The Providore

Lobster Mac & Cheese

1st look at The Providore’s Lobster Mac & Cheese ($22.50) and we immediately knew that it would not be up to our expectations. There was just a serious lack of cheese in the dish. And true enough, The Providore’s version of the American comfort food was on the creamy side and seriously lacked a good punch of cheesiness. The sauce was also too liquid-like. It would have been better if the sauce was thicker and more viscous, with the cheese binding the macaroni pieces together. In this case, it seemed like the macaroni was just mixed into the cream sauce. Macaroni wise, it was cooked al-dente. The best part of the dish were the generous chunks of lobster – fresh, slightly sweet, with a chewy texture.

The Providore
#02-05, Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road

Nine-thirty by Awfully Chocolate

The now-defunct Loola’s at Esplanade Mall has revamped and transformed into the current Nine-thirty, also by the folks from Awfully Chocolate. On top of the usual sweet offerings from Awfully Chocolate, Nine-thirty offers the usual western fare, including pastas, salads and some small bites.

Tandoori Chicken Salad

There wasn’t sufficient dressing in the Tandoori Chicken Salad ($12) to tie the entire salad together. The salad was pretty boring and uninteresting. The slices of tandoori chicken tasted purely like grilled chicken, with no tinge of tandoori flavours.

Pink Salmon

The pink sauce in the Pink Salmon ($18) was rather imbalanced as the sour, acidic tanginess of the tomatoes greatly overpowered any creamy milkiness. This resulted in the pink sauce tasting like any red tomato based sauce. There wasn’t any depth in this sauce, as all we could taste is the sour acidity from the tomatoes. The salmon was lightly seared, very lightly as there was hardly any charred crust or caramelization on the surface. When we cut apart the salmon, the centre of the salmon was only half cooked, resulting in a pink, rubbery texture – almost like salmon sashimi. Typically, for fresh salmon sashimi, upon contact with our body heat, will melt and soften in our mouth cavities. In this case, the centre of this seared salmon wasn’t that delicate, yet wasn’t tender and flaky like a fully-cooked salmon. This was just a very awkward, neither here nor there, piece of salmon fillet. In our opinion, we will never try this again.

(clockwise from top left) White Chocolate Butterscotch Block, Hei Ice Cream and Hazelnut Crumble

At the end of the day, the best offerings that Nine-thirty can offer remains to be the signature desserts from Awfully Chocolate. Our favourite dessert of the night was the Hazelnut Crumble ($7), with its thick rich hazelnut chocolate layer and the crunchy bittersweet dark chocolate cookie base. The crumble combined the sticky and dense hazelnut fudge together with the crumbly and crunchy cookie base, great combination. We didn’t enjoy the White Chocolate Butterscotch Block ($7.50 per 100g) as the white chocolate coating the entire cake was a bit too creamy and had gotten slightly too cloyingly sweet. We did enjoy the salted butterscotch drizzle. It was thick, gooey and sticky, with a balance between saltiness and sweetness. And finally, Awfully Chocolate’s signature Hei ice cream – the rich, dark chocolate ice cream was very strong in flavours, dense in texture and simply finger licking good.

Nine-thirty by Awfully Chocolate
#02-14, Esplanade Mall
8 Raffles Avenue

Saveur

Saveur – the name synonymous with affordable French cuisine. From a coffee shop at Katong, Saveur has upgraded itself to a restaurant shop space at Far East Plaza – while still staying true to its motto of affordable French cuisine.

Saveur’s Pasta

Saveur’s Pasta was a simple, rustic pasta tossed with chili oil, fine-chopped Japanese konbu and sakura ebi with minced pork sauce. It was almost like an aglio olio, minus the garlic. There was a generous serving of sakura ebi, but not a lot of minced pork. In fact, there wasn’t much sauce. It was more of the chili oil which resulted in a smooth and moist pasta.

