Bacchanalia, Coleman St

{ Bread with balsamic / olive oil and sundried tomato cream cheese }

{ Lentil & Burrata Salad }

Le puy lentils, burrata, aged balsamic

{ Cauliflower Gratin }

Deep fried cauliflower florets, white truffle essence & cheese foam, gremolata

{ Chicken & Corn }

Chicken breast, charred greens, chilli fluid gel, puffed rice cakes, corn sauce

{ 48 HR Pork Belly }

Crispy pork belly, braised red cabbage, granny smith apple, giant capers

{ Creme brulee }

Tahitian vanilla, grapefruit

{ White Chocolate Panna Cotta }

White chocolate & mint panna cotta, strawberry jam

Mountbatten Room, British Club

I've been craving Beef Wellington off and on for a lonnggg time since I first saw it on Hell's Kitchen (Gordon Ramsey makes a mean wellington) and the one attempt we did was a little less than successful. The British Club is one of the few places (if not only) in Singapore which serves this hard-to-make dish, and even if you're not a member (or not even British) the restaurant is open  to you so long as you call to make a reservation.

 Located up Bukit Tinggi just off Dunearn Road, a car is pretty much required, else you cab up and down. Salivating at all the multi-million dollar mansions on the ride up is a good way to work up an appetite.

There's also a dress code: so no jeans, collarless shirts or flip flops! The poshness of the place clearly warrants said dress code. Seating space was fairly large and we were but the fourth table to be seated that evening - quiet lovely place with a nice view of the foresty swimming pool.

{ Amuse Bouche }

Asparagus cheese pastry with marinated salmon

 We weren't too hyped about the appetizers so we settled for two mains, a side of baby spinach and a dessert to share. Shortly after ordering, we were served an amuse bouche - light, salty and sweet sweet salmon. A little thimble of minty watermelon to cleanse it after.

{ Bread basket }

 Our attentive waiter soon came along with a basket of bread. We were pleased with the selection, which included dense and crunchy breadsticks and some kind of sesame bread-crisps. It took some effort on our parts not to stuff our faces silly with these. So moreish! The olive-sundried tomato paste was a great complement.

{ Green Peas and Mint Risotto ($28) }

fennel, parmesan cheese, vermouth and basil pesto

 Wasn't really up for a meat-heavy dish, so I settled for this vegetarian risotto and was not disappointed! The hint of mint gives an interesting twang along with the slight depth of the herbs and cheese. Fennel was crunchy and went nicely with the nicely cooked risotto and soft peas. I really liked this - to me this is a good illustration of tasty, wholesome 'rabbit' food :P

{ Beef Wellington ($48) }

goose liver, mushroom duxelles, seasonal vegetables, and Madeira veal jus

 Voila ... what I've been waiting for. After a generous dollop of unadulterated Colman's english mustard and a light dash of pepper from Ye Old Giant Pepper Grinder, the aroma from the veal jus started to become apparent. Strong, winey, rich and buttery, it's an amazing pairing with beef. And just look at that golden glaze on the pastry! Cross section time (pardon the overexposed photo, not the best lighting for photos).

 Lovely, lovely pink on the beef, generous duxelle over the top and bottom, and just a little more beef juice oozing out as you knife through it. Beef ultra soft and tender, and the combination of the crispy pastry, decadent foie gras / mushroom duxelle, Colman's mustard and not forgetting the rich jus is just ... ooOOO!

My only gripe was that the bottom of the pastry was not well cooked (still doughy) but I'm not sure if it's intended to be that way. I figured it'll be thick so the liquid from the beef and duxelle won't flow out and make the pastry soggy (like ours did), and also because it's at the bottom so might be harder to cook in the oven. Anyways, I finished everything. Oh. My. Dayum.

 We had a bit of a show to end our very lovely meal that night. A trolley was wheeled to about a metre from our table, and our waiter started preparing our dessert of crepe suzette.

{ Crepe Suzette with Orange Liqueur ($16) }

vanilla bean ice cream

 It was really interesting to watch how this was made - the flambe-ing was quite impressive (which is probably why they do it at some distance away from your table). I really do think that seeing how your food is made/assembled gives you better appreciation of not just how it looks, but how it tastes. And this looked and tasted pretty damn good! It's amazing how the sauce was reduced to such a thick, rich, sweet gloop from a whole lot of fresh orange juice and orange liqueur. If there is ever an orange heaven, it was in our mouths lol. Oh, and the vanilla bean ice cream just pairs so perfectly with the sweet crepes. You should have seen how we scraped at the plate to finish this.

