Mezza9 Singapore Grand Hyatt Hotel Singapore

Today is the 21st of December 2012 and thank God we are all still here :).  Let's wish we will have a world full of peace, awareness, conscience to do the right things and kindness for all mankind.

This is a very short post.  However, I think this dish deserves a special mention.  The food at the Mezza9 is generally very good.  The quality, taste and freshness of the produce is consistent and excellent.    Their "must-try" is their lamb chops.

It is superb!  Tender and juicy with just the right amount of seasoning.  I requested for medium and it was perfect.  I love lamb and I usually order lamb almost everywhere I go.  Hence, if you are heading down to Mezza9, try the lamb.  Hope it will be as consistent and delicious as usual.  You can also order side dishes to go with it.  I had mine with saute wild mushrooms and mashed potatoes.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

CUT by Wolfgang Puck (Singapore)

Celebrating a very good friends' milestone birthday, we headed to CUT at Marina Bay Sands.  This Austrian celebrity chef opened the restaurant Spago on the Sunset Strip in the US in 1982. Fifteen years later, in 1997, Puck opened the award-winning Spago in Beverly Hills, which has been recognized as one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. since 2004.

We got there for our 7.30pm dinner and was seated promptly as we had a reservation.  The ambience of the place was great. It is a fine dining restaurant but not one of those too quiet where you can hear a pin drop.  Everyone around seems to be having a great time without being too noisy or intrusive.

We were given the menu and they showed us the various cuts on the trolley that's available for the day.  We decided to order a few starters to share as we were quite afraid that we would be too full to finish our mains.

The cheese breadstick, which I think is parmesan was fabulous.

There were about five choices of bread.  I had the onion bread that was very good.  There's just the right hint of onion without tasting too "oniony" :)

The crabmeat salad was really good too.  It was light, tasty and refreshing and I think the presentation's great too.

We ordered a few starters that we think is different from any other restaurants that we had been to.   Why order the same stuff as what you can get at other places right? This is the veal tongue.  I know it does not sound appetising but we thought, heck why not.  It was tender and it was not slimy or sticky.  It tastes almost like meat but lighter.  The dressing that went with it was also very good.  Even my teenage daughter likes it.

The carpaccio- style raw scallops were excellent!  Light and the wonderfully tasty dressing with a touch of fish roe really enhances the flavour of the scallops.  I enjoyed this very much.

This is my Japanese wagyu sirloin.  It was delicious! We ordered sweetcorn, wild mushrooms and broccoli as our sides.  The meat was done just right although I find the seasoning just a tad salty but then again, that's relative as I do not take a lot of salt.  However, another friend said that it's just right for her.  The sweetcorn was good and if I am not wrong, there's a slight lime flavour to it.  The wild mushrooms was fabulous too.  The brocolli was ok and I feel it was just slightly overdone for brocolli.  Another one of us ordered the USDA filet mignon and it was an excellent choice as well.  She said it melts in her mouth and it was tender, succulent and fabulous.  We ordered three different sauce to go with our steaks as well.  I had a cream horseradish sauce, it was fab.

Since I am not really a dessert person, I ordered a scoop of sorbet for dessert.  I LOVE sorbets :P.  It is good but then again, a restaurant of this standard should not go wrong with sorbets.

The service staff who was serving our table was excellent.  He had been working in other fine steak restaurants before and so he knows what he is talking about.  He also has a great personality and a good sense of humour which is refreshing.  With bad service, even the fabulous food could not make up for the bad experience.  We had a lovely time with great food, fabulous company, wonderful service and the superb ambience  All in all, it was a fantastic birthday celebration with my JJCM kaki.  I would definitely visit them again.

Ratings:

Crabmeat Salad: 9.5/10
Veal Tongue: 9.5/10
Raw Scallops: 10/10
Japanese Wagyu Sirloin Steak: 9.5/10
Fillet Mignon: 9/10
Sides
Brocolli: 7/10
Sweetcorn: 8/10
Wild Mushrooms: 9/10

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Singapore
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore
Tel: +65 6688 8517

Garibaldi Italian Restaurant and Bar

I've always like this restaurant.  My friends and I decided to go there for lunch and I have not been here for quite a while.  It was Restaurant Week when we were there and they had a set menu.  As usual, the staff was very polite and service was good.  We were greeted and our orders were taken promptly.

