Buko Nero

I've tried Buko Nero, thanks to ice (go check out her comic strip on buko nero!) who booked it waaaaaay in advance. To secure a table in this tiny restaurant, you'll have to book a month before you want to eat there! AND they don't allow photographs :'( Anyway, we arrived there early and were hovering outside the locked doors and hungrily breathing in the delicious cooking smells. Their foccacia bread has a sweet tomato embedded in each slice, and is sprinkled with some herbs. Actually, our bread didn't come in a metal bucket - the table next to us had the bucket, and we had a funny looking basket (which isn't v nice so I didn't draw it). Being greedy that day, we had our bread refilled so we could use it to mop up the sauce/soup from our appetisers :P

The mushroom soup is a must try for truffle lovers like me - nearly 70% of the surface is covered in truffle oil slick. The smell is so heavenly. And even of you don't like truffle oil, the mushroom soup itself tastes great, but why order this if you don't like truffle? Ok I'm contradicting myself but there's so much truffle oil so you really shouldn't order it if you hate truffle oil.

Buko Nero's famous Tau Kwa Tower, which has a heap of sauteed and fresh vegetables, such as parsley, finely shredded carrots, enoki mushrooms etc etc towered on top of a big square of tau kwa. It comes with this sweetish black sauce (kecap manis) which was mopped clean with the extra serving of bread.

My main was the pork, and it didn't dissapooint. Actually, when it came, I thought it looked a bit dry and tough ( what if it's dry and yucky?) but my fears were completely unfounded. The pork was suprisingly tender - and for people like me who don't like the pork fats, this is perfect since it's nearly 95% worth of lean meat. There's no porky smell or taste at all. It comes with mashed potatoes and is garnished with lots of leaves.

ice ate the spaghetti with spicy crab and prawn, which looks like normal spaghetti, and which I don't know how to draw. So you can use your imagination here - looks like normal spaghetti, with the noodles al dente in this super fragrant garlic/tomatoey sauce.

My favourite dessert was the Apple Tart - if only it were bigger, cos it's so yummy. The tart is pretty small - smaller than the delifrance tarts. The apples are sauteed in butter (I suppose) and are firm to bite. The tart crust is golden and tastes delicious. And the caramel ice cream goes extremely well with the generous sprinkling of fleur de sel (spelt as fior di sale in the menu).
Also, we tried the Milk chocolate cake with coconut and gula melaka coulis. It also came with coconut cream foam, which I found pretty cool since it looked exactly like whipped cream. ice says that the cake remidns her of ondeh ondeh! Perhaps I was so blown away by the tiny apple tart so the chocolate cake didn't really impress me, but it's supposed to be very popular with buko nero diners.

We ended the meal with a scoop of milo ice cream, which is probably the most milo-packed ice cream I've ever eaten. The milo was so dense and creamy,

It's like how the milo van's milo is 100x creamier than the kind you make at home, and you can never get your home-made milo to taste the same. The other milo ice creams I've tried are not as creamy or milo-packed. The milo ice cream reminds me a bit of how those dense chocolate ice creams taste like, just that its nicer cos milo has this malted taste, and I always associate the taste of milo with milo vans. The milo ice cream here's the best one I've tasted. I can't imagine how their horlicks ice cream will taste like, but horlicks wasn't available the day I went.

I'm so going to come back and try their dinner menu, but I haven't had the time to call and make the booking. When I'm free-er I shall quickly book :D

Buko Nero also serves lunch sets at affordable prices but since we wanted to try other stuff, we didn't get tt one. But I will definitely want to return to try their lunch sets - the salmon with coriander crust looked absolutely delicious! (again, I was peering over at other people's food).

The restaurant has only 2 staff - the chef and his wife Tracy. She does everything from serving bread, water, clearing dishes, serving food etc etc by herself! Obviously, the service gets a bit slow when the restaurant is full, but I'm really impressed at her efficiency. And she doesn't sound the least bit harrassed. I'll be so stressed and drop all the dishes if I'm in her place :O

Buko Nero

126 Tanjong Pagar Road

Tel: 6324 6225
Parallel parking along the road.