Sage The Restaurant

C says:

Wow. Sage has broken our recent spate of bad meals, and we owe mad props to S. She was appalled when she found out that we’ve been living within a stone’s throw of Sage and still hadn’t tried it. To be honest, we’d walked by many times but found it too intimidating, but since we’re moving out of the area soon, we decided to come here before leaving.

Now I completely regret not having that conversation with S sooner. To think that we’ve wasted 3 months of proximity to Sage’s awesome food. Turns out the ambience inside isn’t as posh and intimidating as we feared; just a simple, understated appeal. Run by Chef Jusman So and his wife Kimberly who takes care of front of house, Sage serves a modern take on French cuisine.

In order to try as many dishes as possible, A had the 6-course degustation menu, and I ordered off the a la carte menu. The meal was off to a good start, with good home-made bread and a fabulously thick balsamic syrup for dipping, and an amuse bouche of arugula vichyssoise with lemon cream and caviar.


To start with, I had the much lauded Mushroom Cappuccino, which was served with truffle-infused scrambled eggs with asparagus and morel mushroom. Best mushroom soup I’ve had in ages – smooth, complex and extremely flavourful. Paired with the headily-scented truffle eggs, this was another hint of good stuff to come.


The Duck Confit was served on top of a savoy cabbage parcel stuffed with mushroom and foie gras. The cabbage parcel had a slightly acidic tang that helped to cut through the richness of the duck. The skin of the duck was ridiculously crisp, but I personally thought the duck could’ve benefitted from a little more fat. The meat was flavourful but a tad dry.


Before I go on to dessert, let’s move on to A’s degustation menu. He started with a crab salad with avruga caviar, tomato and fennel cream. I actually wasn’t too taken with this, because I couldn’t quite get used to the flavour combination, which was both sour and licorice-y.


However, the meal picked itself up after that and kept getting better and better. The next course was Quail – grilled quail breast with quail leg confit served on Jerusalem artichoke cream, Swiss chard and ricotta tortellini and a quail egg. This was good – there was actually a distinction between the different quail preparations, and the perfect sunny side up quail egg rocked.


The Hokkaido Scallop was next – seared scallop on crab cake with smoked salmon parfait, a dill sauce and a parmesan tuile. This dish was the reason that A chose the degustation menu, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The scallop was meaty and perfectly seared, and the various components came together really well. This dish made A really happy.


Next up was the Foie Gras dish, which was all mine save for a bite that A had. I don’t know how they did it, but the foie gras was perfectly seared with a crisp crust yet meltingly soft and runny inside. The foie gras was paired with an apple and raisin crumble, and the fruitiness went well with the foie gras.


The Veal dish sealed our opinion that this was the best meal we’ve had since our US/Vancouver trip. The veal was wrapped in smoked bacon and roasted to a medium rare, and served with a porcini mushroom risotto. The veal was insanely tender and infused with the smokiness of the bacon, and the risotto was nothing short of amazing.


A’s dessert was a chocolate soufflé with amaretto ice cream and crème anglaise. This was like a light airy chocolate fondant, and pretty good. I had the strawberry crumble – oven-dried strawberries on crumble dough, served with clotted cream ice cream. In contrast, mine was quite heavy but really up my alley, flavour-wise.

Front of house was excellent as well, thanks to Kimberly’s friendly yet professional service. The waitstaff were polite and not condescending, and after a string of (frankly unwarranted) dismissive behaviour at other less impressive restaurants, this was a refreshing and welcome change.

We were so impressed with Sage that we’ve already made another reservation in a fortnight, because one meal simply didn’t allow us to try everything that we wanted to on the menu. This has broken our bad meal curse, and I hope it bodes well for our anniversary meals next weekend.

A says:

The best meal I’ve had in Singapore in months. I’m adding this to my list of favourites. It’s a bit pricy but definitely worth it. Excellent service and amazing food. I loved everything except the crab salad and dessert.