Chocolate and Hazelnut

The Chocolate and Hazelnut consisted of chocolate mousse with crushed hazelnuts, broken raspberries, roasted rice puffs, chocolate tuile and praline. The Chocolate and Hazelnut was a plethora of textures. The crunch from the hazelnuts, juicy texture from the raspberries and the crispiness from the tuile, all found within the soft and melts-in-your mouth mousse. Though not exactly looking the prettiest, the Chocolate and Hazelnut was still pretty decent. The chocolate mousse wasn’t exactly of premium quality, but still chocolately satisfying with that burst of sourness from the raspberries. In all, the Chocolate and Hazelnut was like a deconstructed ferrero rocher.

Saveur
#01-07B, Far East Plaza
14 Scotts Road

Mad for Garlic

First established in Korea, Mad for Garlic is a garlic-specialized Italian restaurant, aimed at infusing garlic into everyday Italian cuisine!

Tutto Mushroom Salad

Tutto Mushroom Salad ($14.90) – Garlic and rosemary marinated mushroom salad served in Teriyaki sauced with grilled red pepper, asparagus and arugula. We adore the mushroom salad – savoury earthy fresh tender mushrooms with sweet caramelized onions soaked in a subtly savoury Teriyaki sauce.

Gorgonzola Pizza

Gorgonzola Pizza ($21.40) – Unique and popular pizza with Italian gorgonzola cheese served with honey dipping sauce. This is a very unique, hit-or-miss kind of pizza. The gorgonzola chunks, with the signature blue veins, exuded the salty cheesy characteristics of blue cheese. On its own, the thin crust pizza was packed with strong savoury flavours. The addition of the sweet and viscous honey dip cut through the pungent flavours of the blue cheese. This pizza could go 2 ways, as while there are those who enjoy this unique combination of a sweet salty pizza, there are also definitely those who find it rather queer. But do give it a go, with an open heart, and you might find this combination rather surprising.

Gorgonzola Cream Pasta

Gorgonzola Cream Pasta ($24.60) – Creamy potato gorgonzola cheese pasta served with scallop and grilled king oyster mushroom. We kind of felt that a more appropriate pasta for this gorgonzola cream could be something along the lines of gnocchi, penne or farfelle – a smaller, bite-sized pasta which could better absorbed the white sauce. The sauce wasn’t all that cheesy, more of a creamy and salty sauce, thickened with potatoes. The addition of fish roe provided that extra salty burst. Both scallops and oyster mushrooms were fresh, with a chewy bite.

Garlic Sizzling Rice

Garlic Sizzling Rice ($21.40) – Garlic fried rice with garlic pickles, bacon and fish roe. The fish roe has shone in the garlic rice as well! The fish roe acted as miniature pockets of flavour and texture, bring a surprise kick to every mouthful of rice. The fried rice wasn’t overwhelming with garlic taste, though minced garlic can be easily spotted in every spoonful. It was slightly spicy and very fragrant. The bottom charred portions of the rice added that slight crunch.

Mad for Garlic
Block 3B, River Valley Road
#01-16, The Foundry
Clarke Quay

Necessary Provisions

Necessary Provisions

Hidden in an extremely obscure location along Eng Kong Terrace is Necessary Provisions. The place wasn’t easy to find, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the Toh Yi region. This setting of Necessary Provisions within a row of ship houses, nestled in a private housing estate, resembled the exact same setting of Wimbly Lu.

Summer Pasta

The Summer Pasta ($14) is a concoction of home-made pasta with sundried tomatoes, baby spinach and cheese. The home-made pasta was fresh and cooked al-dente. Taste wise, the pasta was rather non-uniformly seasoned, with some portions tasting very salty, while other parts were bland. The saltiness was pretty one-dimensional, seemingly coming only from the salt. The cheese taste was indiscernible.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The Flourless Chocolate Cake ($4) was pretty average. Texture was dense, but more brownie than cake like. The chocolately taste was a tinge shy of impressing us.

For us to travel miles and tracking the place using GPS, Necessary Provisions has failed to convince us that the trip was worthwhile.

Necessary Provisions
21 Eng Kong Terrace

Al Borgo

Al Borgo is a quaint Italian restaurant situated along the lower end of Bukit Timah Road. We have always been impressed with Al Borgo’s unique cakes, but sadly their cake offerings this time round were unimpressive and we had to settle for a no desserts meal instead.

