A meal to remember at Kite

C says:

Our meal at Kite on Sunday evening was a very bittersweet experience. We originally just meant for it to be our regular monthly (or thereabouts) visit, but then we found out that they're taking a break, and their last day of service is 27th January. We decided to pull out all the stops, and went for the 18-course omakase. Chef Dannel and the team really outdid themselves - we were wowed by some new dishes, and even old favourites were better than they've ever been before. So for posterity, indulge us as we document each dish in our last meal at Kite.

Chicken rice crackers - tapioca crisps with a chicken rice chilli and kicap manis dip

Chicken skin with bourbon glaze - definitely going to miss these

Arancini - risotto balls with dehydrated chorizo

Shaved frozen pineapple with candied kumquats and a hint of pepper and white chilli

Home-made lardo - cured Mangalica pork fat brushed with a whisky glaze throughout the curing process, torched and served with a dollop of pesto. A mouthful of pure flavour that just kept on giving.

Cured and aburi-ed saba. Beyond amazing.

More insane flavours - aburi swordfish with clams, chestnuts and coconut. So many different textures and flavours, yet none were competing for attention.

Red snapper kinilaw - a Filipino ceviche dish, with Okinawa seagrapes

42 degree ocean trout with apples, seaweed and furikake. Absolutely perfectly cooked, and all the ingredients so harmoniously balanced.

Mentaiko somen with unagi, scallop and tobiko. We've had this dish many times, and this was the best it's ever been.

Quail with carrot puree. This is retired dish, so we're really touched that Chef remembered how much we loved it, and included it in the omakase.

Seared foie gras with shaved peaches. Another new and absolutely amazing dish. Foie was perfectly seared and paired brilliantly with the fresh peach.

Iberico pork belly with bak kwa glaze. Unapologetically fat, flavourful and fabulous.

Mangalica pork collar with you tiao veloute and bak kut teh broth. One of the most creative dishes in Kite's repertoire, because of how they've reinvented, yet stayed true to, the humble bak kut teh.

Wagyu rump with bulgogi salsa and burnt corn. Again, had this a couple of times before, and it was at its best this time.

Welsh lamb with tamarind mango chutney and sliced potatoes.

Pre-dessert palate cleanser of sugarcane sorbet and yuzu zest

Forest floor - white chocolate custard, chocolate and nut soils, and passion fruit curd

A new dessert - yogurt with passionfruit, honey and pop rocks. An amazing dessert with so many different nuances with each mouthful.

Meringue with blackened lime powder

So there you have it. Kite's greatest hits, and then some. We're really sad to bid farewell to one of our favourite restaurants, but we're grateful for all the amazing things we've had the pleasure of tasting. All the best to the team - thanks for the memories.

A says:

One of our favourite restaurants in Singapore. And some of the best overall meals we've had anywhere. Their takes on local dishes and flavours are supremely creative and well-executed. And all the dishes deliver the pow of flavour I love, without being overwhelming. Perfectly balanced.

It's sad they never found their niche. Last day is 27 Jan so try to go if you can. If not, I'm looking forward to whatever Chef Dannel Krishnan does next.

Oh, and shout out to the service staff. Always so great to us. Thanks!

Wild Rocket omakase

C says:

First off, I think it's a travesty that Michelin completely ignored Wild Rocket. The Singapore guide doesn't feature the chef who pioneered Modern Singaporean cuisine? Madness, I say. The omakase dinner we had last night was one of the most interesting, creative and downright delicious meals we've had in a while.

First course, and probably best dish of the evening, was their take on chwee kueh - scallop carpaccio with chai poh and truffle konbu. A big flavour punch in the face, and the best way to start the meal.

Next was a play on rojak, with the hae kor in the form of a light ice cream. 

Char kway teow came next. We were asked to guess what the noodles were made from. I said squid, which was close. It was ribbons of cuttlefish. Quite genius, because the flavour of the cuttlefish also echoed the flavour of hum (cockles) that would normally be in char kway teow. Every element came together perfectly to form a truly char kway teow flavoured dish, even down to the lard bits. Very well thought out dish.