Sage, The Restaurant
No. 7 Mohamed Sultan Road
Tel: 6333-8726
Lunch: 12noon – 2:30pm (Wednesday to Friday)
Dinner: 6:30pm – 10:30pm (Tuesday to Sunday)
Closed on Mondays & Public Holidays
http://www.sagerestaurants.com.sg/

Once Upon A Milkshake

C says:

This newly opened ice cream and milkshake joint is in the same building as Osvaldo. After our slightly disappointing dinner, we hoped that a little ice cream / milkshake would raise our spirits a little.

This did the trick – I love that you can order small portions without being sniffed at derisively. I had a single scoop of the maple syrup ice cream with crunchy maple cereal, which was a tad sweet but I really liked the aroma of the maple syrup.


The milkshakes here come in two sizes – a regular 360 ml one, or a mini 210 ml one. I think the 210 ml one is brilliant, because it’s just enough to satisfy a craving, without being too calorie-laden. A had a mini chocolate truffle milkshake, and while part of him felt that it wasn’t enough, any more would have been diminishing returns.

Prices are very reasonable, with a single scoop at just $2.80, a mini milkshake for $3.30 and a regular for $5.50. My one grouse is that they don’t serve coffee here. I’m not sure that they can sustain just selling ice cream and milkshakes without other beverages. In my opinion, coffee/tea would widen their clientele just that much more.

A says:

I’m a fan. I hope they do well.

A word of advice. Add coffee to the menu.

Once Upon A Milkshake
32 Maxwell Road
#01-08 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 9823-3779
Open daily: 11 am – 11 pm
www.onceuponamilkshake.com.sg

Osvaldo Ristorante Italiano

C says:

Chef Osvaldo Forlino, formerly from Forlino restaurant at One Fullerton, has finally struck out on his own. He left Forlino earlier this year, saying he preferred to run a rustic family eatery compared to the fancy fine dining restaurant that Forlino had somehow become. When I found out he was opening his own place, I couldn’t wait to try it, because when we went to Forlino back when he was still there, I remember thinking that the cooking was rather incongruous with the fancy decor and service.

Having been to Osvaldo’s twice now, I’m extremely confused. My first time was a few weeks ago, for a corporate dinner, and it was one of the best Italian meals I’d had in recent memory. Instead of ordering off the menu (quite a challenge for a party of 20), Chef brought out a selection of antipastis and pastas for us to share, followed by seabass and a huge Florentine steak for our main, and finally chocolate mousse for dessert. One of our party was vegetarian, and we were suitably impressed that Chef himself came out personally to serve her portion, explaining in detail what he had prepared for her.

For me, the highlight of that meal was the porcini mushroom and sausage risotto – an oozy, gloopy mound of perfectly cooked rice in a rich fragrant sauce. I was so impressed with it, and indeed the rest of the meal, that I wanted to bring A here to try it for himself.

Having failed to snag a reservation on Friday night (we tried calling at 6.30, to be told that they were fully booked till 9.30), we came here on Monday night and were surprised to find that it was also almost full.

I have to say that if tonight had been my first experience, I would have written it off without a second thought. It’s only because of the huge disparity between my first and second visits that I’m confused enough to want to give them one more chance.


The risotto that I was so looking forward to was a pale shadow of the one I had before. Instead of being oozy and almost creamy from the starch in the rice, tonight’s had distinct rice grains in a watery sauce – almost like mui fun. And this was after I sent it back, because when it first arrived the rice was undercooked. Clearly it was done in a hurry, without the constant stirring that’s required to create a truly good risotto.


A ordered the spinach and ricotta ravioli in a butter, sage and parmesan sauce. This was good but nothing special, but I wonder whether it’s because it may not have been the smartest thing to order.


One of my complaints, which I’ll elaborate in a minute, is the service. Asking 2 different waitstaff about the specials yielded different responses. The first time, we were told only about the vongole, and a tomino cheese wrapped in parma ham. The second time, we were also told that there was one more serving of a roast suckling pig. The cheese and ham was alright, but again nothing special since we’ve had similar (and possibly better) versions at Valentino and Pietrasantra.


