Fi53fty Three, Armenian Street

The "white" yoghurt and potato bread tasted quite ordinary. The surface was crusty while the insides were warm and soft.

The apple and rosemary was very agreeable. It was described as an apple risotto of minced apples cooked in its own juices topped with a rosemary flavoured foam. This dessert in my opinion had one of the better balanced application of rosemary I've had in any food. It tasted pretty good to me and reminded me more than a little of apple pies.


The dessert portions were rather substantial. It felt like the portions of a main here was certainly so for their pineapple with Chinese five spice, coconut and Brie. I'm not too sure how I still feel about this dessert. The flavours to me were decidedly oriental and yet not so because of the dill and cheese and coconut cream. And it didn't appear very dessert like because of the five spice infusion along with the bits of coriander which have no place in desserts. The pungent brie ice cream was interesting if unusual and I'm still wondering what made those crumbs grey. They tasted like cookie crumbs if anyone was wondering.

As novelty, I was held captivated for one serving.


After meal sweets were apple gums.


The wagyu beef cheek and alliums, asian pear and wood sorrel was apparently a signature and was pretty damn good. This was my first experience eating something that was sous vide. The wagyu beef cheek that had been cooked for 40 hours was very tender, retained texture and was very flavourful. It was accompanied by the robust beefy consommé that they poured upon serving along with blossoms of citrusy flavours from the wood sorrels and little balls of what tasted like Chinese pear and tiny onion bulbs.


There was also a cold starter of scallop and passionfruit, tea and herbs. The taste was fairly predictable. Predictable wasn't really a word I would think to associate with the food for a first time eating here.


Some of the items served here are pretty unusual. This was a spelt porridge with winter truffle. As much as I could smell the truffles, I couldn't find any in the porridge. The black disc in the middle tasted to me like a concentrated squid ink jelly. Brown crumbles over the top are suppose to be chestnuts but had the texture of minced fried garlic and the taste of neither chestnuts nor garlic. I did find the this starter very comforting and tasty though.


Their charcoal infused bread looked pretty interesting. It didn't taste different from regular bread.

This dish was called pork belly and red cabbage, lardo di Colonnata. The red smudges being red cabbage puree and for the lardo, I haven't a clue where. There were little blobs of translucent gel like things which bursted with the flavour of apple. The crackling of the pork belly was crispy while the fat and meat were tender. 

Bread was served in a warm clay pot and kept warm with some heated seeds. These bread were apparently described as yoghurt and potato bread and the black ones were infused with charcoal. Accompanying them was small stone bowl of what we were told is Danish butter with toasted barley and buckwheat.

We were served with an amuse bouche of some crackers on a black tile and a spoonful of carrot emulsion with walnut shavings. I do not remember what are these crackers made of, but they tasted like a crispy and airy keropok to me.

I couldn't identify the carrot emulsion or walnut shavings neither in terms of flavour. The former tasted creamy and the latter was like sawdust that dissolved in the mouth.

I've decided to let Blogger determine the sequence of this particular post as for some reason, I wasn't willing to rearrange the photos after uploading.

Fi53fty Three (53 Armenian Street, tel : +65 6334 5535) was carved out of a venture between Michael Han, an ex-lawyer that has as reportedly stinted at The Fat Duck and Les Amis. The restaurant is well past its second year in business and has been serving food that has at some point or another, been talked about because of the origins of the helm and their showcase of a fusion-ish modern European cooking that the kitchen produces. All with as much locally sourced ingredients as possible.

The salted Danish butter was creamy and served at a temperature where it was lightly chilled and very soft. Those toasted barley and buckwheat added aroma and texture to the usual butter and bread.

Enoteca L'Operetta, Boat Quay

This place (78 Boat Quay, tel : +65 6438 2482) fell in my radar because I had learnt that it was the first and only place locally that had achieved the Vera Pizza Napoletana certification from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. In plain speak, it meant that L'Operetta had gotten themselves a stamp of approval for making what's defined as proper wood fired pizza through the traditional and accepted method that Naples considers authentic.

What provoked thought was that in spite of the numerous Italian restaurants that have set up shop in this country, it was the Japanese (I'm still referring to L'Operetta here in case you got lost) that got this certification. Perhaps it might have been because the other Italian chefs think that the trouble was not worth the the results and that the locals probably will not know the difference in any case. Perhaps, perhaps....

Going against the usual grain (pun unintended) I've decided to start with what I felt to be the most enjoyable item which we had instead of the usual starter to end. The Mantecato al Minuto nella Forma di Parmigiano was a parmigiano reggiano risotto made a la minute. The grains of rice were coated with the rich flavours of the creamy and salty cheese and this was probably the first of risottos which I've had that left me pondering on seconds. That I did not have.

The pizzas were not mind blowing in any way. In fact, it was all was quite ordinary if nicely done. The tomatoes tasted fresh but their mozzarella didn't taste like it was different from the ordinary. The crust was a little more chewy than I had expected. Maybe I'm not missing that much out from Naples after all. Their Gorgonzola e miele turned out to be another bummer. The aroma was surprisingly good when the pizza was served. The toppings - a mixture of Gorgonzola and mozzarella and wasn't even half as satisfying as the one in Benten Cafe. The spread of the cheeses were poor and the stingy drizzles of honey were just sweet without the associated aromas.

