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Showing posts from February, 2017

SPAGO by Wolfgang Puck

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SPAGO is celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck's second venture in Singapore. Serving Californian cuisine, where flavours are clean, fresh and balanced, expect fusion fare with an emphasis on the lean and mean. So think lots of vegetables, fish, and white meat. Excellent for the health (and waist) conscious.  Perched on the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands complex, the sun-drenched dining hall is gorgeous. And romantic. We were just saying, Spago must get more than its fair share of proposals here. A tip is to request the sea-facing tables when making reservations, the panorama is infinitely more pleasing than the pool view, which spectacle is replete with saggy man-boobs and pale paunches Service was amiable, but a little perfunctory for an upscale restaurant such as this. We were also bemused by the waiter's opinion that the dishes were portioned massively, and concern that we wouldn't be able to finish our food. Turned out, Spago 's dishes were kid-sized. Clearly, the wa

Hua Ting Steamboat

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We'd passed by Hua Ting Steamboat when we had dinner at The Peranakan , and made a mental note to dine in the restaurant another time. A new-ish concept by Cantonese stalwart Hua Ting at Orchard Hotel annexed to Claymore Connect, Hua Ting Steamboat serves up a worthwhile hotpot. The range of stock may be limited, but they're creative and unique; and while the soup bases are watery, there's nuance and depth of flavour, so there's little need for the array of dipping sauces. Ingredients here are of the premium sort, and are sparkling fresh, so expect a correspondingly upscale pricetag.  We had the Yuan Yang Soup ($26) of a milky, collagen-boosting Sharks Bone Cartilage base, sweetened with red dates and wolfberries, and contrasted with fresh leek and beancurd skin sheets; and the Tomato Soup , sans parsley, delicate and more tangy than Hai Di Lao's version . Good on its own as a snack, the Crispy Fish Skin ($4) was also yummy dipped in chilli sauce or soft

Open Farm Community

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I've been looking to revisit Open Farm Community , ever since my delicious but uncomfortable dinner a year ago . This time round, I made reservations early, so we wouldn't have to sit at the bar, and brought the Hubs and MJ along. MJ was just coming off a juice cleanse, and I thought Open Farm Community , or 'OFC' for short, would be a terrific place to reintroduce him to a diet of solid foods. The restaurant's still buzzy, drawing a full-house most days; in no small part due to the rotating menu:- the menu refreshes every now and then, to highlight the season's best, but popular dishes remain mainstays.  The Warm Broccoli Salad ($20) was a medley of mesclun, sauteed sugar snap peas, roasted broccoli, crumbed feta, and pinenuts. Beautiful textures, clean, and light. I'm now inspired to make something like this at home. I loved the soft peppery notes of the Watercress Soup ($19), complemented by a softly poached organic egg and crispy kale, and side

SPRMRKT Kitchen & Bar

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It's been a while since we last brunched. I'm usually asleep till mid-afternoon most weekends, so I don't wake up early enough for brunch. But, because we had friends to meet up with, I made the extra effort to get up before noon. Okay, okayyyyy...the Hubs had to push me off the bed before I would rouse...but...same thing, no? We headed to SPRMRKT Kitchen & Bar , an offshoot of the CBD-favourite SPRMRKT . Located next to the Singapore River, the first level of the bistro, SPRMRKT Daily, is breezy and laid-back, whereas the second level restaurant is a little more swish. There wasn't any availability in the extremely contrained air-conditioned indoor area of SPRMRKT Daily on the first floor, so we opted to dine on the second level instead. The brunch selection on level 2 is decidedly limited, as their focus is on dinner, but what they lacked in variety, they made up in quality. A twist on kong bak baos, the D Pork Buns ($25) sandwiched hunks of roasted pork bell

Kazu Sumiyaki Restaurant

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The last time I was at yakitori specialist Kazu was when I was a broke-ass student living off the charity of my older and very generous already-working friends. That was more than a decade ago. Since then, Kazu has grown, from a tiny, cramped, and smoky little joint, to a spiffier, slightly less cramped, and much less smoky premises. Being the purportedly best sumiyaki restaurant in Singapore, it's still wildly popular, and so reservations are absolutely necessary. The menu, an extensive variety of grilled foods, mostly skewered, also offers a smattering of sashimi/sushi plates and rice/noodle options. I say, you can't go wrong sticking to the grilled stuff, it's what Kazu 's famous for anyway. Budget about $100 per person if not filling up on carbs and without alcohol, as the skewers are modest in size and quickly add up to a lot . Service was a mixed bag of 3 distinct cliques: the Filipinos, who were friendly as heck; the pretty, heavily made-up Japanese front-o