Singapore Restaurants, Singapore Food: Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine and Caviar Bar

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine and Caviar Bar

Decided to give this new restaurant a try. My friend was saying that Russian food may be lousy but I thought, why not check it out.

one of the levels in Buyan

It is located in a shophouse in Duxton. When I got there, there was no one at all to "greet" me at the sort of reception area. It was totally empty. Luckily, my friend had said that he's on the 3rd floor as I made my way up on my own with no staff in sight. Only upon reaching the landing of the 3rd floor, I "located" a staff.

I was given the menu as soon as I was seated. With iPad as menu and you can click beside the text to show the image of the food you are ordering. There's 2 different menus, casual dining and fine dining.

They recommended me an appetiser from their fine dining menu as I couldn't make up my mind. When it came, I think my Crabmeat Salad ($45) was superb! It was fresh, tasty, slightly crunchy and such a delight to the palate. My friend ordered the Herring and Potato appetiser ($10) and it was excellent as well. It was simple but very well done. The herring was fresh, the potatoes were warm and it was good. We were very happy with the appetisers that we decided to share another appetiser. Since the Russians are known for caviar, we decided to go that way. It comes with all the usual condiments and I enjoyed that very much too as I like caviar.

Shashlik

My friend ordered the Shashlik and I ordered the Beef Stroganoff as we feel we should order their classic dishes as our mains. The Shashlik was decent though I was expecting something outstanding after our appetisers. The portions were decent and it's reasonably tasty. My Beef Stroganoff was delicious but I find the sauce too rich and therefore I was not able to finish it.

We decided to move downstairs to have our dessert. The baked apple dessert was interesting and very different. I've never seen this technique before. The apple is still crunchy on the inside and it is crispy on the outside. I will order this for myself the next time. The berry dessert, ( I can't really remember the names of both desserts) is something light. The pink liquid is sort of half drink, half jelly consistency plus the berries. It is refreshing and just what I needed on a hot day though I won't really call it dessert.

I will visit Buyan again to try out other dishes and definitely will order the Crabmeat Salad again :) I was also told that they serve 50 types of premium vodka in their vodka bar (apparently some not available elsewhere) on the ground level. So, I guess would be good for those of you who are vodka lovers...