Jamie's Kitchen - Vivocity

So the naked chef has come to Singapore - missed all that hype when it first opened in July, but when I tried it end Aug it was still freaking crowded. Managed to get a lunch table after 1.5h wait (at least they don't expect you to stand there and waste your life) and used that 1.5h to sample some moon cakes in the atrium.

Btw Peony Jade's Mango cheese mooncake are the best I've tried so far! Really delicious! I'm not a big fan of durian so I wasn't interested in the mao shan wang mooncake but the mango cheese was very fruity, refreshing and not too sweet. They also have salted caramel gula melaka which I didn't quite like cos the texture was too sticky and gooey for my liking and a pink guava mooncake (didn't like the taste). 

 My favourite dish - the wild truffle risotto in the starter portion ($17++) which was creamy risotto perfumed with black truffle. Though despite my love for truffle, I doubt that I would be able to finish the whole portion of this, but it makes a great starter for sharing.

Chicken of the day ($39++)

 This chicken of the day was $39 for 2 small pieces of chicken. No doubt the chicken was nice and tender, with the olives and grilled peppers giving it a nice healthy taste, and a polenta base, but no way am I going to be paying 39 bucks for chicken again. Just give me the carbs please. (I don't know if this was some special free range organic chicken but I'm not sold for all the organic produce and whatnots - I mean if I have to pay $8 for an avocado vs $2-$3, gimme the cheaper one anytime!)

 Squid ink pasta with seafood - not bad - I think the pasta dishes here are generally better than the meats? I heard that the beef is pretty good but I'm dead sure that isn't the case for the chicken.

 Fried polenta
Pretty interesting dish but it was a bit underseasoned.

 Lemon Meringue Tart
When this came, I was dismayed to find that there was so much orange zest! Ok but then again it's a citrus tart, just that I especially dislike orange/grapefruit/mandarins/tangerines/yuzu. I'm only fine with lemon when it's in lemonade and in lemon tarts/curd and maybe sangria. At least, it was quite easy to scrape off. I prefer Marmalade Pantry's lemon tart to this. The lemon layer is a bit too jelly like for my liking though they're really generous with the meringue.

 The tiramisu was really delicious - coffee soaked sponge layers and lots and lots of cream cheese.
I think that they probably use much more mascarpone cheese in relation to the heavy cream, so the cream portion is much heavier and stiffer. There's also a dollop of mascarpone cheese.
I had a difficult time scraping off the orange zest cos it sank into the cheese portions :( If I had known I would have asked them to just omit it and leave my tiramisu unadulterated.

The very wobbly pannacotta. No complaints here but if I had space for one dessert, tiramisu will be it! Not to say that it wasn't nice but it's not one of my more favourite desserts. 

We were seated next to the glass windows so I had awesome lighting - even my iphone 5 photos look so nice without photoediting! :D I think I'll come back for their pasta/risotto and tiramisu but I don't think I'll queue 1h (though Vivo has so many shops it's not that painful to queue).

Jamie's Italian

1 HarborFront Walk

Vivocity

#01-165/167

Tel 67335500

Group Therapy Cafe Desserts

Didn't try the brunch/lunch here but the Snickers Tart really blew me away! Especially significant since I'm not a fan of snickers to begin with. 

The shortcrust pastry was nice and firm, neither to buttery/dry or crumbly, the choc layer nice and thick and this gooey nougat like centre which was like a more liquid version of the snickers innards. I think it's topped with shards of honeycomb? 

It was about $7 or $8 I can't remember cos I was rushing off after dessert but this tart  is definitely a winner. Though I don't think I want to stress my pancreas too much and finish the whole thing. About 1/4 or 1/3 should be enough sugar for the day.

This was the ice cream waffle - pretty average, perhaps it was overshadowed by the awesome snickers tart. 