Melanzane alla Parmigiana

Though there wasn’t any desserts attracting us, Al Borgo does serve decent renditions of classic Italian dishes. The Melanzane alla Parmigiana ($16.50) had a sufficiently thick and rich tomato sauce. There wasn’t a whole lot of cheese, but thankfully Al Borgo provided us with additional freshly shaved cheese. The eggplants had also adequately soaked up the tomato sauces and on the whole, this was a flavourful dish.

Orecchiette con Formaggi e Salsiccia

The Orecchiette con Formaggi e Salsiccia was recommended by the staff to be the most cheesy dish in Al Borgo. The mix cheese sauce was creamy and flavourful, not too overwhelmingly salty and rich such that it made us sick. The orecchiette was cooked al dente, retaining a bit of bite. The homemade sausage was quite fresh, didn’t taste like processed meat. On the whole, this was a simple yet comforting dish.

Al Borgo
#01-02, Alocassia Service Apartments
383 Bukit Timah Road

Eighteen Chefs

Eighteen Chefs

Walking past Eighteen Chefs, we were attracted by the huge wallpaper of the Double Cheese Baked Rice. The advertisement was certainly effective as almost every table had ordered a cheese baked pasta/rice.

Double Cheese Baked Pasta, in red and white sauce, with mushrooms

Our Double Cheese Baked Pasta, in red and white sauce, with mushrooms didn’t look all that attractive and appetizing compared to the advertisement. It looked pretty amateurish, perhaps almost reflective of the affordable price we were paying. The Double Cheese Baked Pasta was supposed to consist of a dual layer of nacho cheese and mozzarella cheese, but we couldn’t tell any difference. The cheese topping was just a thin, soft and mushy mash of cheese. There wasn’t any charred fragrance or crisp on the top layer. Beneath the thin and almost non-existent dual layer cheese was spaghetti in a rather soupy red and white sauce. We were expecting and hoping for penne like pasta fused together by thick, viscous and rich cheesy sauce. Instead, the long spaghetti strands were swimming around in a soupy and milky sauce. The mushrooms were common button mushrooms.

Having tried baked pasta/rice from many eateries, this Double Cheese Baked Pasta from Eighteen Chefs has got to rank right at the bottom of our list.

Eighteen Chefs
#02-K1/K6, Tiong Bahru Plaza
302 Tiong Bahru Road

Spruce @ Firestation

Situated at the Old Bukit Timah Fire Station is the 2nd outlet of Spruce! It was pretty easy to spot – just look out for the characteristic bright red fire station doors!

Orecchiette

Orecchiette ($22) – small ear-like pasta served with chopped sea prawn in zucchini and garlic cream. We absolutely adored the Orecchiette. The texture of the paste was cooked al dente and not too mushy. The sauce was flavourful and viscous. Though having the green colour of vegetables, the sauce didn’t reek of vegetables. Instead, it was creamy and rich, with a slight cheesiness. The chopped prawns added burst of saltiness to the pasta.

Pan Roasted Norwegian Salmon Steak

The Pan Roasted Norwegian Salmon Steak ($29) with baby green salad and lemon butter sauce was a decent rendition of a salmon steak. The fillet, with a fragrant charred crust, was flaky, fresh and exuded the characteristic salmon taste. With its salty skin, the salmon was rich in flavours on its own, without having to dip into the lemon butter sauce.

Spruce Mac & Cheese

The Spruce Mac & Cheese ($10) was served as a side, rather than a main course. It was more towards being creamy, rather than cheesy. Still, there was sufficient cream to ensure the macaroni was thoroughly enveloped and wasn’t too dry. The top crust could do with a little more charring, to increase the crunchy crispiness. This dish just fell short in terms of cheesiness, which would have definitely elevated its texture and aroma.

Spruce
260 Upper Bukit Timah Road

Zafferano

At $38 per person, Zafferano’s semi-buffet lunch has been a popular destination for the Shenton Way lunch crowd.

