystal Jade...

Had a pot of Jasmine tea to start the meal, which was served in a very pretty teapot with a metal burner underneath to keep the tea warm in their freezing restaurant

Instead of the usual salted peanuts seen in most chinese restaurants, appetiser/amuse- bouche/snack/whatever-you-call-it here was a plate of honey roasted cashew nuts garnished with white sesame seeds...very delightful! One reason to return here!

Dinner was a simple affair of half roast chicken (above) to share, and a bowl of plain congee with dried scallop each....more than enough for 2! The chicken was very nicely roasted, no burnt taste, but a little on the oily side (but fans of roast chicken will appreciate that little extra fragant oil infused with the chicken's juices...yum-o!)...and it is served with sweet chilli sauce and saucer of special salt (which i cant determine what is the salt mixed with)...pretty different from the roast chicken we get in hawker centres, but i would prefer they add a saucer of plum sauce/sour plum powder to counteract the oilyness though...

We didnt take photo of the porridge because my dining companion felt it looked too plain....However, the dried scallop flavour reminiscent of typical Cantonese congee is evident, although my companion felt it wasn't as nice as Crystal Jade's plain congee.

This was the next destination for post-dinner drinks....I patronised 7ate9 before for their degustation lunch buffet (which was pretty interesting), but hadn't had the chance to try their drinks, which has pretty good reviews....so hence, the trip here...

I had the Peach Margharita...

while companion had Hoegarden White...

and we had an artistic-looking 5-spice fries to share...

The peach margharita was very nice, not too sweet, peachy flavour was evident, and most importantly, not too alcoholic (ok, alcohol lovers will definitely say thumbs-down...but i m pretty fine with it!)...the only flaw was that the magharita defrosted a little too quickly for my liking....luckily we were only there for an hour+ so it wasnt that bad....it fully defrosted after abt an hour...

The hoegarden white was, well, hoegarden beer, thats all....i didnt taste it, so cant comment...

The fries were a little disappointing...i couldnt taste 5 spices, except for salt and pepper...so i guess it was just normal thick-cut fries....but the plating was pretty special, gave me a surprise when i saw it coming....kudos for the extra effort by Chef-in-Black!

Overall, not too bad...will come back for the other margharitas!

Canton-I Chinese restaurant

Level 3 Ion Orchard

7atenine

Level 1 Esplanade Mall (outdoor area)