They have quite an interesting selection of teas - and I picked the silver tips cos according to what I learnt on the tea plantation in Sri Lanka, silver tips are the most prized part of the whole tea plant. I'm no tea connoisseur - I think it tastes pretty much like how most teas taste, perhaps a little milder and silver tips are  supposed to lower your cholesterol :D 

Brunch looks good - will consider coming back perhaps on a Sunday (Saturdays carpark sucks here)

Group Therapy Cafe

49 Duxton Road

#02-01 

Singapore 089513

Tel 62222554

Wooloomooloo Set Lunch

 Delicious rosemary bread - served warm with whipped butter.

 Started of crab meat salad - very lightly seasoned so that the sweetness of the crab comes through

Cod

 My default main was cod since I don't eat the beef. The cod was fresh, sauce a bit too salty for my liking. I prefer my fish to be dry, cos the sauce just reminds me of Chinese style steamed fish.

Australian Filet Migon 

Everyone else ate the beef, which looked and smelt really good. I think that for the price, the portion is really generous and the general consensus was that the beef was very yummy, doneness perfect. I snitched a bit of the mashed potatoes - very rich and creamy - definitely has lots of butter. 

 Dessert was chocolate cake and raspberry sorbet - a nice sweet ending to the meal

The set lunch has 3 different mains - with the beef costing $42, which is pretty reasonable for the cut and size you're getting. Don't come here if you don't eat beef - it just defeats the purpose. But if you do, keep this place on your radar for lunch.

Wooloomooloo Steakhouse
Level 3 Swissotel The Stamford
2 Stamford Road
Tel 63380261

Sleepy afternoons 

Bacchanalia

Went to Bacchanalia in June to celebrate 2 birthdays (super long ago I know, but the food was good++ so I decided to write about it!)

It's a swanky restaurant located in the Maisonic club (a very nondescript building), which I trudged past x3 looking for (no signs outside!). It's this blue coloured building just before the post office. 

The restaurant encourages sharing, and that each person have 3 savory dishes and 1 dessert. Besides being chopped into smaller pieces, I don't see how these portions encourage sharing, it just makes the minuscule portion size it even more painfully obvious. The whole time I was just thinking to myself that if only I could get another spoon full of this delicious dish, and I had to consciously ration each scoop and savored each morsel of food.

Prawn Risotto ($28++)

Garlic oil, poached prawn, strawberries and burrata. Fresh juicy prawn, with firm chewy risotto, harmoniously paired with strawberries and creamy burrata.

Aubergine Assam ($16++)

Glazed aubergine, charred aubergine puree, salted konbu crumbs

Hamachi Carambola ($26++)

Citrus cured hamachi, pickled starfruit and garlic, freshly grated walnuts
I liked how the chef used starfruit, which is so readily available locally but hardly used in most restaurants. The citrus wasn't very obvious (thankfully), the hamachi very fresh and slightly raw.

HD scallops ($26++)

Norwegian hand dived scallops, borlotti beans, tobiko, cocoa
Option of adding a caviar supplements 5g for $50

Cauliflower Gratin ($17++)

Deep fried cauliflower florets, white cruffle and cheese foam, germolata

Steak and Eggs ($16++)

Rib eye, pickled onions, "eggs" and chips

Foie Gras Satay ($30++)

Sous vide foie gras with tamarind and lemongrass fluid gel, grated chestnuts, peanut satay

Strawberry macaroons

Tiramisu ($18++)

Marsala mousse, coffee ganache, cocoa gel, blackcurrent ice cream
This was extremely small I don't know how they expect us to share this I could have easily demolished this in 3 mouth fulls.

I thought the food was good taste wise, but the portions are very anorexic, especially when for the exorbitant price tags. If you have a deep pocket, I'll recommend this place - probably one of the better (non-Japanese places) I've had this year. It'll either burn a hole in your pocket or you'll be hungry still (we adjourned to Timbre and ate pizza after).

I think that if you like Black Swan's decor and music, you'll probably like this place. The interior has red velvety cushioned seating, with muted lighting and a really pretty lamps. Very luxurious and swanky, and feels like you're not in Singapore. If you're bored and have time, go read the reviews on trip advisor - some of them are hilarious (mostly directed at the portion sizes).

Bacchanalia
The Masonic Club
23A Coleman Street
Tel 65091453

Kaixo

Kaixo is a pretty new restaurant serving tapas. 

Pintxos (3 for $12, 5 for $20)

After doing some research online, I went with the general consensus of eating some pintxos each, and topping up with a few more tapas. Pintxos (pronounced as peen-chos) are typically found in the Basque region of Spain, and are served on a slice of bread with various toppings. Since they had 5 different pintxos, and one was beef, I decided to go with the 3 pintxos, while my friend had 5.

I really liked the pinxtos on the left, but the cold slightly soggy vegetable tempura one on the far right wasn't very nice. The goats cheese with gripped pepper, walnut and dried apricot was delicious, and so was the chorizo sausage with jamon ham.

Marinated Fresh Anchovies ($10++)

We tried one of their specials of the day - the fresh anchovies cos I have never tried fresh anchovies before. Other than being an essential part of the Caeser salad dressing, I've only ever had anchovies in the preserved form, so I was quite intrigued by the fresh ones. It had a slightly oily fishy smell and a mild bitter aftertaste, but when paired with the crisp sliced onions and bread, it was like an additional pintxo.

Braised Yellowfin Tuna ($14++)

The online reviews for this dish was very promising, but I felt that it tasted a bit too Chinese - braised potatoes with slightly pink yellowfin tuna, served in a tin can.

Sautted Pardon Peppers with sea salt ($14++)

The peppers were nicely charred with slightly blistered skin, and there were huge flakes of sea salt. I think this would go really well with beer. Don't order this if you don't like the taste of peppers/capsicum. It smells like how chillies smell but with none of the spiciness.

Churros with luscious chocolate sauce. I always compare churros to the Disneyland ones - my friend says that no churro can ever beat Disneylands, but I thought this was really good. Hot and crispy, it's delicious with the chocolate sauce (and it was a generous dipping portion, the churros were gone before we could finish the chocolate dip).

Bookings are recommended cos the restaurant is very tiny. Service was quick and attentitive. Perhaps I will try the risotto when I next come back - it looks really good but I was still full from my 3pm lunch so I didn't eat it.

Kaixo
96 Tanjong Pagar Road
Tel: 62250545

Went to Black Swan after dinner - it's a really nice place, just that it's in ceebeedee so it's hard to get to! Their decor and music is really nice and it looks like it just popped out from the Great Gatsby set. Their cocktails are $19++ - and my Silver Lining (amaratto and peach) was pretty good.

Black Swan
19 Cecil Street

The Sushi Bar

The Sushi Bar is a very impressive hole in the wall restaurant tucked in the corner of Far East Plaza. I tried x2 before this very unsuccessfully - first time they were packed for 2 dinner seatings on a weekend, and the second time they were so overwhelmed that they weren't even doing takeaways...

Anyway, I finally managed to get a seat for a Saturday lunch, We shared the premium chirashi don ($45) which reminded me of a higher end version of the old Wasabi Tei's. Jammed packed with fresh generous slices of sashimi (salmon, hamachi, scallop, swordfish, tuna tataki), a good portion of sweet uni, eel, roe, tamago and prawn. It's such a busy chirashi don that it's a bit overwhelming to decide where to start from.

Their very famous salmon aburi maki roll ($15) which is as good as the reviews. Actually, you can't go very wrong with thick slices of aburi (blow torched) salmon and avocado. Top it all off with aburi mentaiko sauce it's a winning combination.

Scallop Mentaiyaki ($15++)

I'm a big fan of mentaiko (pollock roe) and I consciously save my cholesterol quota for this (and foie gras). Fresh scallop carpaccio dressed with mentaiko sauce - the sweet scallops go really well with the umami taste of the mentaiko sauce.

