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The interior of the restaurant is like the rabbit's secret little snuggery, being dim and cosy with yellow lights, cute but classic rabbit figurines and walls highlighted with washes of purple light. It seems like the rabbit has a taste for modern chic.
The generous basket of breads may look ordinary, but they have this interesting texture that lies between crunchy and chewy. A nice change from the usual. These are best enjoyed with butter and the sea salt. Just dab a small cube of butter on the sea salt and then put that butter onto the bread, the combination of the aroma of baked, toasted wheat and grains, creaminess of butter and mineral taste of sea salt makes for a wholesome treat.
Hokkaido Scallop with 58 degrees Egg, appetizer of the Executive Set Lunch, not only looks pretty, its taste is simply unbelievable awesome. The sweet flesh of the fresh scallop is firm with nary the chewiness, which is the perfect texture for indulgence of scallops, and permeated into it are the flavours of earthly toasted brown rice and sea salt—I do think that there is sea salt sprinkled on top before being seared. The myriad of flavours makes this one of the best and most flavourful scallop I have. The 58 degrees onsen egg stands out on its own with just a scattering of fine pepper on top. And its yolk also complements the scallop well. The sauce on the lettuce leaves tastes like goma sauce, except that the nutty flavour of sesame is more pronounced here. While not as stellar as the scallop and egg, it is pretty good for a salad due to the rich, nutty, slightly creamy sauce.
The main course of Sea Bass goes big on portions, which is good news for many. The sight of the generous bowlful of French fries may delight lots of people, but not me since I know I cannot finish them, and French fries is not my thing. While I like the salad in the appetizer, seeing it the second time on the mains does not incite the same level of excitement since I am looking to explore different tastes—have to admit this is expectation issue as the restaurant's focus during lunchtime is on Hareloom Bar offerings. The sea bass is fresh, and the sauce is very interesting in taste, having just that iota spicy flavour to kick things up. However, the sauce is not enough to add enough flavour to the plain fish meat.
Chocolate Fudge Cake brings things up a bit with the lovely combination of milk chocolate fudge and cake made from dark chocolate with intense flavour. The cake is best eaten with the fudge since on its own, it is a tad dry—have to admit that I am someone who loves to have lots of cream in my cakes. The chocolate crumbs, when eaten together with the cake, gives a nice extra crunch to the dessert. The ice cream is the weak link since on its own, it is not exceptionally creamy to create an impact and it does not really make a difference to taste and texture of the dessert either.
The Gourmet Bowl of Tiger Prawns is an à la carte item I ordered on my second visit. The fresh springy tiger prawns coated with golden yellow batter is what draw the thumbs up from me. A dash of tangy flavour, a tad of sweetness and a tang of spices yield a multitude of flavours that surprises and intrigues. The runny onsen egg complements the tiger prawns well to add eggy goodness to the rice. Talking about the rice, it is good that Japanese rice is used instead of Thai jasmine rice, as I prefer to try other types of rice outside of the regular jasmine rice I have been eating almost everyday. But being an individual who is very picky about rice, I find the rice lacking the sheer shine indicating the perfect texture that I look for in Japanese rice. Still, at $17 plus, this is very value for money.
Service here is wonderful. The staffs, who are friendly and helpful, responds quickly to my requests with smiles. And they are very proactive in replenishing the butter for my breads and filling up my glass of water. Lastly, they put a nice finishing touch to the entire dining experience of the patrons by bidding farewell to them. Providing good service is not easy feat, to exude that genuine warmth is something not many service staffs, even those of the best restaurants, can achieve, but the service crew here exceed my expectations to exhibit this trait that I appreciate.
This is a nice place to consider for a hearty lunch with sprinkles of exciting flavours incorporated. Dinner maybe even more exciting since I can tell the chef is really great at playing with flavours based on Hokkaido Scallops and Tiger Prawns.
My Thoughts: Nice!
This restaurant is no longer in operation.
