The Cellar Door, Bukit Timah

We came upon this place (619 Bukit Timah Road S269720, tel:64635296) by happenstance while in the vicinity looking for lunch. Originally, we wanted  to check out Karma Kettle and Rhapsody or the recently opened gourmet burger outlet Relish down in Cluny Court. Didn't feel like the former location and the latter was fully occupied; didn't feel like waiting either. Just past Culina, I noticed the Cellar Door and it wasn't until I had entered and sat down that I remembered that Bottomless Pit had made mention of this place before about their burger. A don't particularly remember seeing a burger on the menu, but there was a lamb burger that was listed under their Specials on the board. That alone was good enough to pique my interest. Happenstance decided that I would have my burger after all.


I kinda liked the place form the start. Interior was cosy and armed with a crew of polite staff that apart from being a friendly, actually knew enough of the menu to answer questions on about their food. The small space and knowledgeable wait staff reminded of Wine Garage. Along with the bottles of wines that line the wall. We went with a cheese board. Speaking of cheeses, the portions here were generous and a bit more exotic than what we were used to. This will probably be my first and last encounter with Iron Gate. Lol.

cheese board ($28)

The selection of the day featured a few cheeses which I've never heard of. Feeling adventurous, we picked five of the stronger sounding options out of six. The platter was served with with dried apricots, black seedless grapes, some walnuts, rice or wheat crackers. There was also some Rutherford & Meyer quince paste and Kato roasted peach chutney. The peach chutney had an unexpected ginger flavour. On the whole, the cheeses were enjoyable apart from the Te Mata Iron Gate which was the one with shrivelled looking sides beside the walnuts. The pungence of could almost be described as out of this world. Here I had thought myself capable of meeting almost any challenge of the fromage kind. Notable mention goes to the Awa Blue which was different from other blue cheeses I've had. This was infused with a spicy and heady aroma of an almost ethereal quality. Swirled up from the tongue into the nose and I was more than a little surprised at spicy blue cheese. I'm pretty sure I'll be remembering this one.

lamb burger ($19)

"one all lamb special seasoning no lettuce no cheese cucumber relish tomatoes in a buttered and toasted super sesame seed bun!"

I have good things to say about this lamb burger. One of the better burgers that I've had around. The texture of the heavyweight patty was uncannily similar to the Ultimate Beef Burger from Marmalade Pantry with two main differences. This was lamb and that the taste of the marinade was Middle Eastern-ish. Which kinda made it unique. Topped on the juicy lamb patty was a cucumber relish which added a lightness to the lamb flavour of the lamb. Lamb patty was enclosed in a buttered and toasted bun that was absolutely studded with sesame seeds. Had a nice sesame aroma. The crinkle cut fries had a nice salty seasoning. Not over fried as well. Definitely wouldn't mind returning for this again.

turkey and cranberry pie ($19)

The turkey and cranberry pie was something also on the specials. Haven't made it a habit to order pies unless it is recommended. Most of them I've had were just filled root vegetables soaked in a unidentifiable yet generic starchy gravy which I'm not a fan of. The exceptions were the chicken pies from M Hotel (a great chunky chicken filled potato-less pie here!!) and Don's Pies. This one was pretty decent pie filled with chunky pieces of turkey and some carrots without potatoes; swimming in a hot and light creamy sauce with cranberry flavour. We were told the pies rotate through the weeks. Each order was a 20 minute wait as they were made to order.

green apple sorbet ($3)

The green apple sorbet didn't taste as refreshing as I was hoping. They were are the slick and sweet. Too sweet for my liking.

Deep dish egg tarts from Sun Moulin

Sun Moulin (350 Orchard Road, Isetan Scotts Basement, tel : 67341915) makes these cute deep dish egg tarts ($1.80 e.a.) which are a different from the regular ones. For a start, they are deep dished which makes them taller. The crust which held the egg custard was akin to biscuit ones which more textually more cake-like and also crumbly in comparison to the more common pastry variety. I'm guessing that the reason for that might be to house the extra volume of egg custard which the pastry shells might not be able to hold. The fillings didn't taste as eggy in comparison to the Portugese renditions or from the ones at Tong Heng. I thought that these were quite enjoyable. Do remember to remove the plastic sheets on top of the fillings before you eat.

Trattoria Lafiandra Al Museo, Singapore Art Museum

This place didn't not serve warm water. It didn't not serve iced water. It also did not provide bread at dinner. One of the wait staff didn't like the Italian beer in this restaurant that he recommended against it for Tiger instead. The price of beer for some reasons wasn't not on the menu so if you need to know, it's $14.50 for that Tiger. And apparently, the waiters opened up bottled water so quickly that you didn't even have the time to mouth the words 'Panna' or 'Pelligrino' before they chose it for you. Now that I've gotten those out of the way, I have to admit to being quite disappointed with the recently opened outlet of Trattoria Lafiandra (71 Bras Basah Road, #01-02 Singapore Art Museum, tel:68844035) down at the Art Museum. Personal preferences aside (I thought the pastas are pretty uninteresting), the food was unexceptional. I hadn't intended to order pizza for dinner, but ended up eating mostly that because nothing else looked particularly appealing to me.