The blow torch beef which is supposedly very very yummy.

They're just done with some renovations - hopefully the place is bigger now cos snagging a seat here is really a pain. They don't take reservations on Saturdays so that more people can get a seat.

The Sushi Bar
14 Scotts Road
Far East Plaza 03-89
Singapore 228213
Tel 96250861
Opened Monday to Sunday 12-930pm

Ended the meal with sun with moon's cheesecake dessert - super yummy why did I not know of its existence until now????

Woobar

Went to Woobar cos of the pretty good reviews on Honeycombers and on a few other places online. Sad to say that it was pretty disappointing once the novelty of the hanging birdcage wore off, which was pretty quick.

The obligatory tea in the high tea - lots of teas to choose from

The most impressive part of the high tea - I was hankering for the chocolate foie gras tart (actually, that was the main reason why I wanted to try Woobar!)

It did not disappoint, but I won't advise you to come here all the way for it.
I liked the goats cheese and smoked salmon roll, which was cleverly disguised to look like a creamy swiss roll.

The chicken brioche was average bordering on mehhh and slightly dry. None of the delicious buttery brioche that I associate with Wild Honey.

 The impressive hanging birdcage - which actually comprises of alot of 'fillers' and not that much real food.

 The brightly coloured pau- look-alikes are really marshmallows in coconut, strawberry and mint. Intensely sweet and really not my cup of tea.
The jar in the middle is filled with some chocolates which were really not very impressive, furthermore, I was already feeling the sugar rush from the scones and after sampling a bit of the marshmallow.
The prawn roll was not warm, oily and really very average. In fact, if it was at a buffet table, I would have skipped. it.
The green buns on the right are egg mayo buns, which tasted like something I could have whipped up at home myself.

To be fair, the scones were really nice (similar to the Drawing Room at St Regis) and the clotted cream and passionfruit curd were nice, but it wasn't nice enough to salvage the whole meal. The dainty lemon meringue tart was good but really, there's not enough good food in the whole set to justify the price.

The macaroons only added to the overall sugar rush and by the time we were mostly done, our hypocounts were probably high. (I think I'm growing old I don't particularly like macaroons now despite being crazy over them when i was still studying).

For a hotel, the service was dismal.

Photobombed

Firstly, it was a weekday, and I called in to make a reservation about 1hour before we went down. They were having a media event the day we went, and they didnt' inform us that the inner dining area would be reserved for this event, and that we would be sitting in the lobby area (where it felt like the whole world was walking past).

So we were first seated on these uncomfortable wooden chairs which was an absolute ergonomic horror. Fortunately, before our food came, we moved over to these slightly more comfortable chairs (which also were like beds). The whole time we were eating there, there were all these works dragging huge bulky signs and backdrops, and lots and lots of people rushing around preparing for their media event.

I thought the least they could do was to inform us that they were having a media event and that it may be noisy, cos the ambience was totally ruined. Especially since the whole point of coming for high tea was to have a nice and peaceful relaxing environment to chill.

When I called to make the reservation, I also enquired if they provided complimentary parking, which they said they did. When I asked for the complimentary carpark ticket after the meal, I was told by the staff that they do not provide complimentary parking. Their lack of consistency is ridiculous and in my opinion, not acceptable for a 5 star hotel.

Bad service aside, for the same price, give yourself a little more tlc and go somewhere that serves proper food, in proper sizes. There are many other places that do decent high tea for the same price, so if you have the rare opportunity for high tea, I suggest you don't waste it on Woobar.

Woobar
21 Ocean Way, Sentosa Cove
W Hotel Singapore
Tel 68087258

Kilo by Pact

Kilo by pact is a pretty unique store - which has Japanese, Vietnamese, and western touches. When I found out that it was run by the same people who opened the now defunct Raw Kitchen Bar (which I really liked), I was really eager to try it. Just that there was one hitch. The original outlet is near Kallang River and has no aircon. I definitely will not be able to enjoy my meal with the heat and humidity in Singapore, plus Kallang is a distance away for me, so I never made it there.