 Holy ... that little bow tie of orange crepe sure tastes SO MUCH better than I expected. The combination of butter, caramelized sugar, orange juice and orange liqueur flambé-d gave birth to this thick orange goop of pure joy. Sweet jesus.

 The Mountbatten Room is one of those places where I kinda wish people wouldn't find out about so that it remains our little secret-4-paws-rating restaurant.. but it's too good not to share! Food was great, service was immaculate. So there you have it folks. The British Club is where it's at.

Mountbatten Room @ The British Club

73 Bukit Tinggi Road (all the way up!)

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Main website : http://www.britishclub.org.sg/dining/mountbatten
HGW Link (100% recommended at time of posting [not sure if same place] - http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/the_mountbatten_room/
Rating (out of 4) : 

Makarios Cafe & Bar, National Library

 Squirreled away on the 3rd floor of the National Library building are two venues I never knew existed as part of the library - the Drama Centre and this cafe/bar called Makarios (somehow assumed it was just levels and sections of books and stuff).

 I bought the $20 for $40 voucher nearly 3 months ago - the cafe was new and no reviews were available, but hey good location (near Bugis, I thought) and the menu seemed pretty good! And it was a good value for money. Unfortunately we were a little miffed that when I first called, they said they pretty much don't open for dinner unless there were shows on  - and there were none for the whole of July and probably August. Thankfully they were open for weekend lunches, so we had to wait a fair bit before we found the time to finally come here (had to call in advance).

 First thing that struck us was how quiet the place was. Ok granted, this is in the middle of a library building.. the few other diners around when we got there seemed to be speaking in hushed whispers. We felt extremely self conscious of every sound we made - the clicking of the camera didn't seem to help the atmosphere!

 The floor-to-ceiling windows provide really nice natural light. It's really lovely for reading.

 Quite a few people were having coffee while working on their laptops or iPads. It's actually a really nice and quiet place to have a meal - by yourself even - with a book, which we saw some doing.

 We had our much needed caffeine fix to start. Each coffee comes with a speculoos cookie. My latte was good, although I could have used more bitterness/depth.

 Black coffee was just alright - just needed that sweet sweet caffeine.

{ Moussaka ($14.90) }

 Didn't really hesitate in ordering the moussaka, and was pretty glad with my choice! This came out hot and bubbling, and smelled amazing!

 Cheeeesy, and just the right amount too. The minced lamb was soft and un-gamey, and the eggplants so soft and spongey - soaking all the lovely herbed flavours. This was a hearty and filling dish even after offering   many spoonfuls. Was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this :)

 Surprised by how tasty this was! Although it was on the salty side, it was done right - from the soft well-cooked eggplant to the rich lamb flavour and generous cheese.

{ Mixed Grilled Sausages ($18) }

 Huge sausages - chicken, pork and cheesy - and goddamn they were JUICY. While a little on the salty side (again) the sausages were really really tasty and bursting with yummy sausage juice, though I wish the skin was a little less chewy. Almost couldn't finish it from how voluminous the sausages were >.< Came with sauerkraut, ask for some mustard and you're good to go!

{ Profiteroles ($8.90) }

 We were actually semi-pressed to get dessert to make full use of our voucher value because we haven't quite spent enough yet. So at the recommendation of our waitress we ordered the profiteroles ( they only had profiteroles that day anyway). This was ok but not that great. Quite apparent that this was pre-prepared and chilled in some fridge, because the chocolate sauce looks like it has been solidified for some time, and choux pastry was cold and a bit too tough. Still, it was nice to end our meal on a sweet note.

 A couple of negative points were definite :-

1) They insisted that we call and literally make a reservation. I did call a day earlier but just to check that it was open and I could use the coupon, but did not put my name down and literally make a reservation. But I had a chat with the kind lady and she was ok with it. While it was inflexible it's definitely the fault of the management and not of the waiters.

2) Cash value is only redeemable for ala carte food items, not drinks and cannot be used for set meals. Kinda miffed again, and was not indicated anywhere on the coupon that this was so. Again I felt this was a management issue.

But overlooking all that, I genuinely thought the two dishes we had were great. Service was slow but we just wanted to take it easy on a lazy Saturday afternoon anyways. And when we left around 230pm the cafe was pretty full.

Makarios Cafe & Bar

National Library 3rd Floor (Drama Centre)

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Main website : http://makarios.com.sg/welcome-to-makarios/
HGW Link : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Makarios_Cafe___Bar/
Rating (out of 4) :