The 7th Edition of Singapore Restaurant Week - 7 to 13 October 2013. Book now!

Food lovers in Singapore get a bit excited at this time of the year. It's the time of the year when you start to book places to some of the restaurants that you always wanted to try their food but at a lower price.

From 7 to 13 October 2013, the 7th edition of Singapore Restaurant Week will feed over 40,000 hungry people in Singapore. The 6th edition in March 2013 already had a record breaking booking of 40,000 seats! Singapore Restaurant Week is presented by American Express and organized by DiningCity.



The restaurants that participate in the Singapore Restaurant Week offer exclusive three-course menus for lunch at $25++ and dinner at $35++. (DiningCity Star-awarded restaurants charge a supplement of $15 for lunch and $20 for dinner).

Personally, I will scrutinize the deals and restaurants.  Some places set meals are about the same as their regular set meals. The wife and I dine out often and we pay for our own meals, so we do notice the price. So pick carefully and you do find really good deals. Do your home work, but don't take too long because as I have experienced it myself, the good deals do get booked out really quickly!



Courtesy of Singapore Restaurant Week, I had a preview of the dishes that 3 restaurants will serve for their Restaurant Week special menu. To make it more interesting for us, we had our 3 course meal in 3 different restaurants!



1. Starter @ Taratata Bistrot

Taratata Bistrot has been a hot favourite for many diners wanting to try French food in the previous editions. Taratata is owned and two veteran French chefs that has French fine dining restaurants with Michelin Stars.



We started with baguette with butter. It's simple and addictive carbo for a hungry person.



We had the "Cassolette d'Escargot aux Champignons et Concassée de Tomate". It's Escargot with Mushrooms and Tomatoes.

Covered with herbs and lots of olive oil, it had a very tempting aroma when it was served to us.



A very different style of escargot from that I have eaten. No shell to dig the escargot out, and it's baked in a casserole with lots of herbs and tomatoes, it had a taste that I liked. (I love tomatoes as you all know, so I was rather happy with it)



Presenting the two men in white that prepared our starter. Chef Bertrand Raguin and Philippe Nouzillat. They each have over 20 years experience in what they do.


2. Main Course @ Latteria Mozzarella Bar

How interesting to start our meal in a French restaurant and continue to an Italian restaurant!
Latteria Mozzarella Bar is by the same people behind ilLido.



It's a place that has many different kinds of mozzarella and if I remember correctly, they bring it them in themselves and not through the usual suppliers in Singapore.

Many people like their pasta and other staple Italian favorites here. I was told this place is good. I should come back with the wife and try them out.


Grilled Halibut with Saffron Potato and Lobster Sauce

The chef had planned for us to choose one of the two main courses they will be serving during Restaurant Week. A sudden change of mind,  he thought maybe if he gives us 2 smaller portions of both dishes it would make us very happy. It sure did!

A nicely piece of grilled halibut. Halibut has dense and firm flesh and a clean taste. If there's no other thing with it, I will still be happy to eat it on its own just lightly salted. Of course in a restaurant, you would not want to pay for that.

So they chef has to jazz it up with Saffron Potato and Lobster Sauce. Goes well. I love how he served it with the colourful cauliflowers. Yes, all of us were just admiring the nicely plated dish and almost everyone dining took out their cameras to photograph it.


Suckling Pig Porchetta with Peaches and Salmoriglio.

From a lighter dish to one that's heavier in taste. It's said that every region in Italy has it's own version of suckling pig. We were too busy enjoying our food to ask the Chef where he is from and what version it is from.


3. Desserts @ Hashi

From French to Italian to Japanese! The taste buds were really going for an adventure!
We were told Hashi is the only Japanese restaurant in Singapore that serves traditional hand made sweets. It's suppose to be a great treat for us!



We were served sake as we sat down.



If you don't already know, the Singapore Country Manager of American Express (yes, Restaurant Week is presented by Amex) is Ms Yoshimi Nakajima. Leave it to the experts to talk about what's a good sake. 



The beautifully sculpted wagashi that's flown in from the the famous shop Ganyuudou in Shizuoka. It's made by fifth-generation pastry chef Hiromori Uchida.



Wagashi are sweet treats made from finely milled flour, mocha filled with red bean paste sculpted dumplings. It's something for the sweet tooth. If you are not a sweet tooth person, you will find this extremely sweet. It's something very pleasantly sweet and delicate to me.



Hashi is headed by Chef Tadashi Takahashi who was previously head chef at Nobu Melbourne.

The wife and I had previously enjoyed our meal at Nobu Melbourne, I should bring her back here and try Chef Tadashi's food here.

Here he is, putting additional touches to the Wagashi. He was grating something over the fine sieve and added it to the flower shaped Wagashi.



One of the rare chefs around that I see wearing a tie when he works!
People with such discipline and pride serves fabulous food don't you think?

It's the end of the story of my special 3 course Singapore Restaurant Week eaten in 3 different restaurants. If you want to book, you better hurry!


How to book?

