Buko Nero

C says:

We had our day-before-Valentine’s-Day dinner at Buko Nero this year; we were lucky enough to get a reservation at fairly short notice (about 2 weeks) – helps that it’s a Wednesday night I suppose. Anyway, the menu was:

Amuse bouche: crostini with cheese (forgot what kind) and pear
Starter: Smoked salmon and sakura ebi salad with mango and whole grain mustard
Soup: Red miso with silken tofu and crabmeat
Sorbet: Blood orange
A’s main: home-made tagliatelle with parma ham and pea, served with tomato and mushroom-based sauce
C’s main: Twice-cooked Yorkshire pork chop with honey glaze
Dessert: Milk chocolate cake with white chocolate coulis

After a slightly disappointing visit the last time, my faith in Buko Nero has now been restored. Dinner tonight was excellent. Everything was good, but for once the mains outshone everything else. A’s tagliatelle was a little on the salty side because of the parma ham, but it was also seriously delicious. I was worried that the sauce would be very tomato-ey and sour, but it barely had a hint of tomato – instead, it was just full of all sorts of yummy flavours from the mushrooms, parma ham and probably a very good stock.

The pork chop was again slightly Asian inspired – almost like char siew, with the honey glaze, but a damn tasty version. Needless to say, the fattier parts of the chop were the best, and the leaner part was a tad dry, but paired with the sauce, the mashed potatoes and some killer caramelized pearl onions, and everything just worked.

Dessert was again top notch. Chef Oscar has made milk chocolate cake many times before, but tonight’s was particularly light and fluffy, and pretty much melted in your mouth.

Random comment: Maybe it was a coincidence that today is the 7th day of Chinese New Year (known as “ren ri”, or “everybody’s birthday”), but the menu tonight seemed slightly slanted towards the new year. The salmon starter could’ve passed for a mini lo hei, the soup was pretty Asian, and the blood orange sorbet was yet another nod towards new year fare.

As much as we were keen to make our next reservation after this very good experience, I think having a few months in between visits helps to ensure that we don’t get too jaded, and allows us to better appreciate the good food.

A says:

Not coming for a few months really has made coming back much more memorable. This was one of the few times where the mains were better than everything else. I’m looking forward to our next visit.

Buko Nero
126 Tanjong Pagar Road
Tel: 6324-6225
Dinner: 6.30pm to 9.30pm (Tuesday to Saturday)
Lunch: Noon to 2pm (Friday and Saturday)
Closed Sunday and Monday