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 Steakhouse - Revisit

The constant craving for their warm beef salad finally brought both of us back to "The Steakhouse", only to find out that they have changed their menu. Super sad but our beef craving got us staying to try out their new menu. Couple of hits and misses for their new dishes.

We order Walnut salad and Escargots as appetizers. Walnut salad was enjoyable, sweet cruchy walnuts with  big cubes of blue cheese poached pears. Salad was not overly sweet and has a nice fruitness to it with the vegetables. 

Walnut salad with poached pear and blue cheese

Escargots are served with nicely toasted bread, the garlic butter sauce for the escargot is amazing, and its a good idea providing bread sticks to soak up all the goodness on that plate. However, the escargots' taste are abit lacking and could do with more flavour in it. Bread is nicely toasted, crisp on the outer, warm and fluffy in the inside. Gracie commented that they should provide 6 bread instead of 5 cos there's half a dozen escargots.

We ordered Angus Beef tagliatelle pasta in cream sauce and truffle oil and Australian Wagyu ribeye 200g (Grade 8-9). Pasta's texture is more like handmade pasta compared to those dried one in supermarket, so it soaks up the creamy sauce better than regular pasta. Sauce is wonderful, not overly creamy and we finished up the whole plateful including the sauce! Beef is enjoyable as well, lean but not tough and slightly juicy. 

Beef tagliatelle pasta in cream sauce and truffle oil

We added a piece of foie gras for ~$16 and also mac and cheese as side, mushroom sauce and herb butter as accompanying sauce. Wagyu steak is quite disappointing, its not lousy but its definitely not as blissful as the one we had when we first visited. Steak does not have the distinctive wagyu fragrance, although its nicely done at medium rare and quite juicy. It just din quite make it. Halfway through the steak, we started to feel that its too oily and had some difficulties finishing it. The foie gras saved the day! Pan fried and crispy charred and saltish on the outside, melts and fills your mouth with its fragance... HMMMmmmm... 

Wagyu ribeye with foie gras

Mac and cheese is a total waste of time, calories and money. Strongly urge you not to order it, its nothing like the pasta we had earlier, my mum can make better mac and cheese and my mum can't cook pasta. Herb butter is also different from our previous visit, we almost didn't touch it.

Overall, we had mixed feelings about their new menu, service is also abit slow. There's another tall male server we felt was abit sloppy in his service but thankfully, we had a nice friendly server attending to us. Average spending is about $100/pax, with the more expensive new menu and slightly disappointing beef, there's only a slim slim slim chance that we will be back. 

The Steakhouse

3B River Valley Road

#01-14 The Foundry

Clarke Quay

Tel: 63321010