The suckling pig was a letdown. Yes, the crackling was thin and crispy, but we were given 3 tiny portions from the rib section, with little to no meat at all. It was garnished with grilled eggplant and zucchini, all of which were underseasoned and seemed a bit perfunctory. The biggest shock was finding out, at the end of the meal, that the rather sad serving of pig was $45 – quite a rip-off, if you ask me.

I do think that Chef Osvaldo means well, and his intentions are to establish a welcoming, family-style restaurant. Unfortunately, if that mindset isn’t conveyed to the front of house, he may be in danger of recreating the same ambience from Forlino that he precisely wanted to avoid.

I got the impression that we were dismissed by the waiters as cheap non-drinkers who were out for a pasta and didn’t know any better. I saw an adjacent table being served a platter of parma ham and twisted mozzarella and if there’s one thing that upsets me, it’s when (a) I’m not immediately told of the specials and I have to ask, and (b) when I do ask, I’m not informed of the whole picture.

The waiters need to be more informed as well. We were deciding on a cheese, and our waitress recommended the Gorgonzola, saying it was a “nice soft cheese that’s the basis of a tiramisu”. ???!!! Blue cheese tiramisu? Oh dear...

Well, there you have it. Sorry for the rant but I needed to get it off my chest. I think we’ll give them one more chance, but my initial fears that this place would give Valentino a run for his money are completely unfounded.

A says:

What a letdown...

Osvaldo Ristorante Italiano
32 Maxwell Road
#01-03 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 6224-0978
Mon-Sat: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm
(Closed on Sun)

Spizzico

C says:

We failed to get a reservation at either Osavaldo Ristorante or Pasta Brava at short notice on a Friday night, so we decided to try Spizzico, the Italian restaurant in UE Square, since we’re moving out of this area soon.

Because this wasn’t our first or second choice of restaurants for evening, I must admit we didn’t go with the best of attitudes. We just wanted to have a quick dinner, and I guess our intentions were apparent, because they clearly dismissed us as not worth their trouble. Even though the restaurant was more than half empty, we were shown to a table outdoors, right next to the dusty road. Possibly the worst table in the house. When I asked if we could sit indoors because of the heat, they dismissively said that there were no more tables for two indoors. Yes... and they couldn’t spare a four-seater for us because they were simply beating away the crowds... right...


To start, we shared the mixed bruschetta, which turned out to be slices of cold cuts on barely toasted slices of baguette. The only one that was good was the tomato one.


They have a pretty extensive menu – too many choices, in my opinion, because it took me ages just to peruse it and make my decision. I ended up having a flat pasta with seafood in a saffron cream sauce. This was similar to Pasta Brava’s stracci in appearance and components, but somehow it just wasn’t as refined. But I’m being fussy; this was a perfectly decent dish if you looked at it independently.


A chose the gnocchi, which was described as being cooked in a pink sauce. My understanding of a pink sauce is that it’s a combination of tomato and cream sauce, but this was just a plain tomato sauce. This was pretty boring, and the gnocchi was really heavy. I tried a few mouthfuls and they immediately sank like leaden weights in my stomach.

While there’s nothing really wrong with the food here, I find that it lacks heart and soul in its execution. Prices are pretty decent though, I must say. If you drink, they have a set dinner with free flow wine, which sounds like a pretty good deal.

A says:

Very average.

Spizzico
#01-13 UE Square
81A Clemenceau Avenue
Tel: 6333-6174
Open daily: 11.30am – 3.30pm; 6pm – 10pm

Burger Shack

C says:

Burger Shack at King’s Arcade is Island Creamery’s foray into savoury food. Just like Island Creamery, this place is student central – they even have special student discounts so they clearly know their target clientele.

The menu isn’t overly ambitious. They have an original beef burger, a Ramly, a pulled pork, a chicken and a Portobello mushroom. Each burger is between $6 and $8, and add-ons like cheese and bacon cost $1.50 extra each. You can also choose to swap your burger bun for butter rice, but the soft fluffy bun is one of the best things here so I won’t suggest swapping.


We tried an original with cheese and bacon, and a Ramly, and ordered a side of shoestring fries. The original was quite good – I liked how the patty was nicely chargrilled, and as always, what doesn’t taste good with bacon?

