Persimmon

Persimmon is a fusion restaurant located at the Link Hotel in the quaint Tiong Baru estate. I used to be prerry wary of fusion restaurants, because I had quite a few bad experiences (way before I started up my blog). My friend told me about Persimmon when it first opened, but I’m pretty wary about fusion foods since I’ve had a few bad experiences in the past.


Persimmon was having a DBS 1 for 1 lunch offer, so I decided to take the opportunity to go down to try the lunch - at least, if the food didn’t agree with me, I wouldn’t bee so sad since I’ll be paying half price. We chose the 3 course set lunch ($28 ), which includes a starter, main and dessert.


Crabcakes : Crab claw meat, white pepper, garlic, ginver, spring onion, chilli; mango and lotus salsa, lotus crisps

For starters, we had the Crabcake, which was sweet and juicy crab claw meat with an Asian marinade consisting of chillies, garlic, ginger and spring onion. The moist crabcakes went very well with the chunky mango salsa. I liked how the dish was prettily presented, garnished with lotus root crisps. The yellow mango salasa and green salad gave the dish nice contrasting colours.
Chicken Salad: Hainanese-style poached chicken, fresh local herbs and mesclun greens; rice crisps; chilli, garlic ginger, soy and lime; sesame and olive oils


The Chicken Salad is their signature dish and its not to be missed. For those calorie counters, it's the goodness of Hainanese chicken without the guilt (and carbos). The salad greens were tossed with the delicious chicken gravy, and blended with potent garlic chilli. Traditional Chicken rice herbs and vegetables (parsley and spring onion and cucumber) were also mixed in with the musclun greens, and the rice crisps gave the salad a crunchy texture. Of course, there were delicious shreds of chicken to complete this hearty salad. Caution: you'll get a bit of garlic breath after this so bring some mints!

Their signature Linguine laksa-leaf pesto, which really hit the spot. It’s a refreshing change from the usual basil leaf pesto. Best of all, the laksa leaf is so aromatic that one whiff of it leaves me salivating. The distinct flavour of the laksa leaf is melded with butter, cream and white wine, giving a delicious blend of East meets West. Every mouthful of this linguine was a delight, and we polished off the whole plate of al dente linguine easily.

Fisherman's Pie prawn, fish and tau-pok, spicy coconut and crabmeat gravy, puff pastry on top

We also had the Fisherman’s Pie, but it was outshone by the lingiune. I didn’t really like this dish because it was too spicy for me.It’s an interesting twist to the normal puff pastry soups, as a golden orange curry is hidden under layers of fluffy and decadently buttery puff pastry.

Some other interesting main courses which I definitely want to try the next time include the Spaghetti aglio-olio porchetta: roast pork belly Italian with herbs and lemon garlic, chilli and EVO oil, as well as their Chicken roulade: boneless chicken thigh tandoori marinade, basmati rice pilaf and mango raita.
The Fruit Crumble has chunks of apple and persimmon hidden underneath a layer of crumble. The banana ice cream perched over the steaming hot crumble was bursting with flavour, and the banana taste was very strong. The apple and persimmon pieces were lightly cooked, warm and juicy.
We also had the 8 Treasures Ice Kachang Sundae. Although it’s called Ice Kachang, there weren’t any icy bits inside. Instead, it was lucious layers of young coconut ice cream drizzled with rose syrup to give it a hint of pink. It was daintily decorated with pistachio bits, red dates and golgi berries. Under the white folds of coconut sundae, there were sweet juicy bits of persimmon and red beans.

I like the way Persimmon includes their namesake into their dishes, who would have thought that persimmon could be used in fruit crumble?

Persimmon also has other interesting desserts, which unfortunately, I was unable to try. They have pandan creme brulee as well as Panna cotta with coconut cream and gula melaka. Such exciting dessets - I must hurry back to try them all before the offer is up!!

This is a special SingHealth staff menu - you have to show at least 1 card per table before you can get the offer, but then I think that it's really worth it - it's only $20 for a 3 course set lunch. Although the choices are more limited, the menu features their signature dishes, and even comes with coffee or tea. My super yummy and intereseting meal costs $32 for 2 people, which brings it down to a totally worth it $16-something per person. It's really worth it for a 3 course set lunch which tastes great. The portions are also sufficient - I really hate restaurants that give minuscule portions. I'm really glad that I decided to give Persimmon a try - I never knew that fusion food can be so good. It's one more reason to sign up with SingHealth.

The service was quick friendly and efficient, with iced water being topped up whenever I downed a cup (since the fisherman’s pie was spicy). Persimmon is a perfect place to have a lazy lunch. The restaurant itself faces the main road, with ample lighting and yet gives off a relaxing vibe. The decor is simple, in muted blacks and whites, with mosiac floor tiling. I would definitely return to this restaurant to have a refreshing meal. Small tiles!

Persimmon
#01-07 The Link Hotel,
50 Tiong Bahru Road

Telephone: 6227-2271

Website: http://www.persimmon.com.sg/