Pamplemousse Bistro + Bar

C says:

Pamplemousse is a fairly new, casual bistro at Dempsey serving modern French food. We’d been meaning to try it for a while, but have been unsuccessful in getting last minute reservations on Friday nights. To our surprise, A’s friend KH managed to snag a table for 10 on Saturday afternoon for dinner that very night.

Their menu concept is interesting. They don’t have an a la carte menu; instead they have either a 6-course chef’s tasting menu for $98, or smaller set menus – 2 course for $48, or 3 course for $58. Note that those are the prices for the most basic selections though. If you want some of the more premium items, those come with supplemental charges. These supplements range from $8 extra for the uni tagliolini, to $30 for a chargrilled ribeye.

A and I decided to go for the tasting menu, since it contained all of the items that we wanted to try anyway. Little did we know that their portions are HUGE here, and they don't really reduce the size of your portions when you order the 6-course vs a 3-course. Needless to say, it was too much, even for atetoomuch. Next time we’ll stick with a 3-course.


The starter was a citrus-marinated salmon. I still don’t know if the salmon was just cured, or cooked very slowly at a very low temperature, but it was perfectly pink all the way through, with a slightly firm texture.


Next up was the porcini mushroom soup. The soup was smooth, earthy and topped with strips of golden mushrooms and a couple of plump escargots. This was perfectly decent, but if I had to compare, the mushroom cappuccino at Sage still comes out tops.


That was followed by the monkfish cheek, which was honestly quite forgettable. Maybe I’m not a fan of the slightly tough texture of monkfish, but I found this a bit dry and hard and not particularly flavourful.


The next dish was one of the main reasons I wanted to try Pamplemousse – the uni tagliolini. Thin tagliolini pasta is cooked in a rich shellfish bisque sauce, topped with uni, chives and tiny morsels of crispy pork fat. There was nothing about this dish that I didn’t absolutely love, and is the one dish that I’ll come back to Pamplemousse for. Definitely lived up to my expectations (and probably the only dish that really did).


After a palate cleansing apple cider sorbet, the main course arrived. We both had the duck confit, because the alternative main course was a wagyu striploin that entailed a $55 supplement. I appreciate that they don’t skimp on their portions, but in this particular case, the main course could have benefitted from being a bit more streamlined. After all the food that we had, I think such a large portion was actually counterproductive. Good tasting menus should have portion sizes that leave you just satisfied enough and wanting just one more bite, whereas it was a struggle to finish the entire portion of a considerably large duck leg. Taste-wise, this was ok but I actually prefer the light simplicity of the duck confit at La Petite Cuisine at Serene Centre. The best part of this dish was actually the lychees in the sauce.


Finally dessert, which was called Toast and Milo, but which actually comprised a toasted brioche slice topped with caramelized banana slices, paired with a milo ice cream on shaved nutella “soil”. I really liked this, but I’m still very puzzled by the bananas in my portion. They were frozen in the centre, so I passed them to A, and when he tried mine, he said his were warm all the way through! Bizarre…

Service was excellent. We actually booked a table for 9, and when we realised that we had an extra person, without any complaint they carried a table in for us from outside to accommodate our party. Food was prompt, and servers were polite and knowledgeable.

There were some hits and misses here, but I would go back again for the uni, and A for the salmon. Their starters seem better than their mains here, so maybe next time we’ll go for the 3 course, and see if we can order 2 appetisers and a dessert instead.

A says:

The food was good and portions were surprisingly large, which considering the 6-course menu was $98++, actually made it relatively value-for-money.

Service was also very good so we’ll be back for a cheap 2 or 3 course set at some point.

Pamplemousse Bistro + Bar
Block 7, Dempsey Road
#01-04
Tel: 6475-0080
Tue–Fri: 12pm–2.30pm, 6.30pm–10.30pm
Sat–Sun: 11.30am–2.30pm, 6.30pm–10.30pm
(Closed on Mon)
www.pamplemousse.com.sg

Youmenya Goemon

C says:

The Marina Bay Link Mall, a subterranean mall linking the new Marina Bay Financial Centre to One Raffles Quay and beyond (all the way to Raffles Place MRT) is finally open, and given that more than half of the outlets are dining establishments, this bodes very well for those of us working in the area. About a third of the shops are still a work-in-progress though, with a scheduled date of January 2011 for all the shops to be fully open.

