Buko Nero. I've heard quite a bit about this place.. from lil bee, from lea, from mummy gorzilla (elica) etc. Mainly its about how hard it is to get reservations from this place. Apparently its so so good that they don't do walk-ins at all and reservations are at least 1 - 2 months in advance. Wow!
Thanks to Lionel, we managed to get reservations for this place....
Before i got there, when i called Kelvin who had arrived earlier, he had already told me over the fone that pictures are not allowed. So at the entrance, i merely took a picture of their sign and immediately, the lady walked out to infm me that no pictures are allowed. =p
As we got in and had our seats, i requested for another chair to place my bag only to be informed that they do not offer any chairs or stools for bags. Hmm.. ok....
I happened to have a bottle of pokka lychee tea with me so naturally i placed it on the table while i placed my bag behind my back. The lady came over asking me to put it away. I understood the fact that restaurants don't allow outside drinks and i wasnt planning to drink it there. But there was no place for me to place it. After awhile, the lady came over again to talk to me about the lychee tea bottle. She said i might wana place it into my bag or something. My bag is obviously too small for the bottle and i seriously am not sure how she wants me to hide my bottle so i allowed her to take it away. I mean where else? I cannot be placing the bottle with my bag behind my back or on the floor right? But yes, i do understand where they are coming from.
so we sat on for awhile and tried to order, we were informed that they had to follow the timing of reservations so they had to take the orders of another table first. So we waited which was expected coz Lea and Jack who had been there previously had warned me about the wait. I'm not sure if its just me but i felt that in terms of tone and attitude, the lady wasnt very polite during the pokka, stools and ordering events that we spoke to her. I dun mean shes rude but its the tone of voice.. it didnt feel nice or friendly. I was quite uncomfortable with that but along the way, as the dinner went on, she did get slightly nicer and i did notice she was on much friendlier terms with the other tables so maybe its coz its our first time and she doesnt really know us? Or maybe she was not happy that i didnt put away the pokka lychee tea? I duno... or maybe im too sensitive.
I ordered the set meal with comes with
beef carpaccio with pomelo and lemon dress, pumpkin crab meat and mint soup, mango and lime sherbet, rigatoni with sausage and mushroom raco, milk chocolate and coconut cake gula melaka coulis. The set meal costs $36. Options were given to change the main course to a few items that were not on the menu. I sticked to my main course of the rigatoni with sausage and mushroom raco while Kelvin and Lionel who also ordered the set meal, changed their main course to Beef wrapped with bacon and blueberries (a top up of $16... Kelvin was totally depressed after hearing the price). Lea and Jack ordered ala carte items of the mushroom soup and the cod fish and steak.
we were first served a small barrel like container with
warm bread with olive oil.
Before our meal started, the lady also came and offered us an
appetiser saying its
compliments from chef oscar. It was like a mini crispy bread below layered by a green round layer den layered with tomato and a smaller round egg tofu item. it looked quite delicate and it was pretty good! thank cute chef oscar.
Lionel and Kelvin also shared a
Tau Kwa Tower ($16.50). They both felt very disappointed with the tau kwa tower coz the tau kwa was just a thin square layer below with some mixed vege on top. It was ok but i guess the price doesnt justify but im not a good judge coz im not very much of a tau kwa person. More of a tau pok person. haha... and i guess this dish made the 2 guys (kelvin and lionel)
lagi sian. They were so depressed the whole night coz they arent allowed to take pictures.
the first item of the set meal was
beef carpaccio with pomelo. I think this is my first time having carpaccio so i dun really know how carpaccio is supposed to taste like. The presentation of the item was not bad.. serving is rather small though. Its a thin layer of slices of marinated beef (which kelvin commented its very salty beef) but i found it quite nice topped with pomelo. It was pretty ok.
The second item was the
pumpkin crab meat and mint soup. It was... haha.. if u ask me to describe it was pumpkin-ish and minty. Not bad.. pretty interesting i'd say. Jack and Lea's
mushroom soup was very very nice in my view though. It may not have those chucks of thick mushrooms bits (think Marche's mushroom soup) and it doesnt exactly look creamy creamy but its very good. I think it came with a layer of white truffle oil. The whole soup is very smooth.
den was the
mango and lime sherbet. as i dun really take mango, i tried to enquire if there was any alternative to this. This time, the lady was much nicer though.. she explained this is something by the chef to clear our palate and somehow her whole tone was much nicer and i felt better. The sherbet was not bad actually.. as in i could still take it.
following on is the mains. I was the only one who sticked to the mains which is
rigatoni with sausage and mushroom raco. It was not bad in my view.
Jack's
steak (cant remember the name) looked small. It had mashed potatoes layered with asparagus on top followed by a round piece of steak. I cannot believe that that would be filling but Jack insisted it is.. haha.. there was some black pieces of things which im not sure what it is on top but gives the steak a rather unique taste. Overall was ok but i think if i ordered that i won't be full.
Lea's
cod fish was wonderful! portion was pretty good. I mean usually u koe for cod fish, portions are usually super small but their portion was good. Because i generally feel dat its very hard to go wrong with cod fish (because of the taste and texture of the fish itself), im generally not very impressed by cod fish dishes. However, i think they did a very good job with the cod fish. It tasted very fresh and not oily. There was this green layer of seasoning on the cod thats pretty delightful.
Kelvin and Lionel's
Beef wrapped with bacon and blueberries was not bad but it didn't wow. The beef was quite tender and i thot the use of blueberries was quite interesting. The beef took on a rather strong bacon flavour as well. Lionel informed though that the mains took 2 hours before it arrived (2 hours as in from the time we arrived). Haha.. quite a wait but it was overall alright.. (seafoodies, i've made reservations for our feb gathering and i think the waiting time would be just fine for us girls).
Last but not least, its dessert which is
milk chocolate and coconut cake gula melaka coulis. It was sheer delight! Lea had raved to me about their old grandma cake (i think dats the name or something close). But i think its coz they change their menu on a periodic basis, that item was not available. This item is quite cool in my view. I mean usually we'd imagine coconut and gula melaka to be more towards an asian flavour and chocolate towards the western side. Chef oscar has managed to put the two together and came up with a pretty divine dessert. The exterior of the cake is rather .. hmm.. im not sure if crispy is the right word but u koe.. when cake is textured on the exterior? This is very very nice!
The lady was also quite friendly and nice towards the end. Overall the bill came up to around $266 for 5 (seafoodies, dun worry, our bill will be much lesser).
