Birthday edition dinner: Equinox

Oh dear... I'm getting more and more behind at blogging. But ignoring my usual preference for chronological order, let me slot in Lynn's birthday dinner before I resume my catching up.

As you will know from the previous post, we went Shima for a teppanyaki buffet lunch. We must be completely mad. How did we think that we can handle a buffet lunch followed by the typical huge birthday dinners we always have? So after lunch, we tried to walk off as much of lunch as possible by shopping in Takashimaya. Then we rested in Breeks for a drink and to eat the Hello Kitty cake I baked for her (goodness!). Yes, it was a small cake. But it still took up space nonetheless. So you can imagine how 'not hungry' we are when we arrived at Equinox for dinner.

And still not knowing when to draw the line, we took FOUR types of breads to share between us... Anyhow, on with the food critique. We had onion and cheese bread, French baguette, black olive, and I couldn't catch the last one. These were served with seaweed, as well as, regular butter. We only liked the onion, the rest were pretty umimpressive. And both agreed that it was a pity the bread weren't warm.

Bread and butter

The bread was followed by a complimentary canapé. Baked raisin with mascarpone. It was sweet and savoury at the same time, though we couldn't quite place what the savoury portion is. Since I hate raisins, I only ate a few small raisin-free scoops before I pushed what's left to Lynn. It was nice and creamy.

Complimentary Canapé

And our madness continue. We were soooo tempted by soooo many items on the menu, we decided to go for THREE starters and one main course, and Lynn super craved mac and cheese so we ordered that too. Then after we painstakingly shortlisted three out of so many tempting starters and placed our orders, we were told that to utilize the Amex Platinum card discount (50% for two pax, yo!), we had to order two main courses. So... we actually placed order for one more main course! Remember, we weren't hungry!!

So here's our madness in detail. Pan seared foie gras. It wasn't as blissful as we wished for, but still was a nice huge piece. It was aromatic and livery and buttery, sure. Just wasn't melt-in-the-mouth enough.

Pan seared foie gras

Next up is my newest favourite cheese since Valentino. Burrata cheese. Theirs was served with a nice mixed salad. The cheese was creamy and yummy and I love love love it. Then came along our all time favourite. Lobster bisque. Theirs seems to have a little too much cognac. It was a little too bitter. But we dig the chunks of lobster in it.

Burrata cheese

Lobster bisque

Then came along our mains and the side. Black truffle mac n cheese. YUM! It was rich, it was velvety, it was fragrant with the aroma of truffle, it was everything you can ask for in a mac n cheese. Only problem? I didn't have the stomach space for something this rich. I managed two mouths, and Lynn picked through half of it, and I think that was the furthest we went. Poor mac n cheese, it really wasn't its fault.

Black truffle mac n cheese

The mains. The black cod was lovely. It was nicely done, delicate and milky, the way cod fish should be. But by now, my stomach was overflowing. Cod being an oily fish, I was unable to fully enjoy it. I felt sorry for the fish. Lynn helped me with half my piece. The sour pickled vegetables that were served with it was great at cutting my 'gelatness'.

Black cod

Finally, our beef. Wagyu ribeye steak. It wasn't very Wagyu in the sense it didn't have that strong aroma that usually comes with Wagyu. Moreover, it was a little too salty. But overall, we liked the char and the flavor. This I managed to finish without help from Lynn.

Wagyu ribeye steak

The service at Equinox is impeccable, as expected. The food is actually very nice too, if not for our incredibly full states, we would have enjoyed it more. I actually forgot to take picture of the complimentary slice of cake that the waitress brought us for Lynn's birthday celebration. That was only managed after a few cups of tea each, and needed more tea to wash it down. Price-wise, it's expected that Equinox pricing is pretty steep. Come on, where else in Singapore can you dine with that kind of view from the 71st floor? (Maybe Ku De Ta, but that's another story.) But thanks to Amex, that meal was made affordable for a special occasion. Still, I doubt it's the kind of place I will come without the Amex discount.