For me, some of the more eagerly anticipated stores aren’t open yet, like the Four Seasons Organic Supermarket, and a couple of restaurants from the Paradise Group, so for now, the early birds are raking in pretty good business.

One of the first to open was Youmenya Goemon, a Waraku-esque casual dining place that serves Japanese-style pasta. They’re so specialised that they only do pasta – no other side dishes or mains except a perfunctory salad bar. They were doing pretty good business on a Friday night, and apparently lunch services have been flat out since they opened a week ago.


I decided to try a carbonara with meat sauce – best of both worlds. This was basically a spaghetti carbonara with an additional ladle of Bolognese on top, resulting in a richer, creamier version of a Bolognese. The egg could’ve been a runnier, to add yet another dimension to the sauce, but that would be nitpicking.


A had the aglio olio spaghetti with dried scallop and whitebait. This was also pretty tasty and surprisingly fresh and clean tasting, without too much oil or garlic.

The pasta here is much better than Waraku, and we later found out why. Unlike many restaurants, they actually don't par-cook their pasta. The pasta is boiled from scratch only upon order, so given that it takes about 8 to 9 minutes to boil pasta, don’t expect fast food here. It does pay off though, because the texture of the pasta is really good, and most importantly it isn’t watery or mushy.

Their so-called “gimmick” here is that you’re supposed to eat spaghetti with chopsticks (though you can ask for a spoon if you wish). This makes mixing up the pasta really difficult and, if you’re not careful, also very messy. In my opinion, the food here is good enough that they don't need the gimmick and in fact, I hope it doesn’t frustrate diners into not wanting to return.

A says:

Good food. Good service. A bit slow, but that’s cause pasta is cooked to order. Will definitely be back when it’s less crowded. Although note to self: don’t order the royal milk tea, it’s awful.

Youmenya Goemon
Marina Bay Link Mall
#B2-03
Tel: 6509-4670

Santi Tapas Lounge

C says:

In true atetoomuch fashion, we bypassed the formality and stuffiness (read: expensive) of the main restaurant of Santi by Santi Santamaria, and opted instead to sample the restaurant’s offerings via their more casual (and affordable) tapas lounge.

Currently, the tapas lounge offers 2 tapas tasting menus - a $60 and a $90 one, as well as a la carte offerings of most of the items on the tasting menus. We decided to try one each, to have the best of both worlds. Essentially, the $90 has one extra tapas, and an additional final course, almost like a main.


We started with bread and bread sticks, some amazing green olives and a platter of iberico jamon with crostinis smothered with a delicious tomato and garlic spread. The olives were delicious, and while the jamon could’ve been sliced a bit more evenly, it was still very intensely flavoured.


Next up was the gazpacho. This cold tomato soup was very refreshing, and had a decidedly tart edge that I don’t think came exclusively from the tomatoes. Couldn’t figure out what it was though (Top Chef taste-test: fail).


The next course was the one where A’s $60 menu lacked a third component – the anchovy and tomato salad with lomo iberico. The other two parts were the same – seafood escabeche, which was a couscous with clams, and roasted peppers with cod brandade. All of them really showcased the ingredients at their best. The anchovy in the salad was just shy of too salty, but well balanced with the slight tartness of the tomato. The clams in the escabeche were very fresh and sweet, and the cod brandade was very tasty, with the roasted peppers being just sweet enough.


Next came the heavier tapas. From right to left (and also the order in which we were advised to eat them): octopus “a la plancha”, crustacean with migas, and eggs with mushrooms. The octopus was super tender slices of octopus served with a tomato puree – why can’t more places prepare octopus like this? This was perfectly cooked – so sweet, tender and juicy. The migas with the (some kind of shellfish) was like flavoured panko breadcrumbs. It gave the shellfish a really good texture and was very addictive. Finally, the last item was a scrambled egg with wild mushrooms, which was creamy, earthy and delicious.


The $60 menu ended there, but the $90 came with a traditional quail stew. I think the $30 premium is worth it for this dish alone. The stew was like home-cooking, but elevated to a refined but yet not pretentious level. The quail was really tender, and the charred bits of skin were to die for. The sauce was made for lapping up, and the beans at the bottom of the dish added an interesting element.