Next up was an uni laksa risotto. I think this has evolved from Wild Rocket's early days of laksa pesto spaghetti. The laksa flavour is much more refined, and all the elements that make up a good laksa are perfectly balanced.

The crab cake, comprising both spanner crab and blue swimmer crab, on a bed of salted egg yolk sauce was probably the most predictable dish of the evening, but nonetheless still very tasty. 

When Chef presented the next dish, he said it was home made green curry served with beef. The texture of the meat was excellent. There's a surprise to this dish, but I'll hold my tongue so that I don't spoil it for others. 

The Singapore fried noodle dish was a hokkien mee, with a wonderfully cooked prawn on top of angel hair pasta cooked with an intense prawn stock.

We were still a bit hungry (greedy), so they added an extra dish - Iberico pork char siew with quinoa and preserved vegetable. And because Chef usually has his char siew with rice, it was served with Vietnamese rice paper. 

After a palate-cleansing guava sorbet, dessert was a riff on mango sticky rice, with the mango and sweet coconut rice served inside a chocolate tart shell. Again, a really well-balanced dish.

This was a really fun, playful and unpredictable dinner. We'll definitely make it a point to come here more often, so although they're more than deserving of at least one star, part of me is actually glad that they're not in the guide. Then it won't be overrun with starchasers who won't appreciate a good meal if you hit them on the head with it. Hmph.

A says:

Best meal I've had in a while. So inventive. 

 

Dstllry

C says:

Tried Dstllry's new omakase dinner - 11 courses for a very reasonable $120. They also have a 6-8 course for $65, and a 8-10 course for $95. The higher priced courses may also have more premium items, besides just more courses. 

First two courses were samplers that were quite Japanese inspired, with items like negitoro, foie with unagi, cubes of their signature barachirashi, and uni tempura. 

Then came possibly the best dish of the evening - a giant-headed carabinero prawn, with sakura ebi and caviar. The prawn was served sashimi style, but the head was lightly grilled, resulting in the head juices solidifying ever so slightly. The red purée isn't sambal chilli, that's the head juice from the prawn. Insane.

Onsen tamago with shaved truffle, ponzu and wanton crisps was also very good. 

The bouillabaisse-inspired broth was surprisingly light, with a nice meaty Hokkaido scallop inside. The mussels were a tad rubbery though.

Next up was their take on katsu curry, with ramen in the curry sauce. Quite a sizeable portion, and we're only halfway...

Mozambique lobster grilled with mentaiko, with mentaiko pasta. This was really tasty, particularly the pasta. Getting quite full...

Pan-seared seabass with tomato salsa. After the heaviness of the previous 2 dishes, I was glad to have a relatively lighter dish. 

Alas, only a brief respite. Next up was chilli fried rice with seared beef. Both very flavourful, but we're rapidly hitting a wall...

OMG! More carbs! This time, a cha soba soup with tempura prawn and soft shell crab. By then I'd given up. Plus the tempura was quite oily, which didn't help. 

Dessert was home-made vanilla ice cream with yam paste (orh ni). I found the yam paste a little on the floury side, as though the flour hadn't quite been cooked out.

For the first time in a very long while, an omakase got the better of atetoomuch. I think the dishes were mostly very tasty, but not enough thought has gone into the progression of the meal. Having 4 carb dishes is just too much, and with a large proportion of the proteins being fried or seared, everything felt a bit oily and heavy after a while.

We gave the chef our feedback, and he admitted that they're still finding the right balance. With some tweaks on the portion sizes and the flow of the menu, they could have a good thing going here. 

A says:

Great value. The quantity defeated even me. I think they need to cut down at least 1 carb, probably the soba and soft shell crab which was a bit too oily.