Equinox Restaurant

2 Stamford Road

Singapore 178882
Phone: +65 6837 3322
Email: reservations@equinoxcomplex.com

Feedlot Steakhouse

It was post-gym, we had steak cravings, it's the night before my birthday, sooo... we thought we'll eat "better". We had came across Feedlot Steakhouse on those 'best steak in Singapore' lists, so we thought we'll give it a try. It took me a two drives pass it to find the entrance into its carpark, so do take note to turn into the left side of that road because the carpark entrance is right after the turn, there's no time to make a filter to the left after you have turn.

Post gym we are alway ravenous, and always welcome something warm. So mushroom soup sounded lovely. And it was served in these super pretty bowls! Pretty bowls aside, the soup was very nice!! Fragrant and truffly and smooth. Totally hits the spot.

Cream of mushroom with truffle

We requested that everything else be served at the same time, rather than starters first. First to reach, our Black Angus Ribeye steak, served with bordelaise sauce. We asked for sea salt and Lynn loved it. The beef was good, and well flavoured. I hardly ever need extra salt for my steaks most of the time, unless the salt is flavoured. But Lynn loves her beef with sea salt, and she especially loved it this time round.

Black Angus Ribeye

For sides we ordered truffle fries. Although it looked impressive with the black truffle bits, it wasn't super truffly. Yes, I know the strong truffle taste of truffle oils are just factory synthetic flavouring. Call me a sucker if you will but I love that factory synthetic flavouring. Lol...

Truffle fries

Our 'starter' that we requested be served alongside was a pan seared foie gras. It was very flavourful, but wasn't very melt-in-the-mouth. We enjoyed it nonetheless. How far wrong can foie gras go right?

Pan seared foie gras

The second main we ordered was the Iberian pork chop. I... actually cannot remember much about it. So I'm guessing it wasn't super impressive, nor was it bad. I guess it just was normal.

Iberian pork chop

We actually liked the atmosphere, service and food at Feedlot. They subsequently had a lobster mac n cheese promo that Lynn wanted to come for but we couldn't find the time. But sure, I'll love to come back for more mushroom soup and beef please!

Belated entry: Saucy birthday celebration at Skirt

It was Lynn's birthday. So I'm ditching my stickler to chronological order trait and blogging this first, although it's still a good 4 months late. =P After tossing around a few places on our 'To-Eat' list (yes, we actually share a list of places we want to visit), we picked Skirt at W Hotel in Sentosa. Thankfully I drive now, so it was a breeze to get to the hotel. 

The restaurant wasn't overly crowded, which we like. It wasn't overly dim either. And the server was friendly and enthusiastic as she make recommendations for the food. She also very nicely gave us the option of chilled or room temperature bottled water (they don't serve regular water here) due to the rainy water. 

As with most restaurants, we start of the meal with fluffy warm bread. Theirs was served with a hummus and a vinegar mixture of some sort. We enjoyed the hummus, but the vinegar didn't sit too well with us so we largely ignored it. Appetizers we chose were chicken liver pate and some sort of a deconstructed crab cake. The liver pate was very good. Smooth and buttery, and went well with the crackers. But we never understood why liver pate was always served with inadequate number of crackers. Like how am I supposed to eat the entire lump of pate there with only 5 crackers? We ended up asking for a second serving of fluffy warm bread to finish up the pate. The pate also had some pork fat coated popcorn on the side. Lynn didn't like the porkiness so I finished them. The crab cake I call it deconstructed becos it was actually more of a crab salad than a cake. The crab meat were sweet, and the 'spiced foam' was a lobster-bisque like sauce on the side. We couldn't help comparing it to Wooloomooloo's crab lumps, and agreed we like the crab lumps better.

Fluffy warm bread with hummus and vinegar

Crab cakes, cucumber and spiced foam

Blackmore Rillette, Pate, Pastrami, Bersaola (I THINK. Can't find an item on the online menu closer to this one)

We then moved on to the main course. They cleared our table (somewhat, because we still wanted the bread and remaining pate) and placed the setting for steaks. Their steak cutlery are so unique! Forest on my table. Haha! Before our meats were served, they gave us two little bottles each. One was a homemade BBQ sauce for the meats. One was a sweet, mild alcoholic drink for us to clear our palette from our starters before we start on the mains. Which we thought was funny, because our liver pate was still sitting on the table in front of us. So much for clearing the palette.