L'Operetta's signature starter is apparently an oven baked Hokkaido scallop which was described to be flavoured by aromatized butter. Not that I could taste anything that I could have even remotely associate with butter. The cheese blanketed shellfish was cooked medium rare and was pretty juicy. Still I didn't feel I was impressed. The accompanying mushrooms stood out more.

Lucky Wanton Noodle, Tanjong Pagar

It's been a number of years since I've last stepped into this hawker centre. Was a little overwhelmed over by options. The original intention for this out of the way lunch trip was to try a recommended nasi lemak but the said stall was closed. I ended up giving Lucky Wanton Noodles (Blk 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, #02-33) a try. Ordered a plate of their sui kao noodles with additional char siew. 

I liked it. They noodles weren't as chewy as I preferred but the mix of dark soy sauce, chilli sauce and pickled green chilli went some ways with the flavours and that helped. The char siew wasn't fantastic by any stretch. Tasted very old school to me. Much like how many char siew from wanton noodles stalls tasted when i was a kid. It was a pleasant kind of familiarity there. The dumplings were however pretty good. Pink minced pork, crunchy shrimps and bits of water chestnut.

Beef tendon soup noodles from Noodle Place Restaurant

This could possibly be my favourite noodles in the vicinity for a while. That being said, the beef tendon noodles wasn't exactly mind blowing-ly fantastic. I rank the noodles here second place versus the ones down at Canton-i. The beef tendons were just beef tendons. Pretty tender. While they were nothing out of the ordinary, I liked them so. Something uncomplicated and comforting in the moments I need uncomplicated. I couldn't deny that their brand of soup mixed with a little beef broth helped sway me towards enjoying this.

Roadhouse, Dempsey Road

Roadhouse (13 Dempsey Road, #01-07, tel : +65 6476 2922) it seems is another venture by the Privé Group that's mushroomed out at Dempsey. The characteristic element of Roadhouse as with the current profile of Privé seems to be food powered by the Josper Grill. We dropped by over the week end without reservations and managed to get seats.

To be honest, we were a little spoilt for choice because quite a number of items on the menu sounded like they might be good. We ended up with their Shrimps in a Blanket which was basically bacon wrapped prawns roasted in the oven with a coat of maple syrup. Yeap, those were a little too large for me to call them shrimps. Large and succulent prawns they were, flavored by the smokiness of the bacon and sweetened by maple syrup. I would come back just for these again.

The Roadhouse Ultimate Breakfast was ultimately a disappointment. The portions were hardly what one could consider hearty and the hash browns were the frozen variety that one could have bought anywhere. The poached eggs did look unusual and the butter they had provided for the toast was tasty, but on hindsight, I should have saved myself the $22 and spent it on something else.

Coming from the flaming depths of their Josper Grill, was the Juicy Lucy. Basically a cheese burger with more cheese stuffed in the wagyu patty. While it looked ordinary, this was really one of the better burgers I've had in a while. Living up to it's namesake, Lucy was juicy even though it was cooked way beyond my request and the house recommendation for medium rare. The fragrance of the char was evident in each bite and what I liked about them was that there wasn't unnecessary complication of sauces or spreads. Just lettuce and tomato. And very soft toasted bun. Will come back here for the burgers!

We had a warm salted triple nut tart for dessert. What made the good to great was the luscious caramel that accompanied the tart. It was the old salt and caramel that they pulled here, but it was pulled off pretty well. The scoop on the top was vanilla bean ice cream and not mashed potatoes.

Didn't have too much comments about their drinks, but I'm certainly agreeable to coming back just for more of their menu.

Nagomi, Cuppage Plaza

This was a first visit for me down at Nagomi (5 Koek Road, #02-22 Cuppage Plaza, tel : +65 6732 4300). I was initially a little excited about the place because, well.....it was Nagomi and I wasn't too sure what to expect. What threw me a little off about about the visit was that I ended up undecided about how I felt about the place as it was ultimately for me, a bunch of mixed feelings.

In their food, one could taste the savory depth of shoyu and the sweetness of mirin. That might have been a one liner summary of things apart from the sashimi where each slice of fish had the clarity of its own flavors. The grilled wagyu wasn't as buttery as I had expected but the steamed sole (I think that's what he said) was piping hot and was faultless. I enjoyed the tofu with the nutty ponzu tossed salad, the soft braised nasu which was part of the otoshi I believe and the tempura of freshwater smelt was one of the better if not the best I've had. The serving of uni was especially aromatic. And in it all, very unintrusive attention from the proprietor.

Oh, the savory chicken porridge was really good as well.

But I left the place satisfied with the food and feeling a little hollow about the entire experience.

Perhaps it was the subconscious expectation that I might have been bowled over by the dinner. There was nothing I could fault, yet there was a nagging echo at the back of my head that seemed to indicate that expectations fell short somehow, somewhere.