What really took the cake were the strange chunks I found amongst the quail pieces. They were slightly soft, and looked like pieces of scallop. I put one into my mouth, and still couldn’t identify it. After a few more chews, it hit me. Pure pork fat! Man, the flavour and unctuous texture of this mouthful is not something I’ll forget any time soon.



The $60 menu came with a selection of sorbets (mango, pineapple and pear), and the $90 had a Crema Catalana (something like a crème brulee) with seasonal fruits. These were good but nothing to shout about. What got to me more were the lovely nuggets of 2008 parmesan cheese that they dug out of a huge wheel to serve us before dessert.

Definitely a last minute contender for Best of 2010, by virtue of the octopus and quail stew alone. Service here is a tad on the slow side. There’s only one waitress manning the entire lounge; I guess they focus more of their workforce on the well-heeled diners at the main restaurant. She’s a bit harassed but is quite friendly; you just have to be prepared to spare about 2 leisurely hours for dinner.

A says:

Food is spectacular. Service, not so much. Still, the relative affordability, and I emphasise relative when you compare it to the astronomical prices of the main restaurant, makes this worth a visit.

Santi Tapas Lounge
Casino Level 2
Marina Bay Sands
Tel: 6688-8501
Opening hours: 6.30 pm to 11 pm

Nando’s

C says:

After hearing that the Bugis Junction branch attracted snaking queues when it first opened, we were expecting more of a crowd this morning at the Tanglin Mall branch. When we got there slightly before 12, it was almost empty – we were the third table. It filled up later on, presumably after the various kiddie enrichment activities in the Mall ended for the morning.

Their specialty is grilled chicken with peri-peri sauce. You can choose varying heats – Lemon & Herb, Mild, Hot and Extra Hot. Since this is essentially a fast food chain, I assumed their thresholds were pretty low, so I went with the Extra Hot on my grilled ¼ chicken thigh.


The chicken was awesome – one of the most tender pieces of chicken I’ve ever had. The meat pretty much just fell from the bone, but not in a slow-cooked stew kind of way either. The chicken had a good chargrilled flavour, and was enhanced by the peri-peri sauce. The Extra Hot had quite a kick to it, but not in an unbearable way.


I didn’t order sides with my chicken because I wanted to try one of the starters – the Chicken Livers with Portuguese Roll. The roll turned out to be just a mini baguette of sorts. The livers were delicious as well – perfectly cooked and still creamy inside.


A doesn’t like navigating chicken bones, so he went with a really boring chicken kebab. To give them credit, they managed to cooked the chicken breast pretty well – it was quite tender. Still, it was a far cry from my chicken thigh, and since the meat came of the bone so easily, A is convinced to order the grilled chicken instead next time.

A says:

The ¼ chicken of C’s was fantastic. My kebab, not so much. The service wasn’t exactly stellar either. But I guess we’ll be back to a Nando’s at some point. Maybe the Bugis branch if it’s not too crowded.

Nando’s
163 Tanglin Road
#01-14/15, Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6338-6555
Open daily: 10 am to 10 pm
www.nandos.com.sg

Chikuwa-Tei

C says:

My colleague recommended this place to me, and specifically the thick slices of salmon sashimi and the chawanmushi. When I did a bit of prior research on it, I realised that it used to be called Wasabi-Tei, and was located at Far East Plaza. It was a tiny little joint that didn’t accept reservations, and had a scary, bordering on Soup Nazi-esque chef/owner.

When they moved to Mohamed Sultan Road, they renamed themselves Chikuwa-Tei, and got themselves a bigger space and could accept bookings. We called at 7.45 and just managed to snag a table at 8 pm.


I ordered the chirashi sushi and A had a sushi and udon set. His was ok, but paled in comparison to the chirashi. My colleague was right – they’re very generous with their slices of fish, and everything in the bowl was good. In particular, what shone were the salmon, which was sliced very thick and was rich and creamy, the swordfish, and surprisingly the tamago as well. The rice was also well cooked and nicely vinegared.


The photo doesn’t do it justice, but the chawanmushi here is probably the best I’ve ever had. The egg almost seems secondary, because it’s so chockfull of ingredients. Loads of enoki and shimeji mushrooms, chunks of chicken, cubes of incredibly fresh prawns, and even some konnyaku at the bottom to mimic sharks fin. The dashi stock is also very delicately balanced, and the egg perfectly smooth. At $5 per bowl, this is heaven. I may just have 2 of these as my meal next time.

