Andre

When you spend $1k on a meal, you kind of hope that it’s going to be life-changing. Trust me. I wanted to rave about Andre here. I wanted to say it was worth every penny and that you should hurry up and go check it out. Unfortunately, I can’t.

The food at Andre was mediocre. The price tag was not worth it. For all the hype, all it came across was trying too hard. The whole octaphilosophy thing felt gimmicky and no, I don’t buy the whole “we only serve bio-dynamic wines” crap either.

The only redeeming factor that night was the service. And the excellent company I had, of course – B, the birthday (hardly) boy.

Ok let’s talk about the food. It’s a set dinner at $288++ per pax, comprising 8 courses (9 including dessert). From the website, each course is supposed to

“ attempt to discover through cuisine; the nature and significance of ordinary and scientific beliefs while investigating the simplicity of concepts by means of rational argument concerning their presumptions, implications, and interrelationships. The pure and unique hues of nature’s gifts from the land together with scientific research are juxtaposed alongside with the intuitions of the South, where primal aromas and texture evoke the endless trail of memories”

……. Erm...

Anyway, a quick run-down and some OMHO (only my humble opinion – new abbreviation I learnt!) comments

1. Pure - Gaspacho of Zucchini. This tasted like grass, very raw and no, I didn’t like it.

2. Salt - Oyster with Granny Smith Apple Foam. I liked how the apple gave a fresh sweetness to the oyster but the overall dish was not very exciting. Cute plating of tiny (2mm?) chopped apple cubes all over the plate – pity the poor kitchen hand tasked with plating.

3. Artisan - Charcoal Grilled Baby Sweet Corn. The corn was very fresh, sweet and nicely grilled. But no wow factor. Really? Grilled corn?

4. South - Salad of Fruit Tomato, Persimon, Cured Hirame, Chilled Risotto with Palamos Prawn, Mackerel, Red Snapper, Sea Bass. I am a big fan of seafood so this dish, I liked.

5. Texture - Squid Risotto with Cauliflower Puree(right). The wait staff put up a big show here, asking us to guess which component was the squid and which was the rice. The answer – no rice, the risotto was made of squid. Ok... that’s clever. But the dish just tastes normal, OMHO.

6. Unique - French Artichoke, Japanese Baby Barracuda Fish. Again, I love fish.

7. Memory - Warm Foie Gras Jelly, black Trufle Coulis (left). Now THIS was probably the only dish that impressed me that night. As you may know, I don’t like eating foie gras. Ethical issues aside, I am not too big a fan of liver in general. But this dish rocked. It tasted was foie gras infused custard – texture was lovely, loved the scent of truffle – superb. I wanted more.

8. Terroir - Wild Duck, Tarragon and Onion Puree (right). This last dish wiped out all the goodwill from the foie gras jelly. Eeiks – the duck was a tad dry and tough, come on, this is unacceptable! I didn’t finish this.

Dessert was chocolate degustation. I like chocolate. This was ok.

As mentioned, the bill for 2 came to about $1k, including a bottle off wine - Kastelberg Riesling Grand Cru 2007 Marc Kreydenweiss. We asked the sommelier for something that could go with the entire degustation and indeed, this choice was spot on. The Riesling went well with the predominantly seafood based dishes, whilst having enough structure to cut through the meats. Hmmm the $280++ bottle of wine could well be the most “value for money” item we had.

Most disappointing meal of the year! Liberty Private Works beats Andre hands down. For that matter, Buko Nero, Ember and so many other restaurants too.

Sauce

We really like Overeasy, and so when we heard that The Butter Factory (TBF) group had opened a new concept bar & grill at the Esplanade, we were psyched to check it out. Unfortunately, our experience fell flat. So much for expectations.

It’s supposed to be “a modern take on the traditional all-american backyard cookout, with a garden party atmosphere” but eeiks, fake grass is not cool! I didn’t like the outdoor area. The indoor area was a bit nicer, I liked the cutsey mini sofas and the bar was nicely done up. Service staff looked very young - enthusiastic (place was two thirds empty) but clearly inexperienced.

Ok, on to the food. First of all, the bar menu was the most uninspiring I have seen in a long time. The most interesting item might well be the luncheon meat chips but that can only take them so far. It was quite a letdown compared to Overeasy’s bar menu where I would be spoilt for choice on what to order.

We decided to order from the main menu, comprising various snacks and grill items, and a trio of sauces accompanying each item. I ordered the Classic Dog ($12) – chicken sausage in between two hotdog buns garnished with onions and pickles. The accompanying sauces were BBQ, chilli cheese and balsamic beans. The sauces weren’t too memorable but I was starving and the sausage was pretty tasty.

HS had the Rib Eye ($30) and he muttered, at first cut, “These guys don’t know what medium rare is”. Oops. The steak came with a trio of pickle & herb, mushroom orzo and rosemary roast sauce. HS barely touched the sauces so I’m not too sure how they tasted. I don’t think he really enjoyed his meal though.

There are some interesting sounding sauces such as coffee bourbon, flamed peppercorn, truffle spread and jalapeno tartar which you can order separately at an additional cost (cant remember how much - $2 - 3?) but we didn’t see the need to try these. Sorry for the lack of food pics but the lighting was dim and the pics on my lousy iPhone 3 were terrible.

Alcohol wise, I first ordered a glass of the house white wine – Xanadu Dragon Range unwooden chardonnay ($8 during happy hour) – it was bleh. Don’t order it. The Marrenon Chardonnay “Les Grains” 08 we ordered was a tad better and at $57 a bottle I can’t complain.

Hmm I know it’s early days yet but I cant help feeling disappointed. Let’s hope they buck up because if not, there’s really no reason for me to make a return visit.

Black Sheep Cafe

I wish I had taken K somewhere else for the celebratory dinner.

Food was just satisfactory and the service was really quite jialat (I'm sorry but the two indian waiters didn't seem to understand English). The only redeeming point was that the limited wine list (only 5 whites and 5 reds) was reasonably priced. Overall for a bill of $115 nett for 2 pax, I normally would not complain.

But wait. This was the highly raved about place I tried to book 3 weekends in a row and failed to get a reservation. Sheesh, we went all the way out for this? Pardon me, but it was a waste of my time.

The baked brie cheese appetizer was nice but it was salty and it took them 20 minutes to get us serving of bread. By that time we had already finished the cheese out of sheer hunger, but we gobbled the bread down anyway. We then asked for 2 more servings of bread to while the next 30 minutes away before our mains came.

Duck confit was sheer disappointment. It was dry and unflavored. The crispy pork cheeks K ordered was a tad better but it was very fatty, sigh, so much for my long gym session in the afternoon. I wanted to try the souffle but it was sold out when I ordered it at 7.30pm (?!!).

Oh well, it wouldn't have been worth the calories anyway.