We had also ordered a few other condiments for our steak, not expecting the BBQ sauce. We took the Four peppercorn sauce, Red Wine and Marrow sauce and Three Mustards. To our surprise, the meats were also served with a three salts array - roasted sea salt, rosemary salt and... pepper salt? I forgot the last one. My apologies. . That makes it a total of 6 sauces and 3 salts. It was a really saucy meal.

Three salts for the meats

We opted for the full blood wagyu Skirt steak, their signature. As well as an Iberico Pork Tenderloin. The beef was flavorful and tender, and was nicely complemented by the salts and the mustard. We largely neglected the two sauces, not because they weren't nice. We were just too overwhelmed by the number of condiments. And really, nothing beats good old salt and mustard on beef. The pork tenderloin was tender, juicy and went well with the BBQ sauce. That piece of crackling you see in the picture? It was crunchy, fatty and satisfying. Totally worth the calories I'm telling you.

Iberico Pork Tenderloin

Full Blood Wagyu Skirt Steak - 200g, with the Three Mustards in the background

On the side we ordered hand cut garlic fries with mayonaise (another sauce!), and sauteed Portobello mushrooms. The fries were thick-cut, the way I like them, with bits of crunchy, fragrant garlic slices thrown in. We thoroughly enjoyed the fries. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, with the aroma of fried garlic. The mushrooms were juicy and meaty as Portobellos are. We were very happy with our choices of sides.

Hand cut Garlic fries with mayonaise

Because it was a birthday celebration, Skirt gave us a complimentary birthday cake. The cake was very normal. Plain, somewhat dry sponge cake sandwiching some pastry cream. It was forgettable but we were too full to want dessert anyway so we didn't mind it too much. Their dessert fork had floral engravings on it. How pretty! Skirt does have the prettiest cutlery I've seen around.

Floral engraving on their dessert fork

Overall we were very happy with dinner. It was really our sauciest meal ever, but that aside, the meat quality was top-notch. The other food did not disappoint and the service crew was highly attentive. And we had a nice walk around the area after dinner too. Skirt is really a good restaurant to visit for that special occasion. We highly recommend it.

Skirt - The Boldest Grill
21 Ocean Way
Singapore, 098374 Singapore
+65 6808 7278

skirt.singapore@whotels.com

The Chop House

We love Wooloomooloo. So when we found out that the group was opening a new restaurant at Vivocity called The Chop House, we were thrilled. And when we saw it's menu, we were even happier. It's a more casual concept compared to Wooloomooloo, hence more affordable menu. We planned it on a day we went to RWS for the Sea Aquarium. The thing is, we did shabu shabu buffet for lunch, and munched on snacks in Sentosa, before heading here to dinner. So needless to say, we weren't very hungry, but everything still looked good.

In the end we settled for a soup, a mixed platter and a dessert. I wanted mussels, but we weren't sure we could finish. That's how we decided to settle for the mussels soup. It was creamy, with pieces of mussels and some fish. It wasn't wow, but still nice. Some of the mussels were a little overcooked and tough though.

Mussel soup

Then our mixed grill platter arrived. Beef tenderloin, lamb sausage, pork sausage and lamb cutlet. On the side we were given a little rack of three condiments, all homemade. Mustard, beetroot jam and caramelized onion. I don't care for beetroot to begin with but Lynn liked it. I went totally bonkers with the onions and mustard. These are perfect for all the red meat in the platter!! And the onions were very nicely done. Meat wise, the beef was tender and perfectly done medium. Look at the juicy pink interior. Sausages, well, who can do sausages badly? The lamb was also delicious. Marinated just enough to ensure the muttony taste doesn't overwhelm, but still enough for the lamb lovers. The portion was comfortable for the two of us after all our nonsense earlier in the day. For a hungry day, we'll probably need sides.

Condiments

Mix grill platter

Juicy pink meat

On a separate occasion, I went with XP to try their mix seafood grill. I found the salmon to be a little on the dry side, and the squid, although perfect texture, were a little bland. The shrimps were nicely done to bouncy perfection. Maybe because seafood tends to be milder flavored than meat to begin with, we needed the sauce it came it. Very oddly, we were given the same three condiments that seemed more apt for meat. Turns out the first blur waiter put it down for some unknown reason, and the other waiter didn't want to disappoint us by removing. So I just dug into the caramalized onions anyway, but ignored the mustard and the beetroot.