Service was also very good – polite and very quick. We were in and out in half an hour. Another good place for an after work dinner, assuming we manage to get a reservation.

A says:

Awesome. Great food. Great service. Definitely a new regular for us.

Chikuwa-Tei
9 Mohamed Sultan Road
Tel: 6738-9395
Open daily: 11.30 am to 3 pm; 6 pm to 10 pm

My Little Spanish Place

C says:

This little hole-in-the-wall neighbourhood joint reminds me of the first Don Quijote at Lorong Kilat – a small, understated place that seats just about 30 or so. I was quite encouraged by the fact that it’s owned by a Spanish lady, since I figured it had to be pretty authentic. Because it seats so few, it was surprisingly hard to get a table here. Last minute reservations on a Friday and Saturday proved unsuccessful, and we only managed to get a table on the day itself for the less popular Sunday night

They have an interesting split in the menu, between tapas and raciones, the latter being slightly bigger portions for sharing, in between tapas and main courses. Because we wanted to try their house special paella, we were quite restrained in our tapas order.


To start, we had the potato omelette, which is apparently the national dish of Spain. The menu confusingly said that it’s traditionally served cold, but they can warm it on request. However ours arrived warm by default. A took the first bite and after a moment, said “chai tao kueh”. I thought he was joking, but when I tried it, I had to agree. The flavour and texture was very surprisingly like chai tao kueh. Good but not what I was expecting.



The two seafood dishes fared better, especially the snails, which were sautéed with jamon, chorizo and white wine. The snails didn’t taste overly “gamey”, and the combination of jamon and white wine was a winner. The squid cooked in its own ink was another unexpected dish – I expected the squid being sautéed in a squid ink gravy of sorts, but instead the squid ink had been incorporated into a batter, and this was just a version of deep fried calamari.


The paella takes about 20 minutes to cook – the house paella has everything and the kitchen sink thrown in. Prawns, mussels, calamari, chicken and chorizo, with saffron rice. The rice was very flavourful, infused with all the flavours of the ingredients, but I would’ve liked the rice to be a little more moist. The charred bits were good, but I don’t think it was worth the wait. Plus, with so many interesting tapas and raciones to try, the smallest paella still fills us up way too much, so unless we come in a larger group, I doubt we’ll be ordering this again.


Because A isn’t a big paella fan, he left me to hoover up the paella while he saved room for dessert. We went with the Fried Milk, which was actually more like little morsels of deep fried custard. It was lighter than expected and a good end to the meal.

I’d put this place more or less on par with Don Quijote – it’s not the long awaited Spanish restaurant that we’ve been waiting for, but it’s ok for an occasional fix.

A says:

Fantastic service. The food’s mostly good, but not exactly spectacular. We’ll probably be back just because there are so few Spanish places. Oh, and to try the churros.

My Little Spanish Place
619 Bukit Timah Road
Tel: 6463-2810
Lunch: Sat & Sun 12 noon to 4 pm
Dinner: Tues to Sun 6.30 pm to midnight
http://www.mylittlespanishplace.com.sg/

Paradise Dynasty

C says:

Yet another dining option at ION. This is the Paradise Group’s foray into xiao long bao and la mian, and we ventured here on Sunday night to check it out. We managed to get a table immediately, which was surprising for a Sunday night.

The entrance is quite small, so I was under the impression that it was a smallish joint, but the corridor goes pretty far in, past the vast glass-walled kitchen, till you reach a rather large and impressive dining room.

They serve innovative xiao long bao that are infused with various flavours, though do note that they are all pork-based. If it’s your first time, it’s probably a good idea to order the sampling platter that has one of each. We ordered one platter each, and sampled each different one simultaneously. The dumplings are quite garishly coloured, which can be a little disconcerting, but it makes for a pretty platter and an easy way to distinguish each variety.

