My friends and I have been wanting to come here for some time as it is highly recommended by one of our other friends, but we just have not had a chance to gather people to come and dine here.
So when we finally did, we were very excited to check the place out. It is a private kitchen, kind of like a speakeasy during the prohibition era. i suppose it is part of the allure; an establishment in the middle of a nondescript office building, with no sign pointing to the existence of the place.
Anyway we sat down and ordered a few bottles of wines & champagne to go with the meal. As the menu is an 8 course tasting menu, the Maitre D' suggested a 3 bottle progressive pairing with the menu, starting with champagne, white & red wine, each of which would be paired with different courses.
Then the dinner began, and we started with an amuse bouche, in the form of balik salmon & duck rilette, simple but good & enough to whet your appetite.
First course was their version of a salade nicoise, with lobster instead of seared tuna. Again, simple but very fresh, with the lobster as the star ingredient taking a centre stage.
Second course was a seared scallop with a hazelnut crust on curried cauliflower puree; the combination was noble & scallop was perfectly cooked but we thought the curry was a little overwhelming on the puree.
Third course was seared foie gras & sea urchin on sea urchin sabayon. All of us thought that this was a very decadent and the combination was great between the foie gras, sea urchin & the creamy sabayon.
Fourth was baked oyster with morcilla & shallots. I think this is a daring dish not for the fainthearted, as a lot of people are squeamish about morcilla (Spanish blood sausage). But, it was well executed, nonetheless, with the flavour of the oyster married well with that of the blood sausage, complemented by the sweetness of the shallots.
Fifth was vichyssoise with caviar, this was a classic cold leek & potato soup, that was cooked well, with pronounced sweet flavours of the leek & potato and only enhanced by the saltiness of the caviar which also added texture.
Sixth was risotto of bone marrow with ox tongue & fava beans. Everyone agreed that this was the best dish so far. The risotto was perfectly cooked with still a slight bite to it, the flavours of the bone marrow was very pronounced with the ox tongue gave more beefiness and the fava beans provided sweetness.
Main course was slow cooked angus beef in its own broth with celeriac and horseradish cream. This was also something simple but well executed with different flavours complementing each other and different textures giving different sensations.
Dessert was a classic grand marnier souffle, again very delicious and well done.
The wine pairing was successful, all of us like the wine selections, and the service was discreet but attentive.
It was obvious that they paid a lot of attention to details, from the cutlery they use, the china they serve the food in, and the different noble ingredients that they use and transform into wonderful dishes.
We will definitely come back!
PS. all of us were too excited everytime the food arrived, so much so that we forgot to take food photos. So my apologies for not posting any pictures.