Friday, February 18, 2011

Iggy's @ Hilton Hotel

Well, as promised here is the new review of Iggy's at its current location in Hilton Hotel.

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Even though it was during an "off-peak" month, but reservations were still almost 80% full on weekends. So this is a place where you want to reserve first before coming.

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Guests who arrive early will be ushered to this colourful corner called the "red room" because most of the furniture in this corner is red.

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Owner of Iggy's, Mr Ignatius Chan, was there at the restaurant when we were there. He is a pretty hands on guy, who has to try out all the new improved creations the chefs created before giving his stamp of approval to be served.

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Even though we managed to get a table in the main dining hall, but when we decided to check out the kitchen bar where we can see all the actions from the kitchen.

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Iggy's has spent a huge sum of money on the ventilation in the kitchen to ensure that it is free from all smells, oil and dirt. And we can confirm that we didn't smell like any of their food because we decided to sit along the kitchen counter to see first hand their chefs at work.

For our dinner, we had the Gastronomic Menu - S$250++

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First up was Iggy's Pinot Noir (S$30), a house wine of Iggy's.

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Our first Amuse Bouche was the Butternut ice cream with sweet potato. Sweet, cold and delicious.

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Next, we had the creamy Foei Gras lollipop which had a light crisp crust on the outside.

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Plus the super sweet and fresh Squid with uni and dashi tea (Japanese seaweed stock)

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The bigger appetizers we had was this Kohada fish with Tomato, Clementine, Mango, puffed Quinoa and beef. This reminds diners that spring is near.

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Bread rolls with butter and shaved cheese.

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I was surprised by the Hokkaido Scallop with celery, bacon foam, granny smith apple. Especially the bacon foam. Even though you can "eat" foam, but you can still taste a strong bacon taste in it.

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The service staff lay down a Fish knife and fork. And you know the next dish is a fish dish.

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Indeed, the fish dish we had was the Lightly cured Himi Kan-Buri (winter amberjack from Himi, Japan) with baby leek, pepper and wasabi powder. Initially, I was not sure how strong the wasabi powder was, but to my surprise, the wasabi powder was very light, in fact almost non-existence.

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This beautiful "dumpling" was the Raviolo of duck, egg and yam and dehydrated vegetables. The duck was inside the Raviolo and mashed yam underneath it.

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We were given a small cup of Duck consommé, cooked from the duck meat.

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The mains for the beef dish was the Wagyu with Nanohana flower, heirloom carrot and rosemary. Beef was tender and juicy.

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The only dish we didn't like that much was this Vacherin Mont D'or - mashed Yukon gold potato, mache and Alba black truffle. It sounded good, but perhaps it became a bit too rich. Especially when it came towards the end of the meal.

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To lighten things up, we ordered a glass of Torbreck Bothie (S$15)

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Our pre-dessert was this beautiful Gorgonzola cheese in disc

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plus the Strawberry with vin cotto sphere. The vin cotto was injected into the delicate crisp sphere and when you bite into it, the liquid flows out. Yummy.

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The chef preparing our next main dessert.

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"Winter" - Chestnut, coconut powder, coffee and lemon. Looks can be decieving. This ordinary dessert actually tasted pretty good.

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The best best part of the meal, was when the dessert chef brought out this dessert bento box. Petit fours selection offered in bento box and diners choose anything they want, or in case you cannot make up you mind, how about one of each.

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We did that! Everything was deliclious. You can even have more if you really want.

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To wash down all the yummy food, we had a Pot of tea (S$10)

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and decaffeinated coffee (S$6)

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Iggy's was one of the highlights for our 2011 even though it is still early in the year. And with such standards, I think it is not difficult for Iggy's to squeeze in to the Miele's Guide once again for 2011.


Iggy's
581 Orchard Road
Level 3
Hilton Hotel Singapore

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Iggy's @ The Regent (RELOCATED)

Recently, we did a visit to Iggy's new location at Iggy's. I was doing some spring cleaning and found out that we missed out on a review of Iggy's back at The Regent hotel. So here it is, a 2 reviews special on Iggy's past and present restaurants.