White – Traditional
Yellow – Cheese
Orange – Crab roe
Green – Ginseng
Pink – Szechuan (spicy)
Black – Truffle
Grey – Garlic
Beige – Foie Gras


When we return we’ll probably order selected ones. I’ll pass on the Ginseng – the flavour was too strong for my liking, and the spiciness of the Szechuan didn’t quite suit a xiao long bao. Cheese was interesting, but I’m not sure that I can handle more than a couple before getting a bit sick of it. And I’m ambivalent about the Truffle, mainly because the truffle flavour wasn’t pronounced enough.

The Garlic was pretty good, but strong so definitely not the most social of choices. Traditional was good, and I really liked the Crab Roe, which was very flavourful, and the Foie Gras, which had just enough foie gras to give it some flavour and a lot of depth and body.


We ordered one of their specialty la mians – the signature la mian with sliced pork in pork bone soup. This was very good. The noodles were much thinner and more delicate than usual la mian. The broth was sweet yet it didn’t have the excessive oiliness of a similar tonkotsu ramen broth. The pork slices were wafer-thin and tender, and there was even a half-cooked egg. Do note that they put chopped coriander together with the spring onions, which we only belatedly discovered, so if you’re not a fan of coriander, do remember to ask them to hold it. We definitely will next time.


We’d heard some warnings about the spiciness of their Szechuan-style offerings, so instead of ordering a second spicy Szechuan la mian, we decided to ease into it by trying their poached chicken in Szechuan sauce (kou shui ji) instead. This wasn’t very spicy but it did have quite a kick to it, so I’m not sure that I can handle an entire bowl of spicy la mian. Especially when the signature pork bone one is so wonderfully delicate and refreshing.

This is definitely worth a visit, but skip dessert. We ordered the egg white soufflé balls with red bean and banana, which took 20 minutes to arrive and weren’t that great.

A says:

Except for the spicy Szechuan and ginsengy Ginseng, I’d gladly have any of the xiao long baos again. Even the cheese one, which I think some might find strange.

We’ll definitely add this to our list of places to eat at in Ion. Prices are very reasonable with most la mian dishes priced at around $10.

Service is a bit iffy though. I found the waiters would travel in clusters and there’d always be too many or none around. Having said that, when you do get their attention, they are very helpful and eager to please.

The only disappointment of the meal was dessert. I had high hopes for the soufflé balls with red bean and banana, but it took forever to arrive, and there wasn’t enough filling.

So for next time, we’ll order more xiao long baos and skip dessert.

Paradise Dynasty
2 Orchard Turn
#04-12A ION Orchard
Tel: 6509-9118
Mon – Fri: 11 am to 10 pm (last order 9.30 pm)
Sat, Sun & PH: 10 am to 10 pm (last order 9.30 pm)
http://www.paradisegroup.com.sg/

Valentino’s

C says:

Oh Valentino, how we’ve missed you... We came here with L and M (their first time!) for dinner tonight and had another awesome meal. It’s food like this that sometimes makes me wonder why we bother trying new places for a “Best of [year]”, when such amazing food can be found in old favourites like Valentino and Ember. The meal would’ve been perfect if they’d had stock of burrata and lobster for the signature lobster pasta, but then again, maybe that would’ve been too much of a good thing.


Kudos to Alberto for making all the specials sound so yummy – we ended up sharing 3 of them to start with. Firstly we had fresh figs with parma ham. This was a leap of faith on our part, because I’ve never really been a fan of figs, and I don’t remember trying any raw fresh ones before. This has converted me – the figs were really sweet, and went very well with the parma ham. Kinda like an alternative to the more predictable melon and ham combination. It also helped that the figs were drizzled with a balsamic syrup.


Alas there was no burrata, so we had the braided mozzarella instead, served simply with olive oil, cherry tomatoes and a salad. As always, this was fabulous, and testament to how the best produce rarely needs any intervention.


The dish that left all of us lost for words was the grilled octopus leg. I think this could well be the best octopus I’ve ever had. It was so incredibly tender, grilled with just the right amount of salt, and tasted really sweet. This is how fresh seafood is supposed to taste.


Because there was no lobster pasta tonight, we managed to try some other items. A had the ravioli of the day – stuffed with beef and served in a butter and sage sauce. This was a surprisingly light dish, well-executed and with very clean flavours.


My main course rocked. I had yet another special – the pan fried fish served with risotto. Again, this was so simple, yet all parts of it were prepared so well. The fish was crisp, fresh and well seasoned. The risotto wasn’t too heavy, but was flavourful and most importantly, had the proper oozy texture.