The lunch kicked off with a selection of starters from the buffet table.

Antipasti

Cheese Board

The selection of starters wasn’t as extensive as Basilico’s. But generally, the offerings  were pretty unique, of a decent standard and using fresh ingredients. We particularly enjoyed the salmon terrine and prawn salad. We were also attracted to the cheese board. There were 3 different cheeses that day – Taleggio, Gorgonzola and Parmesan. 3 different cheeses of different tastes and textures. The Gorgonzola was soft and creamy, with chunks of blue veins. The Taleggio was slightly harder than the Gorgonzola, and with a milder taste. Finally, the Parmesan was the hardest and firmest, but also the mildest in taste.

Carnaroli Risotto with Taleggio cheese & asparagus

The cheeses from the buffet spread proved to be very important and useful in our main course – Carnaroli Risotto with Taleggio cheese & asparagus. The Risotto was very bland and under seasoned. It was lacking in cheese and the asparagus seemed to play no part at all. We had to resort to adding the cheeses from the buffet spread into our risotto, to increase the flavour as well as incorporate the cheesy and sticky texture into the risotto. A disappointing main course from Zafferano.

Roasted Iberico pork belly, balsamic vinegar sauce & mashed potatoes

The other main course, Roasted Iberico pork belly, balsamic vinegar sauce & mashed potatoes, was much stronger in flavour compared to the risotto. However, in our standards, it still fell short as the pork belly could have been more marinated and flavourful. The texture of the pork was also on the tougher and chewier side, lacking the “melts in the mouth” texture.

Desserts

The desserts were pretty disappointing too. General comments of the desserts – bland, forgetful, mediocre. The mango pudding looked stale and oxidized. Both the chocolate mousse and brownie were tasteless and not chocolate-rich. Not the best finish to the meal.

The view at Zafferano was great, a 270 degrees panoramic view! However, the meal was severely let down by the under seasoned main courses and unexciting desserts.

Zafferano
Level 43, Ocean Financial Centre
10 Collyer Quay

Spizza

Known for its affordable yet authentic Italian fare, Spizza has been around for more than decade at its pioneer outlet at Club Street.

Parmigiana

Parmigiana ($13) – Oven-baked eggplant and mozzarella with tomato sauce. Layers of thinly sliced eggplants sitting in a sea of tangy tomato sauce. We enjoyed the acidic and tangy notes of the tomato sauce. The sauce was rich and flavourful and the eggplants had thoroughly absorbed the essence of the sauce. The eggplants weren’t all too mushy and retained its structural integrity. A pretty decent rendition of the Italian classic parmigiana.

Gnocchi

Gnocchi ($17) – Gratinated homemade Gnocchi with gorgonzola, cream and cooked ham. Spizza’s version has got to be one of the more appealing gnocchi we have tried. The gnocchi was served in a piping hot rectangular deep dish, carrying with it the aroma of cheese and cream. The dumplings weren’t too starchy and sticky, and had just the right balance of chewiness and softness. The sauce was slightly too water, akin to a soup, not exactly the thick consistency that we were hoping for. Taste wise, it was generally creamy, exhibiting slight notes of blue cheese. We added more Parmesan cheese to the gnocchi, increasing the cheesiness of the dish while at the same time, thickening the watery sauce. On the whole, despite some misses, the Gnocchi is one of the dishes that we will recommend at Spizza.

Spizza
29 Club Street

Bene Spaghetti

Steamed spaghetti? Well, that’s the biggest selling factor of the newly opened Bene Spaghetti, situated alongside Boat Quay.

Chicken Thigh with Blue Cheese Cream Sauce

Chicken Thigh with Blue Cheese Cream Sauce

Chicken Thigh with Blue Cheese Cream Sauce ($18) – The concept was interesting in that we had to wait patiently for the dish to be steamed a la mode in front of us, with the porcelain lid covered over the claypot. Once the timer set off after approximately 5 minutes, the waiter would arrive to remove the cover. This presentation in which the dish was served ensured that everything was piping hot. In fact, the cream sauce was still bubbling when the lid was first removed. Throughout the meal, the cream sauce also remained steamy. Despite the interesting concept, the taste of the Chicken Thigh with Blue Cheese Cream Sauce was at best mediocre. The blue cheese taste was insignificant and the sauce was simply just milky. It was as good as ordering the plain cream sauce version. The chicken thigh was neither well flavoured nor tender enough to be impressive as well.