The starter of the buffalo mozzarella and parma ham ($25) was passable. I felt that those was more nicely done at Stiff Chilli which used rockets instead of lettuce which was hidden underneath the cheese. What I felt about the pizzas was that their toppings needed work. The word that came to mind was threadbare. Their pizza con porcini had so little porcinis. A slice of mushroom pizza from Da Paolo Gastronomia had more mushrooms than the whole pie here. I shit you not. The diavola was quite ordinary featuring salami that was mildly spicy, prosciutto e fungi ordinary with pathetic portions of ham and I couldn't really get into their prosciutto crudo which was recommended. I had the feeling that everyone was expecting to see some rucola on top of the pizza but it wasn't the case. Despite the fact that all of the pizzas featured thin crust, they were pretty tough to cut (some were not portioned and some were which made me wonder why) and not crisp to boot.

prosciutto di parma con mozzarella di bufala

pizza diavola

prosciutto e funghi

pizza con prosciutto crudo

ossobuco

There was some sharing going on and I managed to try some of what was going around. The ossobuco was an odd curiosity, appearing like a stumpy phallic tower of undulating sedimentary build up of something that looked like chai por (Chinese pickled radish). The meat was very tender. Very. At certain points, I wasn't sure if I was chewing on the meat or the mash on top of it. This bone definitely didn't have the marrow which I was hoping for. The saffron risotto tasted fine and did have the saffron flavour.

Their recommended seafood soup turned out to be quite unpleasant. Not trying at all to pick on the food unnecessarily, but the smell was weird and rather off putting. It arrived with a generous portion of seafood which included clams, mussels, squid and prawn. Ingredients did not taste fresh. One seafood soup and eight people at the table, it was left mostly unfinished. I think you get the point.


This salad looking thing covered in rocket is actually a sliced ribeye steak and is probably the most tasteless ribeye I've ever tasted. In fact, it might have been a very bland cut of tenderloin since the meat was rather soft, but I wouldn't know better since I only had a bite and the menu did say ribeye. If anyone should consider their iced lemon tea in Lafiandra for $3.50, consider yourselves informed of what you are getting. This one's for you Pet, if you're reading.

Having been in operation for some time previously at Princep and also now with the capability to be in the business in the Art Museum, I had thought better of Trattoria Lafiandra. Pretty sure I can take this place out of my list now since I'm never returning after this today.

More from Ma Maison

Here's a mentaiko spaghetti tossed with onions, mushrooms and some prawn topped with nori strips from Ma Maison (#03-96 Central, 6 Eu Tong Seng Street, tel: 6327-8122). What I like about it was the blend flavour from the mentaiko and seaweed. Gotta love that smoky edge that they gave to the pasta. If anyone has any good mentaiko pasta to recommend, please let me know.

This was fried Camembert cheese. Had an unexpectedly light crispy batter. Cheese was soft and gooey inside. Liked it much better than I had thought. The sauce on the side was lemon honey with a sprinkle of coarse grain pepper. Works with the cheese but they were also good on their own.

The beef stroganoff ranks somewhere on the top my list of comfort food. The scrambled eggs over the buttered rice was so good. Don't know if it's anything close to original Russian versions, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a Japanese interpretation of the dish.

Sho-U, Central

This place at Central (The Central, #03-85 /102/108/109, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, S059817, tel:65348066) sold itself a contemporary Japanese fine dining. While I agree with the contemporary description, I didn't think it was fine dining unless they were referring to the minute portions that were served. The minimalist decor of the interior from the plush red entrance led into two separate dining areas which were in black and white. The visual style had impact and a positive side to this place was the attentive service from the friendly wait staff. I didn't think so well of the food, especially when this place was pricey.


I admit that a number of the items from the menu did sound appealing; which was what prompted me to give them a go. The actual delivery however didn't leave a similar impression.

Mame soup ($8)

Tried mame soup which was described to be a creamy soup made from edamame. I thought that it might be something akin to chilled green pea soup. The actual soup wasn't quite like what I had in mind. Spart from being cloudy green, I wouldn't attribute the word 'cream' to the taste or consistency. At all. It tasted like a shio broth with only a slight hint of edamame. 

This was something that one can actually finish in 2-3 big mouthfuls. The photo doesn't but the bowl was actually thick and shallow.

Uni avocado tempura ($20)

As intriguing as it appeared on the menu, the uni avocado tempura didn't quite do it for me. Granted, it was sea urchin and avocado encased in a light batter and lightly fried as well, the dish arrived lukewarm. Both the uni and avocado actually turned up pretty dry. The green powder on the side as informed by the server was green tea salt. I couldn't really taste any of it. The tempura came in 3 bite size pieces and there's probably enough uni to make just one good uni sushi in there.

Ika onsen tempura ($12)

This squid tempura filled with egg was probably the best thing that was served. The server had said that they eggs were half boiled so I was thinking that they would be still somewhat runny, but the yolks were actually almost solid. Despite that, these were quite tasty, if pricey.

Foie gras brown rice in stone pot ($22)

tossed

The foie gras brown rice was pretty tasty, but for $22, I would pick on the foie gras being thin and in small pieces. What's more, they were overcooked. So it we didn't get any with creamy insides that dissolved in your mouth. Brown rice was pretty fragrant and came with some brown sauce which was poured into the stone bowl of rice and tossed before eating. The portion was enough to fill up two small bowls.

No doubt that effort has been put into the dishes in Sho-U and that the quality of the dishes are far from mediocre, but for the prices and pathetic portions, I will not be returning. I didn't even feel like dessert after the insubstantial food.

Fisherman's Wharf, New Bridge Road

Last dinner for the year of 2007 came in the form of (North Alantic) cod and chips down at Fisherman's Wharf (27 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 6532 6468). Been quite a while since the last time we were here. Things haven't changed much - just a wider selection of fishes. I don't remember so much from the last time though the cod today was a little dry. Still enjoyable though. It was still a viable option compared to the breaded variety which seems to be everywhere.

Having tried the Halibut and the snow fish, the conclusion I drew were that they were only different in texture. I think. I'm not good at telling. What I didn't see coming were their mashed peas which were surprisingly very dry, nutty and enjoyable.

Happy New Year!