The first course was a veal tongue salad.  One of my friends did not quite like it as he did not like the texture as he said it was slightly slimy.  My girlfriend and I thought taste wise it was ok but not outstanding.

For the main, I picked the Seafood Soup dish and my friends ordered the duck pasta dish.  One of them thought the pasta was fine while the other one said it was disappointing.  So I had a taste and I must say while it was not bad but it was not exceptional.  It could have been tastier but we all agreed that the texture of the pasta was good.

 

Fortunately, I ordered the Seafood Soup.  It looked good and tasted good.  It had just the right seasoning and the flavours are from the natural juices of the seafood.  With such dishes, it is best to season ligthtly to enhance the natural juices without overpowering the dish, which they did.  So I was rather happy with mine.  The only thing is that the toasts that came with it could be a tad crispier.

My two friends were very happy with their choice of dessert.  Actually, they mentioned it was their best course! Lol!  It was basically a chocolate cake but I could not remember it's fancy name.  It was super tasty without being too sweet.  Even I thought it was good...

I picked the white chocolate dessert.  The outer layer texture reminded me of jelly but once you cut into it, it is soft and creamy.  It's delicious and the fruit pieces in it cuts the richness of the dessert.  The pastry at the bottom adds the necessary crunchiness to this sweet delight.

I somehow feel that the food was not as good as the few previous times I was there.  Perhaps, they were full but I don't see that as a good reason.  Service is always good here.  The staff are helpful and friendly without being intrusive.  I will just go back there one more time to try their food again to confirm whether I should still include Garibaldi as one of my favourite restaurants...  but then again, who cares what I think.. :D

Veal tongue salad:  7/10
Duck pasta dish:  7/10
Seafood Soup: 8.5/10
Chocolate cake: 9/10
White chocolate dessert: 9/10

Service:  9/10

Garibaldi Italian Restaurant & Bar

36 Purvis Street #01-02
Singapore 188613
Tel: (65) 6837 1468 Fax: (65) 6337 3770
Email: garibaldi@garibaldi.com.sg

Prive

I have not been updating my blog for the past month as I had other priorities for the past month. 

When one of my friends suggested Prive one Friday evening, we thought it was a good idea.

The view

I had been there before for a friends' wedding cocktail and I think it's a nice chill out outdoor place with good view.  When we got there, it was full so we were lucky that we managed to get a table.

Full house on a Friday night

We placed our order and was told that it would take at least 30 minutes for the food to come.  Since it was going to take that long, the waitress asked if we would like to order some appetisers while waiting for the mains.  So we did.  To cut the story short, we still did not get our appetisers after 45 mins.  We asked the waitress and it then arrived about 10 minutes later.

I had forgotten to take the appetiser shots as we were really hungry. Very shortly after, my salmon was also served, so I started with my main course.  One grilled chicken arrived 5 minutes later, so we asked where's the other grilled chicken as we had ordered two of each.  They said it was coming.  About 25 minutes later, there were still no chicken.  We then called for the manager as we were about to finish our dinner while a friend of ours was just watching us as his chicken was nowhere in sight!  The manager came and apologised and told us that "their chef is rather moody" which we thought was a strange thing to say.  Anyway, eventually after about 10 more minutes, it finally arrived.

One of the appetisers but I didn't have any of this

The salmon was a safe bet.  It was well seasoned though I wished they had given a bit more vegetables.

Grilled Salmon

The grilled chicken was well cooked, taste- wise it was acceptable but not wow.

Grilled Chicken

 We then ordered two desserts to share just for taste.  The desserts were rather decent.

Prive is nice to go for sunset drinks and to chill out with friends.  However, it does get crowded over the weekends so service is not great.

I would prefer that all of us could have enjoyed our meal at the same time otherwise all of us should just have stayed at our own home and eat separately...

Grilled Salmon: 7.5/10
Grilled Chicken: 7/10
Desserts: 7.5/10

No. 2 Keppel Bay Vista
Marina At Keppel Bay
Singapore 098 382
Tel: +65 6776 0777