Fried Gnocchi Cream Gratin with Clams and Vegetables

Fried Gnocchi Cream Gratin with Clams and Vegetables ($9.80) – This far surpassed the former dish. The gratin was sufficiently creamy, cheesy and a satisfying portion of the sauce was served. There was even enough sauce tocomplement our bread and spaghetti from the other dish. The gnocchi tasted differently from the conventional Italian ones. Besides the element of being fried, the flour used seemed to provide a sticky chewy glutinous texture and taste, while retaining the potato gnocchi taste. And perhaps due to it being fried, a handful of these gnocchi was enough to induce satiety.

Bene Spaghetti
83 Circular Road
Boat Quay

La Pizzaiola

Situated beside Wimbly Lu along Jalan Riang is La Pizzaiola.

Sfoglia Di Melanzane Alla Parmigiana

Sfoglia Di Melanzane Alla Parmigiana ($9.90) – Baked layered eggplant, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and parmesan. The parmigiana was pretty mediocre, it was severely lacking in cheese, and was quite a disappointment.

Pizzoccheri Della Valtellina

Pizzoccheri Della Valtellina ($13.90) – Home-made whole grain pasta with butter, sage, potato, cheese. We ordered the Pizzoccheri Della Valtellina, considering that it was the chef specialty, and it looked pretty unique. However, we were once again disappointed by our choice. When we broke apart the pizza crust, what welcomed us was a mess of vegetables. In fact, it looked like a vegetable soup. The filling was a haphazard combination of vegetables, potato cubes, brown whole grain pasta and cheese. The potato cubes were quite hard and crunchy. The brown grain pasta was pretty tasteless and we could not tell any uniqueness in taste. The sauce was very diluted and watery, just like a soup. It would definitely be more appropriate to have a thicker and richer sauce. The pizza crust covering the pasta exuded a charred fragrance, but resembled more like Indian naans.

Torta Pistocchi

The Torta Pistocchi ($8.90) was pretty petite, and reminded us of Torte. Indeed, it was rich, smooth and dense – a mouthful of chocolate fudge. But for that price, we didn’t feel that it was worth it.

La Pizzaiola
15-3 Jalan Riang

Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Deli

Hot Chocolate

Nothing better to kick start our meal at Ricciotti than a cup of Hot Chocolate ($5). We were given a choice of Italian or Asian flavour. The Italian version of the Hot Chocolate was dense and very thick. There was a top layer of foamy froth, which was very rich and viscous. The flavours were strong and evident of premium chocolate quality. At the end of a day’s work, it was simply comforting to sip down this warm cup of pure delight.

Rigatoni Al Telefono

Rigatoni Al Telefono ($19.50) – Rigatoni with eggplant mozzarella in tomato basil sauce. The biggest flaw of the Rigatoni Al Telefono was its lack of sauce. There wasn’t enough tomato sauce to thoroughly encompass the rigatoni, hence certain portions tended to be a little drier and not as flavourful. The eggplant came in chunks, contrary to what we had expected. In fact, we had hoped for something like a parmigiana, where the eggplants came in slices, and were covered with cheese. For the Rigatoni Al Telefono, we could see mashes of mozzarella cheese, but we still found there to be inadequate. On the whole, the Rigatoni Al Telefono had strong flavours, but was let down by the insufficient amount of sauce and cheese.

Nutella

Dessert for the night was the Nutella pizza ($11.90)! Replacing the typical tomato based and cheese toppings was a layer of Nutella spread sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts. The pizza crust was a bit tough to slice through. Obviously, the nutella was chocolately and rich, but we found that once again, the spread was a tad too thin and not mind blowing enough. Somehow, the Nutella pizza appeared to be something that could be easily whipped up at home.

Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Deli
B1-49/50 The Riverwalk
20 Upper Circular Road

Otto Locanda

Otto Locanda

An Italian wave has swept the shores of Singapore as one after another of these Italian restaurants start popping out. Being the offspring of the famous Otto Ristorante located at The Red Dot Traffic Building, Otto Locanda enters the Italian cuisine scene with high expectations.

Bread

Warm bread with a crunchy outer crust and an inner fluffy centre kicked start our dinner at Otto Locanda.

Baked layers of Melanzane alla Parmigiana tomato, parmesan cheese and mozzarella

Baked layers of Melanzane alla Parmigiana tomato, parmesan cheese and mozzarella ($20) –  The parmigiana wasn’t all too impressive. There wasn’t sufficient melted cheese to bind the entire dish together. It seemed like we were eating sliced eggplants with tomato sauce. It wasn’t cheesy enough, nor bursting with flavours.

Potato Gnocchi al Gorgonzola with Baby Spinach Leaves

Potato Gnocchi al Gorgonzola with Baby Spinach Leaves ($24) – The gnocchi was too soft for our liking; it wasn’t cooked al dente, and was simply just mushy and lacked the chewiness we were hoping for. The accompanying sauce was toward the bland side and wasn’t rich and flavourful enough. But surprisingly, hidden amongst the gnocchi were small cubes of Gorgonzola, which were bursting with the characteristic strong flavours of blue cheese. The baby spinach leaves, having been deep fried, were more fragrant and crispy. On the whole, the gnocchi lacked taste and didn’t have the right texture.

The servings at Otto Locanda are pretty small, so do be prepared to order more if you are a big eater. Our dining experience at Otto Locanda was far from good, with disappointing dishes. There wasn’t much depth in terms of flavour and texture in the dishes and for the prices we paid, we would be better off dining elsewhere.

Otto Locanda
#01-03, Maxwell Chambers
32 Maxwell Road

Equinox Restaurant

Located on the 70th floor of Swissotel is Equinox – famed for its breathtaking view of the city area and its exquisite European cuisine. We kicked off the first Restaurant Week in 2012 with dinner at Equinox.

Bread

We were offered a choice of three kinds of breads – plain, multigrain and baguette. In general, the breads were of a hard and chewy form. The baguette did not have a crispy crust either. However, when served warm, the inner loaf tasted softer and lighter. The multigrain bread was the most impressive. The sesame seeds, wheat and oats added much fragrance to the otherwise plain bread.  The breads were free flow and the waitress was prompt in offering more every time a new batch of freshly baked bread arrived.

Tomato Gazpacho

Before the appetizers were served, we were each offered a shot glass of Tomato Gazpacho to cleanse our palate. The Gazpacho was refreshingly cold and immediately awoke our taste buds. It was very thick, more towards that of a salsa dip and less of soup. There was a very strong taste and smell of raw vegetables, which could be a turn off for non-vegetable lovers.

Poached and Smoked Salmon Rillette with Beetroot Carpaccio and Pink Grapefruit

Poached and Smoked Salmon Rillette with Beetroot Carpaccio and Pink Grapefruit. A dish of carpaccio is usually made up of thinly sliced raw meat. Here at Equinox, beetroots are used in place of the raw meat to give a vegetarian carpaccio. The thin slices of beetroot were soft, breaking into smaller pieces easily when we attempted to lift them up. However, they were juicy and slightly sweet and went down well with the rillette which was slightly more bland. The rillette was garnished with a few pieces of smoked salmon, which left a slightly fishy aftertaste. However, contrary to the description of the dish, the rillette tasted more of tuna which had been chopped and poached, instead of the smoked salmon rillette we were expected.

Classic French Onion Soup with Gruyère Cheese Crouton

The Classic French Onion Soup with Gruyère Cheese Crouton was unlike other French onion soups. It was more unique in that the soup base was thick with a sourish vinegar punch. There was abundance of softened mushy onion slices but these did not turn out too overpowering. However, the chewy thick cheese which we were looking out for was nowhere to be seen. A very negligible layer of gruyere cheese was spread on the crouton bread and there was somewhat an equally strong taste of butter present.