American Express Cardmembers^ enjoy exclusive priority booking privileges from 4 September 2013 before booking is open to the public from 11 September 2013.  All bookings can be made online from 11 September 2013 at www.restaurantweek.sg, a dedicated website with unique technology for online and real-time reservations.
^Applicable to all American Express Cards issued directly by American Express International, Inc. in Singapore  (excluding American Express Corporate Cards and American Express Cards issued by DBS, UOB and EZ-Link Pte Ltd)

Subscribers to the DiningCity.SG newsletter will enjoy advance booking from 9 September 2013. To sign up for the newsletter, simply log on to www.DiningCity.SG.

Senso Ristorante and Bar @ Club Street

Finally! The Singapore Restaurant Week is on!

When the bookings slot was out, I managed to snag two places at restaurants that Momo and I would like to eat. It's the time of the year, you pay a special price to enjoy a special Restaurant Week menu at participating restaurants in Singapore.

Usually the specially created set meals are $25++ for lunch and $35++ for dinner, but this place is a DiningCity Star award restaurant which has an extra $15 / $20 surcharge.

Our first restaurant week meal was lunch at Senso Ristorante and Bar at Club Street.



It's the first time I am here and I kind of like the architecture of this refurbished old shophouses!
Look at the roof tiles, something that caught my eye!


Back to the food. The Restaurant Week Set Lunch that we had for $40++ each.

Bread Basket

The basket of warm bread was served not long after we placed our orders and it was nice. Our reservation was at 1 PM and my usual lunch hour is around 11:30 AM, so I was very hungry. I am saying this because if someone is very hungry, the food might taste better. ;-) Anyway, the bread did tasted very good, especially when it's slightly warm.

Momo and I especially like the long bread sticks. It's slightly more 'spiced' and crispy!

Starters

There were two starters on the menu, so we picked one each.

I had the 'Baby Spinach Salad with Honey Mustard dressing, Avocado, Pine Nuts and Crispy Bacon.

I liked how clean the plating was. Each baby spinach leaf had already had dressing on them and it was nicely stacked up. The dressing and baby spinach was a nice combi and I am quite happy with it. I did not like the crispy bacon though. I think it's too crispy for me. I would have personally preferred a not so dry bacon. That green strip was avocado puree.



Momo had the Pan-fried Buffalo Mozzarella wrapped in 18 months Parma Ham served with black Olives Tapenade. I tried a bit from Momo's plate and I think the parma ham that's pan-fried with the mozzarella was quite nice. A warm mozzarella and the pan fried parma ham was really a good match.

Looks like Momo did not like the olives tepanade as much, as she only had some of it.

Mains

There were 3 choices of mains from the menu. Momo opted for the Homemade Taglierini Pasta with Boston Lobster and fresh Basil.

Portions were not very big, but at the end of the meal, we were still quite full. Freshly made pasta always tastes nice. It goes well with the tomato based sauce too. About the lobster, there were five 'first phalanx of the thumb' sized pieces of lobster in the pasta. 




I had the Gently-roasted Cod Fillet served on Eggplant puree and green Asparagus. The cod was all right only I guess. Not very spectacular but it was nicely executed though. It was prepared with nice crispy salty skin on top and the cod had not dried out.

The asparagus was grilled as I can see the visible grill lines. I think I might just do the same at home next time.

Dessert

There was only one dessert on the menu. The dessert has many parts though! It's called Tiramisu 'Rivisto'. It had Light Coffee Mousse, homemade Savoiardi Biscotto,  Coffee Milkshake and Mascarpone Ice Cream.



The light coffee mousse was kind of bubbling or bursting itself away, so we had to quickly eat it before it disappears by itself! Made of mostly air, it was quite nice. It had a light texture as if you have soap bubbles that tasted like coffee on your tongue.

The coffee milkshake was alcoholic! It was shaken and poured into the shot glass at our table. I liked the biscotto maybe because it is so simple and it goes well with the mascarpone ice cream.

Tea & Coffee

Tea and Coffee. Momo the coffee drinker said the coffee is not as nice as she hoped it to be.

Overall, it was an enjoyable meal.
Both of us took half day leave to grab a nicer than usual weekday lunch ;-)


Senso Ristorante and Bar
21 Club Street
Singapore 069410

Tel: 6224 3534

Yan Palace Restaurant @ Hong Lim Complex, Chinatown

Momo and I met AromaCookery and her husband for lunch a few days ago. 

Momo and AromaCookery had wanted to try Yan Palace Restaurant's dim sum. This place has been around for the longest time. How long has it been around? I have no idea! But it's really old school. When you are inside, you might think you are in the era of "SBC". Not even "TCS"! LOL

This place is packed! The queue waiting to be seated is snaking behind these doors. We even witness a customer who demanded a seat straight away. She shouted: "I called to book a table, where is my table? Why are you giving that table to these people queuing here? Shouldn't you give it to me instead?"

Sorry lah obasan. "Reservation here tak pakai" lah. You need to queue up like everyone else. Everyone else here probably called earlier than you. Shoosh and don't disturb the rest of us. The restaurant is already noisy enough with all the non stop chatter of the diners.

***

The food here, so so lah.

If you are used to the Dim Sums standards of the high class Royal China, Yan Ting, Wan Hao and the likes, have a mind set change when you come here. Minus 20 years perhaps. ;-)

The Siew Mai.