In contrast, the Ramly was quite a sad excuse for a ramly burger. The patty didn’t have the same charred goodness, and the fried egg was dry and a bit rubbery. Ramly burgers should have sweet chilli sauce and mayonnaise. I didn’t taste any mayo here, and the chilli sauce was more like a sambal and just downright wrong.

It was almost as if both burgers came from two different restaurants. The fries were really good though. The patties here are a bit on the small side, but I do like the soft sesame seed buns. Just steer well clear of the Ramly.

A says:

The fries are a must-try. I like the buns although the base reminds me more of soft Texas toast. As for the main burger components, I’d say yes to the Original and no to the Ramli.

My biggest disappointment was that they don’t serve milkshakes. Very surprising considering it’s owned by the Island Creamery guy.

Burger Shack
559 Bukit Timah Road
#01-01 King’s Arcade
Tel: 6466-3477
Tues – Sun: 12 noon to 10 pm
(Closed Monday)

Ichiban Boshi revisited

C says:

With so many new Japanese restaurants springing up just waiting for us to try, until tonight we hadn’t been back to our previous old faithful Ichiban Boshi in more than a year. Frankly, I think their standard has been gradually deteriorating; either that, or the standard of rival as well as new sushi chains has steadily improved. I’ve been growing less and less enamoured with their thin slivers of fish paired with huge portions of densely-packed rice.

A however, chastised me for becoming too atas, and casting aside the humble eateries from our dating days. Fine... so to humour him we went back to the Great World City branch for dinner tonight, since we had to pick up some sushi for a friend’s housewarming.

While the standard sushi (salmon, maguro, unagi) was pretty decent – they seem to be using smaller chunks of rice now, the aburi sushi platter of their new ‘gourmet sushi’ menu reinforced my current views. At $25 for 8 pieces, this didn’t come cheap but while they certainly tried, this was just executed so poorly.


The uni was a bit fishy, but my main complaint was that they smothered almost every piece of sushi with so much sauce that you could barely taste the fish, let alone the fact that it had been aburi-ed. The tai sushi was drenched in a very salty miso sauce, and worse still, the yellowtail was doused with sweet chilli sauce. Sacrilege! Who puts sweet chilli sauce on sushi, especially in those amounts?! At least they didn’t commit the ultimate sin of saucing the otoro, but this still wasn’t as melt-in-the-mouth fatty as the aburi otoro at Sushi Tei.

I think they simply tried too hard with that dish, when they could have just kept it simple and done what they do pretty well – simple, no-frills sushi; average quality at decent prices.

A says:

The gourmet menu items are to be avoided. Just go for the affordable $2.10 sushi dishes and you’ll have a decent meal.

Ichiban Boshi
#B1-07 Great World City
Tel: 6734-3433
Mon to Sat: 11.30 am – 10 pm
Sun: 11 am – 10 pm

Canton-i

C says:

We met my dad for lunch at ION today, and since my dad has a rather unadventurous palate, that meant no Japanese food or funky street food. We ended up at Canton-i on the third floor – a Cantonese eatery serving everything from roasted meats and wanton noodles, to porridge and dim sum.

We assumed it would be like a generic Crystal Jade sort of place, and were very surprised at how good the food was. I ordered the duck noodles, A had a plain noodle, and we shared a platter of roast pork and char siew, and some dim sum.




Be warned that they describe their plain egg noodles as “wanton noodles” here, so when you order Plain Wanton Noodles, all you get are plain noodles, not even some wanton in the soup. Besides that minor quirk, the noodles were pretty good. They had a good bite to them – nice and springy. We did notice that the sauce served with the dry noodles had a very strange aftertaste, like a hint of coriander, that didn’t exactly wow us, but other than that no complaints. I took a bite of my dad’s beef brisket noodles and they were very good.


They do their roasted meats pretty well. The duck that came with my noodles was tender and very tasty, but it was outshone by the roast pork and especially the char siew. The roast pork nicely seasoned with a thin crisp crackling, and the char siew was glazed with honey and roasted so much that it was almost black and bursting with caramelised goodness. It was also one of the fattiest char siews I’ve ever had, which just added to the incredible flavour.

