Le Bistrot du Sommelier, Singapore

This is probably my favorite restaurant in Singapore. It’s a French bistro, famous for its wines, located on Armenian Street. Such a nice photographic location too (the alley by the restaurant has cool wall arts, perfect for photography!) The combination of great food and excellent atmosphere makes me want to visit each time I’m in the city. Well, I’ve only been there twice, but my experiences were great both times!

I came here first with my parents and dad’s business partners and we basically had a feast! My mom took the chef’s, Patrick Heuberger, cooking class in Singapore about half a year before the visit, so we told them that we would really like to meet him and have a little chat. It was so nice that he took time to come over and suggested some of the specials. So we just took a leap of faith and have him decide what we should eat entirely.

The second time I went with my dad and sister and we almost ordered the same things. It’s pretty nice that the host remembers us, since I basically said “we’ll have what we had last time!”

We received a nice surprise when the host (who looks like a French, skinnier version of Chris Evans) served us a plate of artichoke, which we forgot to order at the beginning, but he remembered since I mentioned it was my favorite from our last visit. Or maybe it was just available HAHAHA. Well, either way, it was great.

This is the duck sausage with foie gras and pistachio, served on bread.

Another thing our host suggested was the salami combination, which were horse, wild boar and donkey meats. I never had horse and donkey meat before, so I was really intrigued by the idea of trying. In case you are wondering, the meal was very delicious even by itself!

That’s my sister with the horse salami that has black peppers on the edge.

And this is the one food I would swim across the Pacific ocean for. The pepper-y steak served with fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. The steak is VERY tender, juicy and overall the best one I’ve had in a very long time. The pepper and salt portion is just perfect and writing about this makes me want to do a day visit to Singapore just to eat it again. I am jealous of anyone who is eating/about to eat this piece of heaven.

Of course, the barbarians we are, my sister and I decided to order a dessert, the special one of course! This is, in simple terms, chocolate custard with cream.

All in all, we spent about S$240, which is reasonable for this kind of restaurant and the kind of quality that they serve.

You have to definitely visit this place for at least the steak and the artichoke. I am already planning my next visit in December when I go back from New York. The restaurant is definitely worth trying!

Indita

23 August Permalink

Fish & Co., Singapore

Our dear friend, Asyraaf, took these pictures when he went to Fish & Co. in Singapore. I know a lot of you have probably been here, but what makes this one special is because the restaurant is originally from Singapore. So…

DELICIOSO!!!

Indita

29 November 2 Permalink

Singapore Food Venture! Vol II

Another noteworthy restaurant I went to in Singapore was a Japanese restaurant: Akashi. This is actually a long-standing restaurant, but they just recently opened a new branch in Paragon mall. Located on the basement floor along with the other restaurants and supermarket, Akashi serves (extraordinarily) good food, without the pretentious set-up. I’ve noticed that good Japanese restaurants nowadays are either unnecessarily expensive, or fusion-ized so much that it reaches oblivion. Akashi is neither of those. I ordered the sashimi set, which was REALLY good, but the dish worth mentioning most is the Gindara (Codfish) Teriyaki Set. I don’t usually like codfish, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it so delicious! The meat is so tender, it almost feels like you’re eating.. well, I can’t compare it to anything else, really. JUST SO GOOD. This particular dish isn’t in the menu, so you just have to ask the waiter about it (I was told of this dish by a friend). I left happy :)

The next day I went to a restaurant I actually planned on going to before I arrived in Singapore, it’s called Banana Leaf Apolo, it’s located in Little India, and it has REALLY good indian food. I usually don’t have the chance to explore indian food more, because Jakarta doesn’t really have a wide selection of good indian restaurants. huff. When we arrived, we saw lots of tourists and expatriates dining here, and the restaurant has (I just found out) been featured in the Travel channel. Cool. So the concept: in banana-leaf restaurants, dishes are put in the middle to share (sort of like a chinese restaurant), but instead of using a plate or bowl to place your rice, you have a banana leaf. The food was very spicy, as indian food generally are, but I didn’t really notice the variations of seasonings used in the food that I ordered. I later concluded that it’s because none of us really quite understood indian food, so the food combination that we ordered were not complimentary of each other. The dish that stood out the most though, was the fish head curry, with the head as big as a.. VERY BIG FISH HEAD. I managed to balls up and eat one fish eye. It tasted like… fat and barf and goo rolled into an eyeball. Not a good experience. sigh. I have yet to master the art of indian …uh.. eating.

Anyway, so that’s the end of my Singapore food venture-ing :( be sure to check out these restaurants next time you visit Singapore!

Cheerios,
Dodilia

4 June 4 Permalink

Singapore Food Venture! Vol I

So I was in Singapore a few days ago with the sole purpose of FOOD VENTURE-ing in my mind (sort of). The first place I tried was in the new ION mall located in Orchard Rd. This was not really a restaurant, more like a food court, or as they call it, Food Opera, located on the lowest floor of the mall. Here, you can have various hawker-style local foods without actually going to hawker food stalls. Convenient. I ordered the Singaporean Laksa, thick rice noodles drenched in a light curry broth, served with all kinds of seafood. It cost me 5 Singaporean $$ and was the BEST laksa ever! Granted, I haven’t really tasted that much laksa in my life, but I don’t really have to in order to know that it’s good :D If ever you go to Singapore, I highly recommend having a taste of the Singaporean Laksa. If you wanna have an authentic, street-food laksa though, go to Newton’s Circus at night, where they serve many local foods.

Next up is a restaurant I stumbled upon by accident, cos we (my family and I) were hungry and all the other restaurants around were full (it was dinnertime). It was again in ION mall, this time on the topmost floor (oh if you happen to be there, also check out their bookstore Prologue, lots of book choices, without the dizzyingly complicated structure of Takashimaya’s Kinokuya). A restaurant called Nautilus Project. The place was actually really COOL (slightly fouxy though), you could sort of see the outside of the mall… ok it’s REALLY hard to explain, just check it out. They serve seafood primarily, but I didn’t order the dish with seafood in it. I ordered the potato gnocchi with oxtail meat and the meat was so delicious! It was so fatty that I can just poke it and it breaks. DROOOOOOOL.

Another delicious dish was the Duck Thai Curry. The curry itself is similar to the Indonesian gulai, just more runny, and added with lychee fruits, so slightly sweet. The duck was very tender and they served it with steamed rice. All in all, I give it a good 4/5 stars. whee.

Cheerios,
Dodilia

3 June Permalink