Valentino’s – still our favourite Italian restaurant. Best dishes there are usually the specials, cos those are made with the freshest produce, but they don’t come particularly cheap. I still think it’s worth it for an amazing yet unpretentious meal.

A says:

One of the best meals I’ve had all year. Awesome!!!

Ristorante da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka (off Rifle Range Road)
Tel: 6462-0555
Tuesday to Sunday: 12 pm to 2.30 pm, 6 pm to 10.30 pm
www.valentino.sg

Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh

C says:

I’m extremely confused... This place is consistently voted as Singapore’s best bak kut teh, trumping both Ya Hua and Founder, but after finally trying it today, I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out why. In my opinion, this doesn’t even come close to Ya Hua, let alone Founder which tops my list.

We ended up here for an early lunch on Saturday quite by accident; we were actually trying to find a furniture store in Macpherson, got lost and decided to try looking for the “famous Rangoon Road bak kut teh”.


We ordered our usual – the ‘long’ pork ribs, the giam chye and you tiao, as well as bowl of pig’s liver. When the ribs arrived, they looked promising in a dark broth. I took a sip – it was slightly peppery and quite thick, but at the same time it lacked, I dunno, depth and body. Never mind, I thought. Maybe, like at Ya Hua, the ribs are the highlight.


To my surprise, the ribs were really tough and chewy. This is surprising, because one of the reasons we order the pork ribs rather than the chopped up spare ribs, is that they come a premium because of their tenderness. You usually can’t go wrong when you order the long pork ribs, but here they were dry and didn’t even fall off the bone.

Needless to say, I was puzzled. “Am I missing something?”, I thought. I even ordered a bowl of the spare ribs, thinking that maybe those are the ones that are famous, not the pork ribs. Wrong; they were even drier and harder.

The liver didn’t fare much better. The slices were so thin that they were overcooked by the time they arrived, and ended up being chewy and tasteless.

Someone help me out. I’m really not being biased; I came here with an open mind, expecting this to blow me away if it was rated above Ya Hua and Founder. After tasting it, I really can’t see how, in any sort of taste test, anyone could put this above those two joints. To me, based on what I had today, it’s not even in the running.

A says:

Service is super efficient. But bak kut teh wise, I much prefer Founder.

Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh
208 Rangoon Road
Hong Building
Tel: 6291-4537
7 am to 3 pm (Closed Mondays)

Double Bay Restaurant

C says:

How disappointing. We came here with high hopes, having been inspired by the fresh seafood at Gattopardo. Unfortunately the food was completely not up to par, and I ended up just wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible. I’ll keep this short, because I’m just too uninspired and unmotivated to write too much about it.


We started with the Kurobuta pork belly with caramelised apple sauce. The pork was quite tender, and very fatty, but the skin/crackling was a complete let down. It was only barely crispy, with some portions just downright chewy. The applesauce was ok – tasted like the filling in McD’s apple pie. (True enough, it surfaced again later in the apple crumble)


They have gourmet fish and chips which you can customise to your liking – choose the fish, ranging from cod, to Chilean seabass, to salmon, and a few other choices in between. Then you can select between beer batter and breaded. A decided on the barramundi with beer batter, which was okay – quite delicate and tasty but I wouldn’t say it was a mind-blowing fish and chips. The takeout one from Greenwood is just as good.


I had the grilled seafood platter, which was a complete let down. Firstly I expected a lot more for the price ($30+), but more than that, the quality was quite suspect. Everything tasted quite blah, certainly not the freshest that I would have expected from a seafood restaurant. And to top it off, the grilled prawn was mushy and barely edible; probably not fresh so I avoided it for fear of food poisoning.


Their pies don’t look too bad, and their apple pie was a pretty decent dessert. It was a bit amusing that the filling was the same as the starter, but other than that this was fine.

Overall though, this was a really lacklustre meal, and just a disappointment because I expected so much more.

A says:

Yeah, good but not great. I’d stick with the fish & chips or maybe try what looked like GIGANTIC pies at the next table.

