We noticed this place (#02-01 Raffles @ Holland Village, 118 Holland Ave, tel : +65 6694 3291) under renovation some weeks ago. It's opened by a veteran chef, a Otto Weibel who is former director of kitchens for Swissotel The Stamford Singapore and Fairmont Singapore for 26 years. While he probably doesn't do the cooking, the person that he has hired to run the show in the kitchen looks credible. Profile says Saint Pierre, Portico Prime and LaFite at Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur. So that all sounds like it's going to be good. Right?
We were prompted with freshly delivered oysters and we yielded. These were briny and delicious.
We had their burratina roquette salad which I felt was so understated by the menu which only mentions jamón Ibérico de Bellota, an ambiguous sounding balsamic buerre noisette and a non existent cherry tomato chutney. The latter's flavour I'm glad, was non existent because the salad had absolutely no need for it. The balsamic butter sauce, a.k.a. dressing for the salad was impressive. I'm honestly not sure what's in it, but I tasted something buttery, balsamic vinegar and honey. Nicely tossed and with the creamy burratina and jamón Ibérico, it was wow! I'd eat this again.
Expertly done barramundi to showcase the quality of the fish. Just salt and pepper. Crisp skin with a crunch paired with moist and tender meat. Just like how they did it at The Naked Finn.
Lighting was exceptional, so here's another angle of the fish.
Another frills free and well done item off their grill was their Junee Gold lamb rump. The meat was grainy, tender and lamb-y with respectably etched char markings on the surface. If you like lamb and don't mind a bit of their gaminess, this would be good.
Otto's Deli Fresh has a nicely done affogato. Almost as impressive as the one at Senso. One can taste the strength of the espresso underneath the creamy foam.
We gave their Valrhona hot chocolate a go because it looked interesting and a number of people were having it. It's not bad. There was some salt to bring out the flavours of the chocolate and the hazelnut but it's not as thick as I imagined for $9.50. So while this was much more complex, it didn't quite pack the punch of a hot chocolate at say...Starbucks.
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