New Year's Eve Winter Feast at Nude Seafood

C says:

Nude Seafood's Winter Feast was one of the best, and certainly one of the most enjoyable, meals we've had this year. We had 9 amazing courses, cooked and served by an amazing group of people who have so much passion and love for what they do.

We started out with their take on the Thai snack "ma haw", prepared with Angus short rib, passionfruit and pineapple jam and served on a tapioca chip. 

Next up was an insanely flavourful Hokkaido scallop carpaccio with ikura, raspberry purée and a chili jam. The flavours went together perfectly and the scallops were amazingly sweet.

Then came the foie gras and mushroom ravioli in a potato consommé. The clear consommé had strong yet clean flavours of potato; overall a very comforting and moreish dish.

Root vegetables with smoked eel and mentaiko again packed a ton of flavour. There was a brightness from the blood orange sabayon that prevented the dish from being too heavy.

A meat dish came next - lamb rack with sauerkraut, pearl couscous, lotus root crisps and wolfberry yogurt. The chargrilled lamb tasted quite strongly of satay, which wasn't quite what we were expecting. Again the sauerkraut added a tart balance to an otherwise quite rich dish.

 

The two main courses came next - land and sea, so to speak. Sea in the form of kibinago, a Japanese herring, with sprouts and an amazing smoked potato purée. Land was Poussin, a French chicken which had been deboned, then stuffed with chestnuts, cabbage and bone marrow. 

Until this dish, portion sizes were manageable, with each dish just nice for sharing. But the Poussin completely felled us. Even for atetoomuch, it was seriously a LOT to finish. Super tasty though.

The first of two desserts was Eggnog served in festive eggshells - a light foam of rum and cinnamon. 

By this time we were dying, and were happy to split the normal-sized pecan pie with salted caramel ice cream and home made marshmallow. To our horror, when we were about halfway through, they brought another portion, saying we were meant to have one pie each. We were almost expecting them to say they were joking, but nope, they were serious...

Despite being so full we were about to explode, we had an incredible evening. The team at Nude poured their heart and soul into creating and cooking the meal, and it really showed. 

We're looking forward to more amazing meals in the new year from the great people at Nude. Cheers.

A says:

O.M.G. So full. Gonna sleep. For the next year. Seriously, one of the best meals I've had all 2015.

Portico's SG50 menu

C says:

For the months of July and August, Portico is offering a local-inspired 5-course menu for $50, to celebrate SG50. It's great value for the quality of the food, and I'm now convinced that our first trip to Portico (where nothing blew me away except for the chicken wings) wasn't a proper representation of what the restaurant could offer. 

First course consists of 2 snacks - chili crab on brioche, and bak kut teh terrine. The former was predictably good. The latter was a bit subtle. The first bite was overwhelmed by the chilli. On the second bite, I could taste the salted vegetable and herbal bak kut teh more.

Next was a very interesting rendition of rojak. The vegetables were compressed and infused with ginger flower and kaffir lime. You're supposed to cut it open and mix it yourself, in the stone bowl with grilled tofu puffs, cuttlefish and beansprouts. The sauce is in the form of a hae kor (shrimp paste) espuma. Despite all the fancy techniques, it still tasted like a really good rojak. Well done. 

Next course was my favourite - a play on wanton noodle soup. It was a smoked pork tortellini topped with fried garlic, in a pork bone broth with konjac noodles. The tortellini filing had hints of bak kwa, and the pork bone broth was amazingly flavourful. 

What's a local menu without laksa, and their version is a sambal 3-grain risotto (barley, orzo and quinoa) with laksa pesto, tiger prawn and coconut foam. Again, a very good rendition of laksa, full of big hits of flavour.

Dessert was a Tehramisu - obviously a tiramisu infused with milk tea. The mascarpone could have been a bit richer and creamier, but this was a nice, refreshing way to end the meal.

I was very impressed, and for $50 this really is quite a steal. Highly recommended. If the food had been this good when we first went there, we'd have been back a lot sooner.  

A says:

Interesting.

Some dishes were great; overall, not bad. Worth a try for the relatively cheap price.