Best Restaurant in Singapore - Andre- A dream come true

 I am still floating on cloud when i wrote this post.  Finally, I had a chance to try Andre's cooking.  I first got to know him when he turned Jaan from just another restaurant into the #39 in the prestigious World World’s 50 Best Restaurants.  I never make it to Jaan, and he left Jaan to set up his own restaurant.  He said in an interview that he has always wanted his own small place where he can push the boundaries of his creative mind and to reach out to all who are curious about his creations.

I was extremely excited when I saw the news that his new restaurant would be open on 10 Oct 2010.  However, as much as he said that the price will not be crazy, I hesitated to pay $288++ per person (without wine pairing) for dinner.  I need a special reason, i told myself.

GT made my dream come true.  When he knew that Andre was the place that I always wanted to go, he made reservation for dinner to celebrate my birthday.  I look forward in anticipation for my birthday to come.  Celebrate birthday with your love one in your dream restaurant & chef, what else can i ask for?

Andre is located in Bukit Pasoh, at the New Majestic Hotel.  Bukit Pasoh house Absinthe and Otto, and with Andre, it will be the new favourite place for foodie.  We are welcome by a lady in black, and shown to the sofa at the level one of the shop house.  However, it was not a good start, as they took our reservation wrongly, they thought that we were booked for a table of 3.  Nonetheless, they were apologetic, and said that they would change the table setting.  We were shown to our table at level 2 of the shop house within 5 minutes.

A small place indeed, maximum capacity would be around 30.  It does not give you the fine dining, intimidating feel, it felt like you are at home with Chef.

There was no alacarte menu.  It was a set 8 courses menu that  Chef Andre has prepared.  Actually if you add the starter and the dessert, it was actually a 10 courses meal!  We also chose to have the wine pairing menu, a good idea if you are a good drinker.

We started with the Amuse Bouche, 3 items in total:  Chicken skin Masala, some popcorn spread and onion truffle tart.  There was no photo of the Chicken Skin Masala as it did not turn out too well due to the dim lights.
My favourite was the Onion Truffle Tart.  Crispy and fragrant.  The popcorn felt a bit strange, the texture was smooth like eating popcorn cream.

Alright, now that our palate were clear, we were ready for the main!
First main was Pure
As the name suggested, there were no seasoning used.  All the flavours were the natural flavour from the ingredients.

The next dish:  Salt

The black thing to your left was actually oyster.   It was mixed with seaweed to form a jelly like thing.  It was

the first time that I had oyster in such a way.  No more tabasco sauce, no more lime.  A total refreshing way to eat oyster.  I am not a big oyster fan, but I would not mind a second one.

Next was South, with Risotto on the bottom, fish and juicy prawn on top.  If i remembered correctly, Southern France was where Chef Andre spent much of his time.  The photo below showed some white foam, which was actually crab foam.  I have informed them while choosing our wine that I was allergic to crabs, therefore i did not have the foam.

The next dish was Texture- Squid ink risotto and cauliflower puree

Since I could not have squid, I had this as my replacement.  A mixture of fish and garnished with some baby baked potatoes.

Next, Memory.  This was my favourite dish of the night.  Served in a large glass, it looked like chawamushi.  But it was actually foie gras with black truffle sauce.  It did not have the greasy feel of your usual foie gras, and the black truffle enhanced the taste!  Master piece, it was chef Andre creation since 1998.

This was GT's favourite dish, Terroir.  The main was milk fed lamb from Wales, the most tender lamb that we had ever tasted.

Close up on the lamb:

After all these, we were served a cheese platter with condiments such as prunes and apricot.  Dessert was my second favourite of the night.  The chocolate sponge was the most heavenly sponge that I have ever tasted.  I wonder if I could request for take away?  I had a pleasant surprise from the Chef, a complimentary birthday cake and a signed card!! Icing on the cake was a photo with Chef Andre when he was doing his rounds to thank the diners.  He was such a humble man, his first statement was "Hope it was ok"

My only gripe was that no flash was allowed in the restaurant, thus most of the photo did not turn out as good as I wanted them to be.  But well, we do not live in a perfect world.  The food experience was once a life time experience, and to share it with your loved one, it is definitely a blessing.  Thank you GT for this wonderful birthday present.