Double Bay Restaurant
252 North Bridge Road
#01-22A Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6334-6530
Mon to Fri: 11.30 am to 11.30 pm
Sat – Sun: 11.30 am to 1 am

Domani

C says:

I’m not quite sure how we ended up at Domani, which occupies what used to be Pasta Cafe at B2 of Ngee Ann City. It was our second consecutive day at Takashimaya, so I guess we just wanted to have something simple yet marginally interesting. Well, interesting it certainly was. The menu is billed as Spanish/Italian, but I would go further to say that it’s a Singaporean interpretation of Spanish/Italian, so don’t expect too much authenticity.

Their tapas were quite disappointing, since they were more like generic deep fried appetizers that you can get just about anywhere – think deep fried calamari, deep fried soft shell crab, deep fried chicken, fries, potato croquettes and even potato salad. We chose the most interesting thing, which was a platter of bruschetta.


The platter came with one each of their 5 bruschetta offerings – smoked salmon with cream cheese, mixed mushrooms, parma ham and melon, prawn and mango, and sardine with chopped tomato. These were ok but not very outstanding, and I found it a bit disconcerting that all 5 of them were spread with cream cheese.


The photos of the paellas looked like ordinary fried rice, without the signature slightly burnt crust, so we decided to go with some safe-looking and sounding pastas instead. A had the four cheese tagliatelle, which was like any other cheesy cream sauce with just the slightest hint of gorgonzola.


My prawn and aspagarus spaghetti with tomato cream sauce fared only slightly better. It definitely needed the chilli flakes and powdered parmesan cheese that I liberally sprinkled on it; even then, it was quite ordinary and in my opinion, not quite worth $15.90.

We were about to dismiss this place since it was similar to Saizeriya, but without the jaw-droppingly low prices that justify dining there despite the uninspired food. But then, the dessert arrived… They have a tie-in with Rive Gauche patisserie so you can order Rive Gauche’s cakes for dessert, but we went with their home-made Double Chocolate Chiffon Cake instead.


Wow. This was a massive cake – we added A’s hand in the photo to give some perspective on the size. It wasn’t pretty – the icing was just slathered on and the slice was ragged and uneven, but this was better than so many of the multiple layer, doorstop chocolate cakes at some of the finer cafes around. Those jolt you with their size, but are often very heavy and dry. This, on the other hand, is an old school delight. The cake is really light chiffon but still quite chocolatey, and the icing is pretty good fudge. It’s served warm, with a sweetened whipped cream that pairs very well with the cake, since ice cream would probably overwhelm the super-light cake.

So would we recommend this place? Probably not for the food, but most definitely for the cake. I would happily eat somewhere else in Ngee Ann City, and save some space for the cake here.

A says:

This would be perfect for students and young execs. I’d definitely have brought C here for dates. haha

The menu’s slightly more interesting than other equivalently priced places, although it tastes pretty average. As a spoilt gourmand poseur would say, “A little truffle oil would have brought the Quattro Formaggi Tagliatelle to life.” The spoilt gourmand poseur, of course, being me.

The standouts are the bruschetta (for the price) and the desserts (great, no matter what the price).

The coffee’s not bad too.

C says:

Wanker... I’ve created a monster...

Domani
391 Orchard Road
#B2-37 Ngee Ann City
Tel: 6734-1638
Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm
www.pokkafood.com.sg/domani/

Gattopardo

C says:

Another potential entry for Best of 2010! About bloody time too, it’s already September. Part of the Garibaldi group, Gattopardo is an Italian restaurant specialising in seafood. It’s located at what used to be The Legends at Fort Canning Park, which is currently undergoing renovations to turn it into a hotel. The restaurant itself is located in a remarkably large space, with lots of private rooms and ample space for parties. This also means that unless they’re extremely busy, you can usually get a table at fairly short notice.


In addition to their a la carte menu, they also have seafood flown in daily which you can select from a glass counter in the middle of the restaurant. We decided that on our first visit, we should make the most of their seafood expertise. To start with, we selected calamari from the glass counter and got them to grill it, with olive oil and lemon juice. This was very tender and sweet, but I think I expected a little more flavour from the squid.


There was a huge array of pastas on the menu that were calling to me, so we decided to share one as a second starter. We had the angel hair pasta with bottarga and sea urchin. This was good – it didn’t have the Asian twist that the one at Oso did, but at the same time I didn’t expect the liberal dose of herbs in the sauce that made it almost pesto-like.


