Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Naked Finn

I had dinner at the Naked Finn and was totally blown away by the freshness of the seafood and the cooking. I don't really go to seafood restaurants cos they tend to be overpriced, and sometimes it's mediocre food. Plus, with the amount of oil and sauces used, it's hard to taste the seafood and I'd rather save my salt and oil calorie quota for better stuff (like the amazing milk and butter pork ribs from 2 chefs!). I was expecting a bigger restaurant at first, and the first impression was rather underwhelming. It's a tiny whitewashed brick building, with plastic walls (like a green house), and you can see and hear everything going on outside.
-12 degrees peach cocktail ($20++)
 I very much wanted to order their Kyoho Grape cocktail (Kyoho grape, calips and vodka) since I'm a huge fan of Kyoho grapes (super sweet, tastes like qoo. If it wasn't so expensive, I'll probably eat it everyday and die from diabetes) and calpis. So that combination can't go wrong in my books.
Unfortunately for me, they were out of kyoho grapes :(
The peach cocktail is pretty good (can't remember the name but it's along the lines of white momo) - instead of fresh fruit juice, they use fresh fruit juice sorbets to keep the cocktails cool and undiluted. It is a bit like a alcoholic, very fruity smoothie. If they're out of Kyoho grapes the next time, I'd definitely order this, since peach is one of my favourite fruits).
Codiments
 We had the set for two ($168++) which saved us the difficulty agonizing over what to order.
The menu is very simple and straightforward, but since this was my first time there, I decided to stick to the set, which gave a very comprehensive overview of their dishes. The seafood is grouped intomollusca, decapoda (lobster), fish and sides.
They gave us some sauce for dipping, which I found completely unnecessary, given the freshness of the food. Plus I really liked that the seafood was lightly flavoured, so that the freshness really shines. But for those who like heavier seasoning, you're at liberty to add as much or as little extra condiments as you want.
Mesculin Salad 
 The dinner started off with a healthy mesclun salad with balsamic vinegar and sesame oil dressing. I dislike oranges so my friend ate all up. Fortunately, there was no residual orange taste. The dressing isn't too tart either.
Fancy chilled kangkong ($10++)
This wasn't in the set, but I couldn't miss out the chance to try their famous chilled blanched kangkong with kalamansi juice and shallot oil. For $10, it's a generous portion.
The kangkong is done just right - still slightly crisp but not undercooked, and tossed with lime juice (I thought that the lime was a bit too strong for my liking, but I think it should be fine for most other people). I liked the friend shallots on top too. Plus you're saving lots of calories since there's hardly any oil used in the preparation. I would have liked it better if they included the kangkong in their seafood set for 2 rather than the salad.
 I liked their flambe live New Zealand little necks soup, which had plump clams floating in a extremely tasty broth. I think they use coconut juice as the soup base so it was refreshing and sweet.
Chilled Piquant Vermicelli
 From young, I have never been a fan of bee hoon. The worst kind is the breakfast bee hoon that I was forced to eat in school - if it's brown in colour after cooking, I confirm wont' like it. I'm marginally more accepting of white bee hoon, if it's in mee siam or mee soto.
So when I tasted their bee hoon (vermicelli and bee hoon, it's like saying long black and kopi-O-kosong) I was amazed that bee hoon could taste so good.
Garlic oil, apparently a bit of lime (which I couldn't really taste) and soft moist bee hoon, topped with chives. It was very moist (but not sopping wet or soggy). I suppose that the bee hoon absorbs whatever flavoring that is added, so it was very tasty. I think I ate 3/4 of the plate :/
Grilled African Lobsters with unsalted butter
 Probably the only (minor) disappointment that night was the lobsters - they were quite puny and smaller than king prawns - I was expecting a normal lobster instead of a langoustine-like lobster. Of course, this was very fresh.
Lightly grilled diver-caught great Atlantic Scallop
I've always liked scallops and scallop sashimi, but this was probably one of the more impressive scallop that I've had in my lifetime.
Huge scallops! So large even after cooking!!
 Lightly seasoned with unsalted butter and fried minced garlic, so that the sweetness of the scallop shines.
The scallops here are so big juicy and sweet, that I felt that I've been missing out on all that nice grilled flavours when I eat it raw. I think it tastes even better than scallop sashimi.
Grilled baby indian squids with sea salt and olive oil
The baby squids had a slightly salty and briny taste. Perfectly grilled, tender and chewy. It took quite a while to eat this dish cos I had to remove the bone from each squid.
Pan-fried barramundi with sea salt and olive oil
Ended dinner with a very fresh barramundi - the skin was crispy and the white flesh moist and juicy. It's accompapnied by a lightly marinated tomato salad.
Creme Brulee ($10++)
By the end of dinner, we were stuffed, but desserts always belongs to another compartment. So we had the creme brulee with strawberries and candied orange. I requested for the candied orange to be served on the side for obvious reasons. The dish is very shallow, so there's more surface area for that nicely burnt sugar layer.

I'll definitely be back for supper cos I am dying to try their prawn mee, which is only served for supper (1030pm onwards), and I'm so glad that I dragggggged my dslr out or it wouldn't do justice to the food.


Gillman Barracks
41 Malan Road
Singapore
Tel 66940807
Monday to Thurs 6-12mn
Fri to Sat 6pm-2am
Eve of PH 6pm-2am

No comments: