Friday, January 23, 2009

7atenine

I first heard about 7atenine cos claire was excitedly smsing me (but unrelated to the food), andbut I was blown over by ice's drool-worthy pictures and I knew I had to zoom down before CNY cos my family's only CNY tradition is to bi4 nian2 :D I also dragged my brother out of bed at 11.20am sharp so that we'll have more people to conquer the whole menu.
The menu is really cool - there's 3 sections namely "from the land", "from the sea" and "from heaven". The last one needs no explaination to what it is. Plus, the name of the restaurant is so cute!

I'm a lazy bugger so I was trying to take photos of the menu so that I'll remember what I ate without writing down anything, but once the food came, I stopped and so I don't know what some of the dishes are called :/ oh well, nvm, cos I'm going back again! :D

Prices stated are ala carte prices, but with lunch unlimited, it's $37++ with free flow of soft drinks and fruit juices (pineapple, lime, cranberry and a few others).
Tomato Salad ($7) - Japanese cherry tomato salad with wild herb and extravirgin olive oil
The starter was cool and refreshing, and the tomatos were sweet and juicy, without any of the tartness of the normal tomatos we get here. It was simply dressed in a balsamic vinegar glaze and fresh herbs, and the natural flavours of the tomatos weren't overpowered.
Green Bean Tempura ($12) - bacon wrapped green bean tempura and black truffle dressing
This was one of my favourite dishes - the green beans are very sweet, and the batter doesn't taste oily at all. Of course, I'm biased cos it's infused with truffle oil, but I liked how the saltiness with the bacon balances the sweetness of the green beans. Also, the green beans are cooked just right, and are neither soggy nor still crispy with the uncooked garden-y smell.
Crab salad with marshmellow
Ok I didn't get the name for this, but then there's shredded crab in a creamy dressing, and there's this marshmellow-like thing (but it's not the usual marshmello it's not sweet and it's yellow) which didn't really taste of anything (to me). I found the salad a bit too salty for my liking, but everyone else liked it.
Parma Ham with Rock Melon
One of my favourite appetisers ever - parma ham and juicy rockmelon is always a winning combination. What I liked about this was that the rock melon didn't come in chunks (like how it's usually served) but in thinner pieces, so thin that they were floppy, just like the parma ham.
Rice Croquette ($10) Croquette of sushi rice, corn, tomato, egg and chilli with wild herb salsa
This reminds me of deep fried sushi from Nara (which I have yet to blog about), and the herb salsa is an interesting twist to normal sushi.
I didn't get the name but it's chopped tuna marinated with some red peppers and herbs. It comes with a unique avocado and shallot sauce (seen on the lettuce leaf).
Wasabi Cod ($14) garlic scented black cod brandade croquette with wasabi dressing.
I saw this prettily presented dish on ice's blog and I was very excited to try it, cos of the unusual presentation. The cod balls were served fresh out of the fryer, and the wasabi mayo dressing is the best wasabi mayo I've tried. I think it's cos it's fresh wasabi and not the fake wasabi (the powder kind which is actually horseradish dyed green). Fresh wasabi has a more delicate taste, and isn't as hot.
Smoked Salmon - fatty slices of smoked salmon.
Marinated Anchovies on Olive bread
The anchovies were briney and salty, and went well with the crusty olive bread.
Cod
Sadly, I didn't get the name for this dish, but it was also one of my favourites. I think the fish here is really good! And it's very healthy too. It's simply marinated with fresh dill and extravirgin olive oil.
Almond Crusted Nasu ($8) - oven baked Japanese eggplant with almonds and chilli flakes.
I really like eggplants, but I found this one too salty for my liking. I don't like my dishes so salty cos I can't taste any other flavour besides the salt. But I liked how the crusty almond texture contrasted with the slighly soft eggplant.
Lamb Cutlet ($18) - Thyme Chilli marinated lamb cutlet with spanish chilli
The lamb cutlets were melt in the mouth tender - the only other lamb cutlets that I can think of which are as soft is the space @ my humble house bak ku teh lambchops, but those are slow cooked. The lamb cutlets were pink and incredibly juicy, and one piece isn't enough.
Tortilla ($9) - Potato and egg tortilla scented with bonito flakes and edamame
I like to think of this as a funkier verison of tamago (Japanese egg roll), just that it's not sweet.
Portabello Mushrooms ($12) - portabello mushroom confit with crispy shallots and pine nut-soy dressing.
Again, another pretty presentation, though I'm not a big fan of eating portabello mushrooms in restaurnats (cos they're always so ex!), even though I like the texture and taste.
Beef Cheeks - The hot favourite of the day, but then I don't eat beef. According to my brother, the beef cheeks are extremely tender and are not chewy like how some restaurants do their beef cheeks. In fact, he liked the beef cheeks so much he ate 2 servings of it, even though we were so stuffed.