Salad of Marinated Baby Artichokes, Frisée Lettuce, Shallots, Green Beans,
Hazelnuts with Round Radish and Truffle Dressing

Salad of Marinated Baby Artichokes, Frisée Lettuce, Shallots, Green Beans, Hazelnuts with Round Radish and Truffle Dressing. There was nothing to rave about for the salad and we thought we should have given this up for either of the other two appetizers on the menu.

Confit of Duck Leg, White Bean and Smoked Pancetta Cassoulet with Thyme Jus

Confit of Duck Leg, White Bean and Smoked Pancetta Cassoulet with Thyme Jus. The duck confit was well prepared, with a very good balance of juicy tenderness and the amount of fats and oil in the meat. The duck skin had a slight crisp but did not taste overly oily. In fact, it felt more pan-fried than deep-fried. Equally appetizing was the side dish of beans in tomato sauce. The taste resembled that of canned baked beans, only that these tasted much fresher with the beans being harder and less soggy.

Pan-Seared Barramundi, Saffron Confit Potatoes, Baby Spinach,
Dried Cherry Tomatoes with Lemon and Herb Dressing

Pan-Seared Barramundi, Saffron Confit Potatoes, Baby Spinach, Dried Cherry Tomatoes with Lemon and Herb Dressing. There was nothing to pick on for this dish either. The Barramundi was soft and tender. The skin had a slightly salty crisp. The sliced potatoes were uniquely prepared. They tasted sourish, but there was no suggestion of saffron. On hindsight, it was likely that the potatoes had absorbed some of the dressing. The baby spinach was broiled and served bland. These felt healthy but we found them a little over cooked and soft. The dried cherry tomatoes were a combination of sweetness and sourness. The texture was somewhere near that of fried peeled potato skin, which we had almost mistaken them for.

Tagliatelle Pasta, Wild Mushrooms, Spinach with Pine Nuts and Goat Cheese Sauce

Tagliatelle Pasta, Wild Mushrooms, Spinach with Pine Nuts and Goat Cheese Sauce. This dish would have been better if the cheese wasn’t goat cheese. The cheese sauce was creamy and not overly salty. However, it was way too heavy on the palate due to the sharp overpowering characteristic goat cheese taste, which we found it hard to swallow. We had difficulty finishing this dish.

Seasonal Crème Brûlee

The Seasonal Crème Brûlee has got to be the most impressive dish of the night. In fact, it would be the best non-flavoured creme brulee we have tried thus far. The custard base was very rich, creamy and milky. It was of the right level of sweetness and softness. The curd like textured custard disintegrated and went down smoothly in our mouths. The creme brulee was studded with some chewy sweet prune, giving the dessert an additional dimension of texture, on top of the contrasting layer of burnt caramel.

Pineapple Carpaccio, Lime, Chilli Syrup and Coconut Sorbet

Pineapple Carpaccio, Lime, Chilli Syrup and Coconut Sorbet. The use of thinly sliced pineapple in place of meat proved to be another revamp of the conventional carpacccio to a dessert dish. However taste wise, there was nothing too unique.  There was barely any hint of lime and chilli syrup too. Dried coconut shavings were laid across the plate as extra garnishes. Not fans of coconut, this healthy fruity dessert did not really appeal to us.

Selection of Seasonal Exotic Fruit Sorbet and ‘Langues-De-Chat’

Selection of Seasonal Exotic Fruit Sorbet and ‘Langues-De-Chat’. The wild berry sorbet and pineapple sorbets were refreshing. The coconut sorbet, also found in the other pineapple carpaccio dessert, was thankfully not too overpowering in the coconut milk taste.

Chocolates

The meal ended off with complimentary confectionery of dark chocolate coated orange peel sticks and chocolate pebbles. We especially liked the chocolate coated nuts. They tasted like M&Ms and the hazelnuts encased within were very fresh and crunchy.

Equinox Restaurant
70F, Swissotel The Stamford
2 Stamford Road