***

The Phoenix Claws.
Better than some food court version, so there's still hope. LOL

***

We have been spoiled by the likes of Crystal Jade that gives you Carrot Cakes filled with ingredients. This is the old style Carrot Cake of yesteryears.

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The Steamed Pork Ribs. Plain and simple.

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Now, if you are here, try their pastries.
I think they are better than things that comes in their bamboo steamers. ;-)

The Char Siu Pastry was rather nice.

***

This was rather unique. Open mouthed fried balls that is a little sticky inside and coated with some sugar.

***

The deep fried prawn dumpling was I guess ok. The chee cheong fun that you see in the background. They were realy old school. They had fairly thick skin. So depends if you like thick or thin steamed flour skin, you might or might not enjoy it.

***

These were the pastry with lai chee and salted egg yolk inside. Worth a try!

***

These were the fried mango strips.




We had a few other things too. There are already too many photos posted today. ;-P

Some observations:
- the main attraction of this place might be the price. We ordered a fair bit and it was only around $50.
- the crowd were mostly old folks.
- the younger people around were probably filial children and grandchildren who accompany ah gong and ah ma to have the food they way they like it.
- they might be doing something right, but we are not sure what. They managed to survive so long and attract crowds yet so many fine-dining places can barely survive.

Maybe we should walk around and peep at what others are ordering before placing our orders. Were we ordering the wrong food here? LOL



Yan Palace Restaurant
Hong Lim Complex

Blk 531 Upper Cross Street
#01-49
Singapore 050531

Tel: 6222 2516

Sushi Tei @ China Square Central

This was our lunch last Saturday. Around 20 of us celebrated our friend "Gorilla's" birthday. We had lunch at Sushi Tei because most of us wanted Japanese. (haha.. what kind of friends are we? We did not ask him what he likes, but we chose the location by majority? Democracy? LOL)

We sat at two different tables because there's no way they can 'join' tables to get one big enough for all of us. It was also this place is convenient as we all had Bible Study classes nearby just before lunch.

It's just going to be a single post, not multiple posts with all the food we ate. It's just photo of food of people sitting just beside us.

The Sake Clams Soup. Momo said she wants to have this. So we shared this with two other friends beside us.



We also shared these lovely giant scallops. I think the salty sauce over it has got me addicted to it!



I had the Cold Ramen. Cold and refreshing indeed.



Momo had cold chasoba with salmon. Looks good too ya?



MsHometeam was beside us and she had the Beef Sukiyaki.
Nice slices of beef.....



Egg for the soup...



The steaming hot (you can see the steam ya!) of stock that you cook the beef in. She had it with a bowl of rice. Looks good ya.



Happy Birthday Gorilla!
Wishing you all the best as you work towards getting your PhD.
(Sure you want to take up PhD? Head damage oh!)


Sushi Tei @ China Square Central
20 Cross Street
China Square Central
#01-28/30
Singapore 048422

Tel: +65 6223 0070
Fax: +65 6223 6789
Hours: 11.30am to 10.00pm daily (last order 9.30pm)

Sushi Tei @ China Square Central

Last Saturday, one of our friends that's been called "Goat" asked if wanted to have dinner at Sushi Tei. Since we had people living in both the East and the West, Goat organised it to be at a more central place.

There are people with really "rubber timing". So those who arrived earlier was famished and decided to order a few things to ease our hunger first.

Some had handrolls first. This is the crab and avocado handroll.



Others had platters of sushi first. This is one of the favourites. Unagi yum yum.



When the rest started coming in, these was what we ate while we chat.
All I remember from the chats are old SBC/TCS era dramas and actors and famous phrases from those shows. We realise that actors of those era are now back acting. Times are bad that they are back? hehe.. LOL...

(SBC - Singapore Broadcasting Corporation, TCS - Television Corporation of Singapore. SBC and TCS were former names of what is now called Mediacorp)

This is Sashimi Salad.



This is very delicious. Asari Clams. Clams in Japanese wine.



Seem to always enjoy their spicy hot pots here.
So here's the Spicy Seafood Hotpot.



After they pour the soup, you wait for it to boil.....

While waiting, you talk about other things.
If you are in Singapore and watch Channel 8 dramas, do you find yourself confused? The same actors are acting in both the 7 pm and 9 pm dramas.

Some of us joked that they have retrenched many of their artistes that's why they have a shortage. They are using the same actors in their dramas. In the previous 'peranakan' show, they even had the same actors acting two characters in the show. LOL....




Anything with unagi is popular with us.
This is the Unagi wrapped in Egg.



Those who needed more carbo ordered things like Chirashi to fill their tummies.



Others who did not want to much rice, ate from this platter.



And to those who had tempura cravings, they are this. LOL



We are wondering what Goat will organise next.
After sushi, we went to 'nuah' at TCC (The Gallery) nearby.


Sushi Tei
20 Cross Street
China Square Central
#01-28/30
Singapore 048422

Tel: +65 6223 0070
Fax: +65 6223 6789

Hours: 11.30am to 10.00pm daily (last order 9.30pm)