SKAI, Swissôtel The Stamford

SKAI (#70-01 Swissôtel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road, tel : +65 6837 3322) - Swissôtel describes it as a contemporary grill. One that is also accompanied with a view at City Hall, that by virtue of its location, encompasses the Marina Bay. We were here for lunch to celebrate a couple of occasions and decided to splurge.

Matcha Hiromeru - made with giffard ginger, nori green tea and tonic water. According to the menu. The nori green tea was just powder on the side of the glass. The drink was refreshingly tangy with something that reminded me of tamarind and just a little bit spicy from the ginger.

Apple Chizukeki's nice. Glenfiddich 12, Calvados, cheesecake foam, vanilla and something described as spiced cloudy apple milk punch. Foam's pretty creamy and smooth. I liked it.

The brioche here was so good. Each serving appeared to be fresh out of the oven. We had about five. Sweet and fluffy which paired harmoniously with that salted butter it came with.

That's the chicken liver and foie gras parfait. Never did I imagine that they'd be presented in the form of three gold flecked obsidian spheres.

There's suppose to be black truffle, sherry vinegar and Timut pepper from what the menu described. Pretty sure there's some other fruity stuff in there that's not mentioned. The sauce was tangy and umami at the same time. Timut pepper kinda reminded us of Sichuan peppercorn. It's that flavour which we associate with mala.

The chicken liver and foie gras parfait was as good as any we've had so that's that.

Their prime sirloin steak tartare that is suppose to contain gochujang. Couldn't taste gochujang. The seasoning was restrained to that point that we could actually taste the intrinsic flavour from beef and the meat was delicious. Flavour's nothing like the French tartare de boeuf. Portion was also kinda tiny.

Their crispy bread that came with the starters were salted so it's not the bland thin crusty stuff.

The bringing out of the more serious looking knives marked the start of the mains. Look at the pretty acid etching on them.

Black cod's superb. Meat was flaky and firm that you could scoop it out by layers. Creamy sauce had ikura, dill and capers and tasted like that. 👍🏼

Lamb was infused with enough cumin to remind us of 羊肉串儿 and mint to remind us that it wasn't 羊肉串儿. 😬 That romesco at the bottom tasted like a muhammara we once had.

Nice racks. Meat was tender, adequately spiced and yet still possessing the natural lamb-y flavour.

SKAI's Waldorf salad's pretty good. Properly tossed endive, apple and candied walnut with Tête de Moine.

This was creamed corn, not mac & cheese. Was a lot tastier than it looked. There was a bit of heat from togarashi and those black stripes were mushrooms. Don't know what kind but they've a nice flavour and a light toasty bitter that's seeped into the corn. 

We finished with Brillat-Savarin and coffee. Cheese was rich and creamy with earthiness from the rind - accompanied by cubes of Manuka honey, fig jam, chestnuts and I wonder why, a token sprinkle of buckwheat. That thick bitter coffee was just the pairing needed.