Mix seafood grill

For dessert on the first visit, Lynn and I decided to share a cheesecake. It was a nice cheesecake, although I found the sauce suspiciously tasting like coffeeshop sweet soya sauce. On a third visit, my dinner buddies insisted it was maple syrup and on sampling, I agreed it was. But I so distinctly remember both Lynn and I thought it tasted like coffeeshop sweet soya sauce. Was it me, or did they mix up their sauces on my first visit?

Baileys cheesecake

On separate occasions, I had tried their Mussels Mariniere. The mussels themselves were deliciously cooked. However, if you're a broth drinker like me, be warned. The mussels broth was incredibly salty. Saltier than any other mussels I have tried. And I've also tried the Sirloin steak, while a friend tried their Australian Lamb chop. I preferred the lamb to the beef. It's not that the beef wasn't good. It's just that the lamb was better. Or maybe I was simply in a lamb mood that day.

Open Door Policy

We came across this place totally by chance. I had suggested going to Forty Hands because I hadn't tried it before. But to our disappointment, it was closed on Mondays. So we roam the area abit and found Open Door Policy opened and interesting. So we decided to try it out. Boy oh boy, were we impressed.

First thing that caught my attention upon being seated was the specials menu. Black truffle menu!! But it was quite pricey, and I didn't really want to subject my colleagues to my level of expenditure on food. So I tempted Lynn by sending her the menu instead.

Browsing the regular dinner menu, quite a few items caught my attention. So here goes... Broccoli and Stilton soup. I love blue cheese remember? So stilton is soo tempting. It came as a not too thick cream-based broccoli soup, with bits of stilton cheese in it. So you have to scrap the bottom of the bowl to fish out the cheese pieces, and that mouthful of creamy broccoli and pungent blue cheese had me sighing with pleasure.

Broccoli and Stilton soup

We decided on a red meat feast that day. Two beef one lamb. And all met and exceeded our expectations. The 48 hours braised beef cheek was tender and flavorful. Even J, who actually doesn't like beef, managed a small portion. We loved the sweet radish too. The slow braised short ribs was also very tender. J really loved the mango salad. It was very refreshing, in the midst of our otherwise carnivorous meal.

48 hours braised beef cheek with master stock quinoa and organic black radish

Slow braised short rib and red curry jus and green mango salad

What I really loved was the lamb cutlet. Three pieces! Just nice one for each of us. It was done perfectly. The lambiness wasn't overpowering, very nicely balanced by its sauce. The potato and pea stew was more of a mashed potato with peas, but worked very well. It was so good that I texted Lynn and said they were to-die-for.

Roast lamb cutlet with potato and pea stew, and fresh mint

When it came to dessert, we couldn't really decide but settled for the apple crumble and a souffle. The apple crumble was oh-so-good. So good that we actually ordered a second one after the first. J really really really loved it. It was hot, and the crumble crunchy. Beneath that crunch was a apple stew that wasn't overpoweringly sweet. With the vanilla sauce provided, it was divine. For the world of me, I cannot remember the flavor of the souffle. On their website's menu, the only souffle is a mango souffle with a bitter chocolate centre. I don't remember ours being mango so I'm not sure if the menu had changed. I remember it to be a nice souffle, but didn't make as huge an impression as the apple crumble.

Apple crumble with vanilla custard

Souffle

Open Door Policy is a nice cosy restaurant with attentive staff. The prices are a little steep, but worth the dollar for the quality of food given. I still wanted to bring Lynn back for the truffle menu. Upon checking with our helpful waiter, I was told it was a while-stocks-last menu. So guess what? I had already planned for a second exactly one week after. The place gets quite crowded later part of the evening so reservations recommended.

Update

As mentioned above, we had a second visit planned. J and X enjoyed the first so much that they decided to join Lynn and I for our truffle mania. CW came along too because he happened to be in town and wanted to meet us for dinner. He had never met us again since. I wonder whether I scared him off with the price of dinner? Lol...