Restaurant Andre

Address: 41 Bukit Pasoh Road, Singapore

Tel: +65 6534 8880

Absinthe Birthday Celebration

Here i go again, another round of birthday celebration, with my good friend T.  This time, the location was at Absinthe, a restaurant recommended by Lynx for its Lobster Bisque.  Absinthe is located at Bukit Pasoh, a stone away from Outram MRT.  Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic (45–74% ABV) beverage.  It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood". Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour and therefore it is commonly referred to the Green Fairy.  I suppose if a restaurant named itself after some spirit, it would be famous for that!

We started the night with some beer outside the restaurant.  Right after we ordered the beer, I was immediately impressed by the restaurant manager, Mr Philippe Pau, who offered to take my bag and jacket in.  The other waiter, a tall & funny malay guy, (Lets call him Funny) recommended that we have some ham to go with the beer, and he brought along some bread too.

After the beer, we proceeded into the restaurant, and we ushered to our table, where my bag was nicely palced at a small leather stool next to our table.

As usual, I left it to T to choose the wine.  He is good with that, using feeling to choose that.  However with the extensive wine list, he asked the tall waiter to recommend.  The waiter was very knowledgable, and knew his wine very well.  He recommended a wine, based on the main course that we were having.

I started the night with the Lobster Bisque with cognac, while T had the special appertiser, prawns with almond.  Funny recommended a glass of white to go with our appertiser. 

Lobster Bisque with Cognac

Prawans with almond

Complimentary Foie Gras, with pancake and raspberry.  Foie Gras was pan fried, and the pancake took away the oilness feeling.  

Close up:

T's main:  Beef Tenderloin, medium rare.

Rack of Lamb medium well.

Wine for the night.  I am not an expert in wine, and i like something that is too not dry, while T prefer something dry, full bodied.  So we gave Funny the challenge, to choose something in between, and he recommended this.  He said that this wine will go very well with the 2 red meats that we have ordered, and after breathing, it should be good to drink.  I was very impressed with how dedicated Funny was to his job.  He came back to ask if he could try some of the wine during the later part of the dinner, so that he could recommend it to his clients next time. 

According to Funny, the wine was a bit "short" such as it did not really remain long in the palate.  We assured him that we loved it :-)

I ordered a dessert to share, the Warm Valhrona Chocolate Fondant and Macadamia Nut Ice Cream.  (Those on the right of this photo).  The rest were complimentary from Absinthe, and they wrote of the plate, Happy Birthday Babe!  Hee hee, so my name was Babe! The berries (those on the left) were very very good.

T was telling me the history of Absinthe, and he wanted to verify it with Funny.  Funny asked Mr Philippe to tell us the story, as being a french, he knows his history very well.  Mr Philippe not only told us the story, he also let us try 2 different type of the Absinthe.  I was very intrigued by the set up for the Absinthe.

This was how it looked:

I had the one on the left, thought it looked more greenish and not as strong as the one on the right.

This holds water, to drip on the glass with the metal spoon, with sugar.

The Absinthe I had.

I had a great night, good food, good wine, great service and most importantly, great company.  The only slight complain that i had was that some tables with some french men were a little noisy at times, probably due to the Absinthe! 

Overall:  10/10
Absinthe

48 Bukit Pasoh Road
Singapore 089858
Tel: (65) 6222 9068

The Sage Restaurant- Another Birthday Celebration

Another round of birthday celebration..heehee :-))
This time, GT and I checked out The Sage Restaurant, which was alwyas on my "to go" list.  Initially we were on waiting list because the restaurant had a tentative booking for a private event.  The event was cancelled, and we managed to secure a table.  And perhaps because of this, the whole place was empty, we were the only 2 diners, and it felt like we have booked the whole restaurant!  It was kind of strange feeling, because all the attention were on us!

