Buko Nero

C says:

After a rather long hiatus, we made our way to Buko Nero again on Friday night. Menu for the night was:

Amuse bouche: Chilled green pea soup
Starter: Beef carpaccio with grapefruit dressing and shaved parmesan
Soup: Chickpea and spring onion
Additional starter: Wonton skin ravioli with veal puree filling and truffle red wine sauce
Sherbet: Mango with blood orange foam
C’s main: Oven-baked quail with plum
As main: seared Angus beef sirloin with sea salt, rosemary and garlic; served sliced
Dessert: Almond and honey cake

I’m not sure if it was what we ordered, but besides the ravioli (which we’ve had before), nothing really blew us away this time. Chef Oscar’s cauliflower soups are definitely his forte – the chickpea one wasn’t quite as tasty, and the texture was a tad powdery, probably because of the inherent nature of chickpeas.

I’ve decided I quite like the taste of quail – it’s more tasty than chicken, yet not too gamey and very tender. Tonight’s was pretty good, but no better nor worse than the one at Au Petit Salut / Bistro Petit Salut.

A’s main smelled incredible while it was cooking, but the first bite was a slight letdown. The meat was a little chewy, though to be fair it was sirloin rather than fillet/tenderloin. However, subsequent mouthfuls fared much better – the roasted garlic and rosemary really accentuated the flavour of the meat.

Dessert was very good – a very simple buttery cake topped with sliced toasted almonds and drizzled with a very fragrant honey.

We haven’t made our next reservation yet, what with all the impending festive feasting. I hope our eventual next visit is a little more characteristically “wow”.

A says:

After not going back for so long, this was a bit of a disappointment. Have I become too jaded?