A ordered the red bean buns, and they came shaped like little piggies! How adorable! This dish would be great for little kids, and it actually tasted pretty good too – very generous with the red bean paste.

We also ordered yam puffs, cos they’re my dad’s favourite dim sum. This was old school wu kok at its best – the filling was deliciously moist, and the fried yam outer layer was light, fluffy and crisp. In contrast, the egg tarts were decent but not as good as everything else.

Prices here aren’t the cheapest – about $20 per person, but quality is excellent. Geez, yet another good food place at ION. We’re too spoilt for choice there now!

A says:

Excellent! Top marks for service and food. And the fattiest char siew I’ve ever had in my life!

Canton-i
#03-14 ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Tel: 6509-8368
Daily: 11 am to 10 pm
www.canton-i.com

Mietta’s

C says:

We had an off day today, and decided to finally try Chef Angelo Sanetti’s (ex-Michaelangelo) new joint for lunch.

Unfortunately the location is a real downer. We knew it was on Arab Street, but failed to check exactly where, so A was driving around the roads surrounding Arab Street trying to find parking. Turns out the place is directly opposite Golden Landmark Hotel (yes, that end of Arab Street), so A tried parking in Golden Landmark Hotel. Another big mistake – the Hotel’s carpark has stolen the crown from Burlington Square as being the worst carpark in Singapore. Anyway, if you’re planning on driving there, park at Raffles Hospital – it’s just a short 5-minute walk.

Citibank has an ongoing promotion till February 2010 – a one-for-one promotion on their usual $45 set lunch, which is a very good deal. I like the fact that the set menu is standard, and you only get the promotion if you pay with Citibank, unlike menus that are only designed for certain credit card holders, because I always think the quality for those menus is compromised.



Unfortunately they were having some problems with their suppliers so some of the items on the menu weren’t available. To start with, A had the calamari, and I had the mushroom medley – a thin slice of toast topped with mushrooms sautéed in butter with garlic and topped with arugula. There was a huge disparity between mine and A’s. Mine was superb, whereas the calamari was bland and quite chewy.


They had issues with their seafood and duck breast suppliers, so that eliminated the prawn penne, slipper lobster tagliatelle and magret de canard options from the menu. A had the gnocchi with duck confit in a pesto cream sauce for his main, and I had the braised baby lamb shank. My only experience with gnocchi so far has been the one at Valentino, so in comparison this one was a little mushy for my liking.


The lamb shank was heavenly. I was quite surprised – I’m not a huge fan of braised lamb shanks because they usually end up tasting quite similar. This one came with a nice rich jus, and more importantly, it was ridiculously tender yet flavourful at the same time. If I had to find a flaw, it was that the sides were a bit uninspired, though the artichoke puree did add a nice acidic tinge to the otherwise rich meat.



A had the tiramisu for dessert, and I had the Chocolate Delice – cold chocolate ganache on a macadamia cookie dough disc and served with strawberry sorbet. I couldn’t handle more than half of mine; it was way too rich and chocolately for my liking. The tiramisu was ok, but Perla’s is much better.

The food here is far superior to Michaelangelo’s post-Chef Angelo, but because of the location I don’t know if it can survive long term. Business wasn’t great for a Friday lunch, and while the food was quite good, I’d still rather go to Valentino’s or Pasta Brava.

A says:

Definitely recommended, especially for value. Unlike other places with shrunken set portions, everything we got for our set lunch was regular-sized.

While the food is very good, I wouldn’t say it was spectacular. Overall, I’d recommend this as a place for a good hearty meal.

Btw, the parking at the hotel opposite is horrible. Your best bet is parking at Raffles Hospital and making the short walk over.

Mietta’s
126 Arab Street (opposite Golden Landmark Hotel)
Tel: 6396-5493
Lunch: 11am - 2pm
Dinner: 6pm - 10.30pm
(Closed for lunch on Sat)
(Closed on Sun)
www.miettas.com.sg