Because there's more of us, we decided we could order more variety. For starters, we had the Jamon Iberico ham. It was served with a nice little salsa on the side. The ham wasn't too salty, and the crusty bread contrasted very nicely with the thinly sliced ham. 

Jamon Iberico ham

For mains, I ordered what I've been eyeing since the last visit. The wagyu burger with foie gras, truffle mayo and fresh black truffle. My three favorite items packaged into one single ginormous burger. I was hopping with anticipation. Upon its arrival, I carefully dissected it into 5. It was a huge effort but I did it. Sadly, the wagyu didn't have the classic wagyu aroma. The foie gras was blissful, but after dissection, each of us only got a small piece. The truffle flavor wasn't strong. We could smell traces of it, but it wasn't very obvious when we were eating the burger. Still, we were happy to see black pieces of shaved truffle on the fries. It was a decent burger, but we were definitely disappointed as we expected more 'wow'.

Wagyu foie gras truffle burger with a mountain of fries

The burger was huge!

Cut out view of the meaty burger

We ordered the same lamb and one of the beef, but somehow, they weren't as good as last week. Whether it was due to our initial disappointment from the burger, or did the standard really deviate, I can't tell. We also got a roast salmon, which was tender but not dry. A pretty good fish dish, I must say.

Roast Akaroa salmon with crushed potatoes, grilled baby leeks and brown butter jus

Maybe we were fuller from all the food we consumed. Or maybe the sense of novelty is gone. The apple crumble didn't impress us as much as the first visit. But bear in mind it WAS the first visit for Lynn, and she wasn't as wow'ed as we were with the lamb and the apple crumble. She did love the blue cheese soup. So I guess the restaurant doesn't hold up too well on standardisation. Which was really disappointing, making us unsure about a third visit.


Open Door Policy
19 Yong Siak Street
Singapore 168650
Tel: 62219307
Fax: 62219032

The Prime Society

Thank heavens for my Evernote Food app. Prime Society's menu have been completely revamped and none of my food items are found in the current menu! Anyway, we went to Prime Society because: 1) It was on our To-Eat list. 2) We were in KK hospital visiting a kid and thought that driving to Dempsey isn't too far. 3) We wanted beef. So we called to make a reservation for 30 minutes later and drove over. When we reached, we were slightly embarrassed. Every other patron was dressed to the nines. We were in... Uh... T-shirts, jeans (and shorts :|) and slippers. Ok, Birkenstock doesn't count as too casual slippers, but still.... I was hiding my feet under the table.

We were served bread rolls that brought alot of excitement. This was because, we discovered that the black spots in the butter was truffles. And because Lynn really love sea salt. So the combination of nutty bread, truffled butter and sea salt was a wonderful love affair. Even after finishing the bread, we disallowed the waiter from clearing the butter and salt.

Warm nut bread with truffled butter and sea salt

We ordered grilled asparagus with jamon iberico and soft egg as a starter. Somehow I managed to capture a very very blurry photo, so I'm not showing it here. But nicely charred asparagus, with juicy iberico pork slices, and a very beautifully poached egg. Lynn doesn't like semi-cooked egg yolk. So it went completely to me and I'm very happy about it. Lol...

For mains we decided on a surf and turf. Atlantic salmon for the surf portion. It was served with a weird and plastic tasting sauce. We didn't like the sauce one bit. The fish was ok. The black crisps on the side was mildly weird. Couldn't figure out what they were.

Atlantic salmon with squid and leeks

The turf part we ordered a Kaburi plate 9+ wagyu beef, medium done. It was HEAVENLY. Tender, juicy, beautiful marbling with the wonderful wagyu aroma. We ignored the sauce it came with, and ate it with the truffled butter and sea salt. It was a really really really good piece of beef. No wonder they claim they are dedicated to the upper cut. You really can't complain about their beef. As a side we opted for sautéed mushroom with garlic. Although unphotogenic, it was salty and fragrant. Complemented our steak very well.

Kaburi plate 9+ wagyu beef

Sautéed mushroom with garlic

We were quite full at the end so we decided to share a dessert. We were recommended the peanut butter parfait and accepted the recommendation. When it arrived, we giggled a little. You can see why. Spot the parfait! It was hidden under two crisps. The parfait was as promised. Cold, nutty and creamy, with salted caramel. Perfect ending to the meal, and wasn't overly rich.