Nice table setting:

Their Menu Degustation, but we did not go for that, 6 dishes are way too much!

Wine for the night

Escargot & Prawn Risotto

A risotto with Burgundy escargot and tiger prawn bits flambéed with pastis, parmesan crusted poached egg 

and parsley veloute.
The escargot were deshelled, not like what i have imagined it to be.  It was juciy, and the crusted poached egg reminded me of Egg Benedict when the yolked oozed out.

Hokkaido Scallop

Seared Hokkaido scallops on potato blinis with chilled capellini salad tossed with crème fraiche, smoked salmon and fresh dill, Avruga caviar.  Scallops were succulent and juicy, and the pork belly was crisy.

Main:  Beef Cheek

Caramelized 300 days grain fed Black Angus beef cheek topped with horseradish parfait, Layonnaise potatoes with bone marrow and sautéed field mushrooms

This was also not what we have imagined it to be.  We have imagined it to be a big piece of beef cheek, did not expected it to be in small pieces.  Nevertheless, it was tender & juicy.

Duck Confit

Deboned duck leg confit meat wrapped in cabbage with fricassee of field mushrooms and foie gras, crispy duck skin with potato puree and Pommery mustard jus.  Can you see how crispy the skin was?  The fats just melt in your mouth, and while you ate it, you can hear the crispness.

Complimentary birthday cake for me (:

At first we have decided o skip dessert and have coffee, so we were pleasantly surprise when they gave us the complimentary cake.  The candle happended to be GT's favourite colour, blue & white.  The raspberry sorbet was a perfect partner to the rich chocolate cake, and those crispy oats gave the cake the extra texture.

We adjorn to Robertson Quay for another round of drink, before i got home to get ready for the Semi Final between Netherland & Uruguay.  It was a great evening, thanks GT :-)

Overall is 8.5/10.  Service was friendly, though not exactly knowledgable, especially on the wine list.

Sage, The Restaurant

No. 7 Mohamed Sultan Road

Singapore 238957

Tel: (65) 6333 8726

Prive- Round 1 of Birthday Get Together

I went to check out Prive, both to catch up with P and also to celebrate my birthday (in advance).  I decided to go there earlier to check out the place to take some photo.  Prive is located in Keppel Bay, about 10-15 minutes walk from Harbour Front MRT.  It is a nice walk, quiet and you can see sunset, Sentosa and Cable cars in the background.  There are joggers along the bridge, definitely would be a nice place to jog, and admire the sunset and yachts at the same time.

Chris asked why are the buildings slanted!!?  Haha

There are 3 Prives along Keppel Bay, one is the bakery, one is the pub and the other is the restaurant.  We made a reservation at the restarant to have dinner, and we chose to sit outdoor to enjoy the ambience of the Keppel Bay.  It was nice and quiet, not very good for taking photo as it was too dark.  Price are not cheap for the quantity of the portion, but it was definitely good food. 

A half pint Guinness to start the night.   I was very tempted to take the mug for Lilian..but failed.

Bread Basket.  The breads are warm & soft, especially the raisins one.  And they allow refill

Portobello Mushrooms

French Duck Leg, with Barley!  Weird combination, but taste good.  Not exactly the crispy skin type of duck confitt, but it was nice.  Meat was tender and juicy.

Some pudding with ice cream.

Rich Royal Chocolate Cake from Prive Bakery.  The chocolate cake was very rich, and a tad too sweet for me, so much so that I do not need to add sugar to my coffee!

Me & P

Overall 8.5/10.  A recommended place to go to get away from the hustle & buzz of the city, chill out with your friends and admire the yachts :-)

I told Lilian that i will bring her here, for the half pint ;-)

Prive Restaurant

2 Keppel Bay Vista GF Marina at Keppel Bay Singapore