For our mains, A had the Baked Garoupa with Cured Pancetta and Red wine sauce. This came perched on top of a boiled potato and some sort of pumpkin puree. The fish was very fresh and very flavourful, and perfectly cooked. I did find the pumpkin puree a tad too sweet though, but overall this was a very good dish.


I had the Risone with Braised Octopus and Bone Marrow. Risone is a rice-shaped pasta that looks like risotto but is a pasta instead of rice. This was really good and surprisingly not very jelak at all, compared to risotto. It had a very interesting texture – al dente yet still smooth, and the flavour of the sauce was amazing. The slices of octopus were also very tender. An excellent dish.



Their dishes are all pretty light and well-portioned, so we had room for dessert. A had the Cannoli, which was filled with a sweet ricotta cream and served with a pistachio ice cream, and I had the Crumbled Shortbread with Citrus Cream and Chocolate Sorbet. Both were very interesting and refreshing departures from normal Italian desserts, but if I had to pick the better one it would be the Shortbread.

Service is excellent – knowledgeable waiters who are keen to recommend but aren’t at all pushy. I would definitely recommend this place, and I also can’t wait to return for more pastas and some of their interesting-sounding pizzas.

A says:

Great! It’s got the perfect fancy but not too poncy atmosphere. The service is fantastic, although it does get a tad slow when your section is full. And the desserts are some of the most inventive and original I’ve had in an Italian restaurant.

Overall, a definite contender for the best new find of 2010.

Note to self: Skip the coffee. It was a lot stronger than I expected it to be, and it kept me up till 3 am.

Gattopardo
11 Canning Walk
Tel: 6338-5498
Lunch: 12 noon – 3 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm – 10.30 pm
www.gattopardo.com.sg

Mooncakes

C says:

Mooncake season is upon us again, and it’s that time of the year when I brace myself for a season of excessive calorie consumption. Because they’re so ridiculously calorie-laden, I try to limit myself to just one ‘brand’ of baked mooncakes each year, and one snowskin. For the past few years, it’s been half a box of the Raffles Hotel Mother of Pearl mooncake with single yolk and white lotus paste (I share a box with my brother), and for my snowskin quota, the Szechuan Court assortment (2 each of 4 varieties they have each year).

Alas, after I placed my early bird orders (to take advantage of various credit card discounts), I discovered that Jewels Artisan Chocolates was making a salt caramel truffle snowskin mooncake this year! Finally! Just when I was lamenting that someone should take on this very logical flavour – after all, most mooncakes are based on a sweet-salty pairing, what with lotus paste and salted egg yolk. Of course, I expected Canele to be the ones to step up, but I was more than eager to give Jewels a try.


For my first few bites, I had some reservations. It was my first mooncake of the season, and I was comparing it to the memory of last year’s. I thought that while the salt caramel chocolate truffle was excellent (they are chocolatiers, after all), I somehow felt that the lotus paste and the snowskin paled in comparison to some of the more established mooncake makers.

However, after trying Szechuan Court’s this year, I’m actually changing my mind. Their snowskin isn’t as thin and fine as I remember, so after sampling both this year, my vote actually goes to Jewels. The snowskin is so thin that it's almost translucent, and while I’m not the most keen on the melon seed slivers within the lotus paste, overall I really like the combination of the salt caramel truffle with the lotus paste. And most importantly, kudos to them for not being timid with the salt – there’s nothing I hate more than hesitancy and reservation when creating a salty caramel.


This year, Szechuan Court’s 4 flavours are Baileys, Rum and Raisin, Champagne and, the new flavour this year, Organic Muesli. They were a tad disappointing this year, though I must say they’re not shy with the alcohol for the truffles. If you like your chocolate truffles with a good dose of booze, then these are the ones for you. Otherwise, the only one that I like this year is the Rum and Raisin. I may have to rethink them as my default snowskin choice in future.


Of course, mooncake season isn’t complete without the traditional baked variety, and in my opinion the best one in town is Raffles Hotel’s Baked Mother of Pearl Mooncake with Single Yolk and White Lotus Paste. The skin is really thin and moist, not dry and crumbly, and the filling is extremely fine, probably due to the pearl powder mixed into the paste that gives it its name and signature texture.

A says:

I think mooncakes are way overpriced. Pass.