I was glad that they opened another outlet at Orchard Central (which is still as deserted as ever). The food is above average, prices  reasonable and service was pretty good. Perhaps the only thing to nit pick about was that the chairs weren't that comfortable (no backs to lean on!). 

Baby Eggplant ($12++)

I had the baby eggplant starter which tasted much better than it looked. Soft eggplant braised in donburi sauce with creamy mascarpone cheese and tempura flakes. The mascarpone cheese adds a nice creamy touch to the salty dish. I'll definitely order this if I'm back at Kilo again.

Ahi Mango Tuna Poke ($16++)

 This was one of my favourite dishes from Raw Kitchen Bar - I'm so glad that they kept it on the menu cos it's light and refreshing, with chunks of tuna (raw) mixed with crunchy Japanese cucumbers, sweet mango, and slivers of onion. To eat, just scoop onto the fried wanton skins. Poke (pronounced as poh-ke) is actually a Hawaiian dish. I could eat the whole thing by myself. I really like tuna and this has to be one of my favourite dishes from Kilo.

The price is pretty steep because there's quite a bit of tuna - I was absolutely craving for this dish a few days later  and decided to make my own but the ingredients are really ex! The tuna costs about $20 from Cold storage sashimi section, and the mango anoter $6. Of course there's more tuna but I think that the amount of tuna in this dish pretty much justifies the price.

12h Pork Belly Rice Bowl ($17++)

 I thought their meat bowls were awesome - it came in beef short rib (which the general consensus was that it was really yummy and tender) and melt in the mouth 12hour pork belly (which was my main). These bowls are nothing like the meat bowls from Yoshinoya. Comes with fragrant sticky Niigata rice, sweet corn, tomatoes, sugar peas and wasabi sprouts.

I really liked that they took the trouble to incorporate different coloured veggies in it. The wasabi sprouts were pretty interesting (it's my first time having them) and had a mild peppery wasabi taste, but none of that unpleasant sinus/nose burning feeling. (Btw, did you know that the 'wasabi' that most restaurants use is actually horseradish powder with green food colouring? the real wasabi has a much milder taste and needs to be grated - the more upmarket Japanese restaurants use real wasabi which is of a lighter colour and milder taste). The sugar peas  were sweet and crunchy, and the cherry tomatoes were coated with a slightly sourish dressing.

Beef Short Ribs Rice Bowl ($17++)

Beef short ribs - pink and tender pieces of beef that everyone else liked 

Salmon Avocado Sushiro ($15++)

One of the dishes that Kilo is famous for and has really good review online is their sushiros - which come in 3 different flavours - the one we tried was the salmon avocado, but there's also prawn tempura and for the more adventurous, taco rice (which is an interesting combination of minced tomato beef, cheddar, sour cream).

The sushiros are probably what I'll go for if I want a mid afternoon snack/tea - it's packed full of vegetables (crunchy carros, cucumbers) and some avocado for that creamy taste, and nice fresh salmon chunks. Paired with the flax chips it's a satisfying meal for one and a nice appetizer if you want to share amongst a few friends.

Grilled Salmon

I didn't try this but this is how one of the mains looked like - it's a good sized portion too.

We didn't try desserts but they have basil ice cream, which I will make a point to try in the future. I just realized that I have too many dishes that I like - must make it a point to bring more people if I come here next time cos then we'll be able to share (on sharing plates) and can try more dishes^v^

Kilo by Pact
#02-16/17/19 Orcahrd Central
181 Orchard Road
Tel 68847560

*closed mondays*Tues to Sunday 11am to 10pm

Btw, the place is really hard to find cos there's no signboard but it's near the escalator from the outside which is directly opposite KPO.