Spot the parfait!

Peanut butter parfait

The service crew was attentive, and made very good recommendations. Overall we enjoyed the meal tremendously.


The Prime Society
10 Dempsey Road
#01-20

Singapore 247700

Tel: 6474 7427

Birthday Triology Final edition: CUT

After our hi-tea, we leisurely made our way to MBS for our long awaited dinner at CUT. It wasn't too crowded when we arrived and were shown to our seats promptly. Took us quite awhile to decide on our orders and with some suggestions from the service staff, we finally decided on the American blue crab and shrimp (~$28), Porterhouse steak, 990g ($175) with wild mushrooms (~$16) as side and baked Alaska as dessert.

Complimentary Bread sticks with cheese

Complimentary Bread cheese ball

See the yummy cheese inside

Complimentary bread selection with butter sprinkled with seasoned salt

Other than trying to make my pictures look dark with their dim dim dim lighting, it seems like CUT isn't gotta let us go without a happy stomach, they are generous with the complimentary bread and god, they are GOOD! the bread cheese ball came piping hot and the taste of cheese fills up your mouth without being too overpowering. Bread sticks are nice to chew with while deciding what to order.. They later came to us with complimentary selection of 4 kinds of bread: Pretzel, Onion bread, sourdough, Olive bread. We skipped the olive bread as Gracie doesn't like olive and we shared a pc of sourdough, had 2 pcs of onion bread and a pretzel each. Sourdough is cold and hard and I din like it, Onion bread is magnificent! Well caramelized onions on top of soft fluffy bread, the sweet onions balanced the saltish bread quite well, however could be better if its warm. 

American Blue Crab and Shrimp "Louis" Spicy Tomato-Horseradish

Appetizer was great, they kindly split the portion into 2 plates for us so we din have to struggle with sharing. Crab and prawns were fresh and juicy sweet and went well with the sauces and cherry tomato, but I find the Mayonnaise-like sauce to be abit too thick. Overall it's an enjoyable appetizer but I can't help but compare with the heavenly colossal crab lumps from Wooloomooloo. 

Sea salt and Mustard Selection

Bearnaise and House Steak Sauce

Wild Field Mushroom

There's 4 kinds of mustards plus the 2 sauces that came with the steak, and my favorite is the sea salt. Hahaha! Mushroom is very well flavored and went perfectly well with the humongous steak. The steak was beautifully done, Australian Angus, 300+ Days grain fed, Rangers Valley, Aged 35 days. It seem to coated with some spices, nicely charred and made its entrance on a sizzling hot plate. The server cut and portioned it for us and we each ended up with 3 big pcs of Sirloin and 2 pcs of fillet mignon. 

Sirloin was wonderfully done, the char on the outside gave it more flavour and the meat was flavorful due to the 35 days aging process, juices were well sealed and its an enjoyment to chew chew and chew and experiment with the different sauces provided. Mignon has a softer, more gentle texture and the same great taste, this really is meat with soul and depth.

The portions are quite huge and would recommend 3 person for comfortable sharing, towards the end we both need to struggle through the meat as its getting cold and harder. But having said so, we still polished off the meat in the end.

Porterhouse 990g Bone-in (for 2 pax)

Portion for one: Fillet Mignon (left), Sirloin (right)

Medium done Sirloin

Baked Alaska

Raspberry Ice cream centre 

We were contemplating on desserts as we were already filled with meat but Gracie saw the Baked Alaska on the dessert menu and we decided we got room for dessert afterall. End up, its a good move as the sourness of the raspberry helped to get rid of the gelat feeling after meat overdose. The egg white portion of the baked alaska was firm with a crisp outer skin and taste abit like marshmallow, its not overly sweet and went well with the sourish raspberry ice-cream

With food and dessert this good, we certainly went home happily rubbing our happy tummies. Total damage of our dinner is slightly less than $300, which in my opinion, money well spent on my BFF.

CUT

Marina Bay Sands
B1-71 Galleria Level
Next to the theaters
Tel: 66888517
Website: http://www.marinabaysands.com/singapore-restaurants/celebrity-chefs/cut/