Singapore Restaurant Week 2011 - October Edition (9 to 16 October 2011)

Singapore Restaurant Week 2011, the October Edition runs from 9 to 16 October 2011. Singapore Restaurant Week is now a bi-annual event. If you missed out on booking all the restaurants you wanted last March, try to get the deals this time. I managed to book 2 restaurants last March and enjoyed my meals at the restaurants.

I read that the March Edition had 24000 bookings! Organiser DiningCity.com has worked hard and got 87 restaurants on board for the October Edition. New restaurants include: Au Jardin, Bistro du Vin, Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine & Caviar Bar, Bronte, Casa Tartufo, Da Luca Italian Restaurant, Eco Gourmet Café, Le Tonkin, Gaia, Lucas restaurant @ Klapsons, La Cicala, The Lighthouse, Table At 7, Town Restaurant, Trattoria Lafiandra, and The Lounge (Hollandse Club) among others.

Thanks to the creativity of DiningCity Singapore and their PR folks from Sixth Sense Communications, I had the opportunity to try out some of the offerings that Singapore Restaurant Week 2011 will offer last week.

It was very interesting as we had our 3 meal course in 3 different restaurants! Thanks to one of the sponsors BMW Asia, we were chauffeured restaurant to restaurant in the sleek BMWs. (If you are a BMW customer, 9 October 2011, Sunday has been wholly set aside only for BMW owners!)

Starter:

Garibaldi Italian Restaurant and Bar

Chef Roberto prepared the starter, Capesante Al Caviale E Crema Di Zucca Tartufata for us.
In English, it's Sea Scallops with Cauliflower Puree Smoked Caviar and Truffle Pumpkin Soup.



It was really delicious. Look how just nicely the scallops had been seared. Those caviar popping salty essence in your mouth. The Truffle Pumpkin Soup was something rather different too. Do you want to try it as well? You know which restaurant to book!

Culina paired the dish with Torres Fransola Sauvignon Blanc 2008.

Main:

Novus Restaurant and Bar.

To get to Novus from Garibaldi, we all hopped into BMWs. A long line of it waiting for us.



Novus is such a nice, classy place to dine at. I love the high ceiling and the overall architecture of the building. The restaurant itself reminds me of my university days! I had breakfast and dinner in a proper dining room that had high ceilings and the design of the windows and doors were so similar! It was also when all of us had to observe the way we eat. The only difference was we had to queue to get our food, usually an Asian or Western selection.

Back to Novus. For the mains at Novus, Austrian Chef Stephan Zoisl who has worked with several Michelin Star restaurants, prepared two mains to choose from.

It was a difficult choice to choose between the two mains. Fellow diner, Brad and I decided to share our mains.



The Duck Confit - smoked to order. Boneless crisp duck leg confit smoked with hickory wood. Seasonal wild mushroom, potato gratin and circle of herbs. How could you resist that?



The other selection was Berkshire Porkbelly Meets Saffron Risotto. Thin sliced pork belly on creamy saffron risotto. There was this piece of pork crackers that was just so enticing and it's topped with parmesa, chargrilled capcisum, garden cress, red radish and Joselito ham. Chef Sous Vide the porkbelly ;-)

Culina paired the dishes with Ruffino Lodola Nuova, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2007

The dish above will be served as part of the Novus Restaurant Week menu. Ahem, you know which other restaurant to book. If you are a mushroom lover, Novus has a new menu starting this week that features seasonal mushrooms!

Dessert:

Boathouse

The chef had prepared for us Savarin of Caramelized Apples with Vanilla Ice Cream.

Thanks to the organisers, we were all seated on the rooftop (or where Prel.ude is.) The view was wonderful, there was absolute clear skies last week and we could see the beautiful Singapore skyline and upcoming F1 track all litted!

Culina paired this dessert with Torres Riesling Vendimia Tardive 2008.

How to book?

All 87 restaurants will offer exclusive three-course dinners at an irresistible price of S$35++ and three-course lunches at S$25++ (Note: Some restaurants may charge a supplement of S$15 for lunch and S$20 for dinner, thus the set lunch or dinner may cost $40++ and $55++ respectively. Terms and conditions apply).

All bookings can be made online from 21 September 2011 at www.restaurantweek.sg

American Express Cardmembers (excluding DBS and UOB issued American Express Cards)  enjoy exclusive pre-booking privileges from 14 September 2011.

Subscribers to the DiningCity.com newsletter enjoy pre-booking privileges from 19 September 2011. To sign up for the newsletter, just log onto www.diningcity.com/singapore.