I ate the mashed potato, and it's very creamy and delicious. Also, the mashed potato has been fluffed so it isn't so heavy and dense.
Yellow fin tataki ($14) seared yellow fin tuna with calamansi scented avocado mousse and fried shallots
I like tuna tataki so this was one of my favourite dishes, even though I hate having any citrus fruit peel/juices in my savoury foods, the calamansi taste isn't that strong.
Deep Fried Crusted Prawn (yikes I don't know the name so I shall just think of one that best describes the dish).
Presented in the same way as the wasabi cod - we had lots of fun discussing if they bought the toothpicks, or if they were handmade. The prawns here aren't spoilt by the usual bicarbonate (or alkalinisation) so they were very tasty, unlike the crunchy bicarbonate prawns which don't have much taste. Also, I liked the way they peeled the prawn right down to the tips of the tail, leaving just the orange tail shell at the end, and none covering the prawn meat at all. I wouldn't want to be the prawn peeler though, I bet I'll keep peeling off the whole tail and ruining all the prawns.
Organic Beef Sashimi ($14) organic beef sashimi with shavings of olive oil marinated spanish onions monchego cheese and pasila chilli powder.
Actually, I think you should read ice's review. It's her favourite dish:) and I can't review it.
Ocean Trout ($14) paplatte of ocean trout fillet with chorizo, mussel and tomato
This was my favourite dish of the day - the trout was extremely fresh, and melt in the mouth. It was cooked just right, with the inside slightly raw and was very juicy. The salty chorizo sausages and mussel gave a slight hint of saltiness, and I must say that this is the dish that I'll go back for.
Freshwater Prawn
This was one of my favourite dishes too - the prawn was so huge I thought it was a lobster at first, and the flesh is very succulent. There was this extremely delicious sauce (the yellow-orange stuff near the head of the prawn). We think it's roe or something, and it goes very well with the bland prawn. Yum!
Caramellised garlic soup ($12) - almond scented cold garlic soup with shallots and black pepper.
I didn't quite like this soup cos I found it too salty. The one pictured here is the warm version, but we were also served the cold version at the start of the meal. The soup is very thick and creamy, and there is a pleasant almond aftertaste. Makes me feel like drinking some amaretto sour!
Chicken Basquaise ($15) low temperature braised chicken with chilli, green pepper and tomato
The chicken is extremely tender, and the whole piece of meat looks very pink even though it's all cooked.
We had 3 different desserts, and the first one was a vanilla bean cake with coffee ice cream. I'm not sure if there was alcohol inside the ice cream - was pretty stuffed by then.
café latte trifle ($8) - trifle of espresso jelly, almond crumble, coffee ice cream & milk foam (stole this description from ice's blog)
If you're not a coffee lover, you'll probably not like this dessert cos this is an extreme coffeelover's dessert. Sadly, the only coffee I like is coffee ice cream (which I ate) and the ice blended kind. This one was way too strong. I much prefer tea.
Churros ($8) - crispy churros dredged in icing sugar with vanilla sauce & chocolate dip (stole this too :P crap I must be more dilligent when it comes to getting down the price and dish names, but so much food everywhere I'm so distracted!)
Nicer than Alegro's cos they werent too hard, but this is a pretty oily snack - dipping the warm churros in the chocolate sauce reminds me of eating Yanyan snack, just that the chocolate is high class chocolate :)
Crema catalana
This is like a cold creme brulee infused with green tea powder and topped with a scoop of green tea ice cream. The custard base was creamy and delicious, and the crispy caramelized sugar contrasted with the rich milky custard. I'm very sure I can eat the whole thing myself. Actually, there's alot of dishes that I want to eat I'm very hungry now!
Lunch unlimited is available for a limited time only so quickly hurry down! It's holidays now and this is seriously worth a splurge! Where else can you eat so much for like $43 nett? Plus, it's good restaurant standard food and free flow soft drinks and juices. I'll be so sad when it's over - Im so going to come back to eat the scallop and king crab sandwich.
All I wanted to do after lunch was to rush home and plonk onto my bed, and when I wake up it'll be dinner! I haven't eaten such a huge spread of good food before - really very very very good. My rating says 4.5 stars, but I think the lunch unlimited should be 5/5 just that I'm don't have to change the stars and then I'll have to edit the formatting of my paragraphs again.

7atenine
8 Raffles Avenue#01-10/12 Esplanade Mall
Tel: 6338 0789
Opening Hours:
Mon-Thu: 12pm-3pm, 5pm-12am
Fri: 12pm-3pm, 5pm-2am
Sat: 12pm-2am
Sun: 12pm-12am

I'm going to bi4 nian2 in a few hours time, and I've just rushed this post so that everyone can drool over their keyboards. There's around 20 dishes so you all can slowly go and read:)
Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Year of the ox makes me think of beef cheeks...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey you didnt put our photo with the chef up! :p haha. but then you'd hafta mosaic out all our faces ;p anyways, i think the rolled up fish was seabass, not cod,if i rmb correctly.. :P

Mike the Waiter said...

wow! what a great menu... looks like the chef is as much an artist as a cook. well done.

ratatouille said...

nice review. seems like u had covered alot of the menu already! I'm gg there very soon. can't wait!