Helio Cafe

My previous visit to Helio Cafe, the chef Clement happened to be out of town so i missed a chance to try his cooking. In between, i heard Lea raving to me about his desserts, how heavenly they taste and all.

Finally today, we managed to make an appointment to try out chef Clement's cooking!

Helio Cafe
6 Raffles Boulevard
Marina Square
#03-320
Singapore 039594
www.heliocafe.com

Tel: 6339 9159


Placed right at the entrance is a board featuring some of the interviews that Clement has been on...



Helio Cafe is located right outside Prestige Helio Asia Spa...



which is why, people would usually not realise this is a cafe that actually serves solid food. People would generally assume its a cafe serving the basic finger food and probably coffee and tea (like i did previously). Typically, the assumption is not wrong because over here, Clement strongly encourages reservations rather than walk-ins because most of his food requires pre-preparation. Also, they do not have a menu for their dishes. If u really attempt to do a walk-in, chances are that u basically gotta eat watever they can whip out for u based on what they have in their kitchen.

The setting of the place...



A long comfy sofa...



first dish served was the rosemary seedless grapes chicken pastry wrap ($25)...



Chef Clement cutting open the wrap...



look at how the juices flowed....



Revealing a whole chicken inside....



another view of it...



We were informed that you do not eat the pastry coz its basically just flour and water. But Clement did leave the bottom pastry for us to try because that was soaked with the juices. The bottom pastry kinda tasted abit like cheese prata to me. Thick cheese prata. haha.

There was also a huge lemon that was wrapped inside the chicken...



the seedless grapes were quite nice.

On the whole, the chicken was pretty tender and juicy. Not as bouncy as the one we had previously though. I was telling Lionel and Clement how bouncy the other chicken was. Its the bounciest chicken i've ever had. Lea agrees with me. I could literally feel bOoOing.. bOooOoing as i eat the chicken. haha..

For this chicken, according to Clement, he didnt add any other sauces or anything. The flavoursome chicken was from the original juice of the chicken itself which is why the pastry is there to encase everything inside.

We were wondering if we should have another main dish and Clement suggested wine beef.. BEEF... hur hur hur.. Lionel and myself generally find it hard to resist... BEEF. haha..

As we didnt inform that we want another item, this dish is actually something that Clement whipped out from what he had in the kitchen.

The wine beef ($18.90)...



A closer view of the beef...



another view with the whipped potato...



the beef doneness...



i know its not obvious but the beef is somewhat considered medium i guess. The beef wasnt exactly cooked evenly throughout and not sure if its the cut but this beef isnt very tender. Not saying its not nice but maybe like wat Lionel said, we're both too 'pampered' already. haha.. We've had too much of the better prime ribs from Mortons, Lawrys, Hogs Breath etc.. so we're probably more picky when it comes to beef. =p

BUT, the sauce was very very nice. The wine taste was not overpowering. The whipped potato blended very very well with the sauce! My only complain is that the whipped potato is not hot enuff but still, i'm not complaining coz it really tastes very very good. I thought it tasted abit like the black bean soup that mummy usually cooks. haha.. it also does somewhat taste like the red wine risotto that we had at Clarity Cafe (which im kinda missing.. haha).

The sauce is so good that we were scooping up the sauce with our spoons and leaving the beef alone. haha...

For desserts, Clement is having a strawberry week promotion so he basically has about 5 seasonal strawberry flavoured desserts available now.

Clement recommended us to try 2 of them. One is the strawberry yoghurt parfait with brandy snap and raspberry strawberry sauce ($12)....



Clement cut up the dessert for us letting us take pics of the inside...



another view...



that's strawberry inside...



overall it tastes like some strawberry cheesecake icecream. Yummy!

and what's yummier is the brandy snap....



this is so so so so so good! Its so crispy! if i recall correctly, its made with caramel and brandy and.. hur.. cant remember what.

The other dessert that Clement got for us is the strawberry cheese filo pastry ($15)...



the pastry cut open...



The filo pastry is so so so so so GOOD! its crispy and has a sweet coating. Everyone of us (Lea and Trish came out for occassional bites.. haha) were going.. " MmmMmmmm...MmmmMMmmm... Mmmmm.... "

Last but not least, Clement presented us with his molten chocolate cake. This is actually his previous Chocolate week item but one of his customer had after trying it, specially requested for Clement to make a couple more of it coz he wanted to let his colleagues try it and that's also why we were lucky to be able to try a piece.

Clement had commented that his way of doing molten chocolate cake is very different from the rest. Its pretty apparent from the appearance of it..



the typical molten chocolate cake we have outside, the chocolate oozes out but not this one...



The chocolate is dark chocolate (which most people prefer but not me coz i've a sweet tooth) and not as much as the other molten chocolate cake i've had but i was ok with it. Also, theres something about this cake.

Placed right on top is apricot soaked in rum!



When i first placed the cake in my mouth, i didnt find it extraordinary. I thought it was a warm and abit moist etc.. but after i swallowed it, the aftertaste was SO GOOD! I believe its the rum and i feel it at the back of my throat! I duno how else to explain the taste but that whole sensation is superb!

And despite trying 3 of their desserts, we didnt feel bloated or gerlart at all. Clement said its gotta do with the ingredients he uses which explains the price.

I did comment and asked Clement if he would consider doing smaller portions of his desserts so it can be priced at more affordable prices. But apparent Clement has enough supporters to keep him going at what he's doing now. Haha.. and i'm not surprised. Clement is really doing fabulously well in his desserts. I refused to believe he's only been a chef for about a year! This guy is really quite a genius!

Clement was also very nice to show us to his ultra small kitchen....



with him was Ming, one of his disciple! Cannot imagine he spinned out all that food within such a small working area.

Because of Clement's ever changing menu (mains and desserts), customers are enticed to revisit to check out his new stuff. I believe we'll be back!