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Most people who have been to Iggy's will remember this wooden entrance just outside the restaurant which was named few months ago as the best in Asia by Miele Guide.

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It's quite dark inside, and the only "bright" spot are the seats around the counter. From here, you can see the actions in the kitchen through a glass window.

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Iced water for my set lunch at Iggy's.

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We were served a warm toasted bread with extra virgin olive oil.

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The chef presented the Amuse Bouche of the day, while we selected the 5 courses lunch at S$80+++ with choice of 3 Hors D'oeuvres + 1 main course + 1 dessert.

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The first was the fresh and sweet Blue Fin Tuna - Seared Tuna with baby leeks, ginger flower, chives potatoes, french beans and mirin dressing

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Next was the mushroomy Mushroom flan and fricasse of mushrooms

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I enjoyed Iggy's egg dish - Slow cooked egg, bacon, mushrooms with pinot jus. Just by looking at the ingredients, you know it is pure comfort food.

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I had a Foie Gras (additional order) - Pan-fried foie gras. warm pear soup, mango and brioche crumbs. The quality of their Foie Gras was good, and the sweetness of the fruits brought out the tastes of the foie gras.

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This is one of Iggy's signature dish - Cappellini (Sakura Ebi Cappellini with konbu and home-made scampi oil). Although the portion is not big, but every bite of this wonderful cappellini is very satisfying.

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Our meal ended with a Sesame dessert - Warm Pound Cake, milk foam and white-sesame ice-cream.

As everone knows by now, Iggy's has relocated to its new premise in Hilton Hotel. And, the kitchen at the old and new Iggy's are helmed by different chef-de-cuisine. Do watch out for our next review on Iggy's at their new premises in Hilton hotel.


Iggy's (RELOCATED)
#03-00
1 Cuscaden Road
The Regent

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant @ Mandarin Orchard Singapore

Unknown to some, Pine Court at Mandarin Orchard Hotel has been renamed as Mandarin Court for some time. But the location and decor remains the same though.

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We were here at Mandarin Court one weekday evening, and there were not much diners patronising this restaurant although it is right at the centre of the forever busy Orchard Road.

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Our choice of drink - Iced water. They have changed their glasses and it's quite heavy to hold on to.

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We ordered 2 portions of soups - Daily Soup (S$10) and Fish Maw Soup (S$26). I didn't have much expectation for the Daily Soup, but after drinking it I find that the chef had done a good job in boiling the soup into something very flavourful. The Fish Maw Soup though more expensive, was chokeful of ingredients.

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After the soup, we were served the Special Appetizer (S$18 per person) which had crispy silver bait, a portion of crisp Peking duck skin, and a mushroom tempura. I like the duck skin the most as it was crisp without being oily.

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Then it was the Deep Fried Soon Hock (S$60 for 600g) . Usually restaurants would recommend steam fish to diners, but here the Manager decided to offer us the Soon Hock done deep fried style. It was a good choice as the fish was not fried till overly dry, and retains the moist flesh beneath the crunchy fish skin.

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Stir Fried Vegetables - The vegetables though normal, was fried in a special gravy. But this is a dish which one would either enjoy or don't enjoy.

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Baked Spare Ribs (S$16 per portion) - The ribs we were given was quite a large portion and was baked in a sweet BBQ sauce.

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Our final main dish was the Mian Xian braised in Chinese wine (S$20 per person). It had been braised in a stock made from Chinese wine, and scallops were added to add natural sweetness to the dish. We can taste that the chef had braised the mian xian for a long time.

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Ended our meal with 2 desserts - Almond Cream served in coconut (S$12)

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and surprise surprise - Custard Bun (S$12 for 4). Even though we were quite full, I just could not bear to try out their version of the Custard Buns.

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Creamy duck egg yolk cream flowed out of the soft fluffy buns when bite into. Very good. The buns were tiny too, and suitable as desserts.

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Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant
333 Orchard Road
Level 35
Orchard Wing
Mandarin Orchard Singapore