Buko Nero

C says:

Time for our monthly trip to Buko Nero again. We’ve waxed lyrical about the place often enough, so a short post this time, just detailing what we had. The menu for the night was:

Chicken Breast Salad with Mango Dressing
Cream of Cauliflower soup with Smoked Salmon
Mint and Honeydew Sherbet
A’s main: Beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon, with cranberry glaze
C’s main: Parpadelle with portobello mushroom and white asparagus
My Grandmother’s Cake with Vanilla Coulis

The amuse bouche was a grilled swordfish belly crostini with mayonnaise. The swordfish belly was nice and fatty, and almost melt-in-the-mouth, and had a nice smoky flavour, but it was nowhere near last month’s seared steak one.

As good as the pasta here is, my parpadelle wasn’t as good as A’s tenderloin, mainly because it lacked oomph, being a vegetarian dish. The sauce was very delicate and tasty, with a slight hint of tomato, but somehow I felt that something was missing. It was probably the lack of a strong flavour among the ingredients – previous pastas here have contained scallops or clams, and the flavour of the seafood/shellfish have infused the pasta and the sauce with a distinctive taste that was lacking this time.

A’s tenderloin was great as usual. The sweetness of the cranberry glaze made this different from the usual tenderloin dishes that we’ve had here so far, and provided a good contrast to the meatiness of the dish.

The cake looked ordinary but tasted a lot better. Apparently it was flourless, and it had a dense but still light texture. The almost-burnt bits on top were especially yummy.

Didn’t manage to get a booking for next month yet, because they’re closed from 16th to 24th July. Hopefully we can get a table for 27th July.

A says:

Brilliant as always. Also got the latte this time so very happy.