Flutes - Amazing, Lovely Experience with Beautiful Flavours

Many years ago, while I was visiting the National Museum, a beautiful restaurant within immediately caught my eye. Then I found out the restaurant’s name is Flutes. There is a certain elegance to Flutes that I like and thus I secretly had been wanting to go there to dine. I didn’t get to fulfill this wish due to personal reasons and time faded that to the background. So I read about Flutes, relocated to Guoco Midtown, on Instagram recently, I know I have to go to this restaurant. So here I am!

I was expected to be impressed, and I am absolutely astounded instead by how amazingly good and unique the food is. It is way beyond my expectations! Every dish is so meticulously crafted with lots of details and 90% Australian produce. All instantly win me over at first bite. I feel sweet feelings of happiness when savouring all the dishes here.

The idyllic French songs playing in the background, the white ceiling decorated numerous gull-like pieces, the beautiful blooms placed around the place, the candlelights, the soft yellow lights and pristine white tablecloths create this romantic, classic yet modern feel that I loved. This place is perfect for dates and for anyone who just wants to indulge in the finer things in life.

The service is excellent, being thoughtful, detailed and attentive. Definitely one of the restaurants.

Salad of Skull Island Prawn with Avocado, Yarra Valley Caviar, Horse Radish and Dill is wow at first bite. Lots of flavours work together to yield briny, robust and refreshing taste. The texture is awesome too, with layering of crispness, springiness, juiciness and mashed texture. I love this!

Most delicious bageutte, with the dense fluffy, fine core and crunchy exterior.

Exciting trio of snacks that really reveals the exciting dinner experience that is to come 💖

BBQ Yumbah Abalone with Kombu Butter and Truffle speaks stories of the sea, earth and fire through the myriad of light yet intense flavours. There is this deep mild sweetness highlighted by the bitterness of char. The texture is excellent, being springy and crunchy.

King Crab Crumpet with Finger Lime is an excellent dish to come after the Abalone due to the refreshing, briny sweet taste that contrasts from the prior snack. And the flavours of the crab is a perfect match with cake.

Beef Tartare Kueh Pie Tee with Caviar features smooth, succulent beef served in super crispy pastry shell, topped with pops of excitement from the caviar. The taste is so luscious and full of umami.

Aquna Murray Cod Sweetcorn, Sambal Butter, Coriander is surprise of the day. And I love this surprise! The pliable fish tastes slightly spicy and has this plantal briny sweetness. The sweet crunchy corn adds extra texture to the fish. One of the best fish dishes I have ever tried? Yes!

Celeriac & Manimup Truffle Langoustine, Medeira tastes so amazing in that it develops into a complex sweetness. The lovely taste of the essence of sea packed within the prawn is elevated by the clean taste of celeriac, which is meticulously cut into super thin slices to be rolled and then roasted. Truffle adds a touch of lux and complexity to the dish.

Gin & Tonic Granita with Kiwi and Apple is so refreshing and tastes so unique due to the extra dimension in taste from bitterness of Gin.

BBQ Zabuton Satsuma Gyu Skewer with Beetroot and Rye is rich in taste and has the pure meaty sweetness balanced by the vegetal clean taste of the beetroot. The beef is so uniquely prepared to feature a taste and texture so different from that of other beef. It is succulent and juicy with a thin layer of char and crispiness on the surface. One of the best beef dishes I ever have.

Pre-dessert of Jerusalem Artichoke Ice-cream with Manijimup Black Truffle, Caramelized Milk Crumbs continues the trail of "Deliciousness that Wows". The ice-cream is so unique in taste, being earthy and creamy in tetxure. The Caramelized Milk Crumbs has this super crispy texture that goes excellently with the milky ice-cream.

Dessert of Strawberry & Lime Pavlova Mascapone, Calamansi sorbet is beautiful in both looks and taste. The tart, fruity taste of strawberry, lime and calamansi teases the palates and allows the mild taste and light creaminess of mascarpone to come through richness. So indulgent yet so refreshing.

Delightful and unique Sweet Treats: Rojak Flower Macaron, My Bucket Bon Bon, Yuzu Jube

Specially curated wine to go well with the dishes

The restaurant is located within this heritage building instead of the main building complex of Guoco Midtown House. 

Thoughts: Beautiful Experience, Beautiful Food, Beautiful Flavours!

120 Beach Road

Guoco Midtown House #01-02

Brine Restaurant - Contemporary Singaporean Cuisine, Nostalgic and Beautiful Taste

Closed

Upon knowing about Brine, a restaurant helmed by local chef, I immediately note down this place into my Wishlist. I had assumed that the dishes here will be European with a bit of Asian touches, and the dishes totally surprise me regarding this, and in a very good way.

The dishes here are distinctively Singaporean, prepared in European style and elevated with complex flavours. They invoke the nostalgia, yet at the same time manage to be unique in taste. I really love the dishes, they exceed my expectations.

The place, at the first glance, looks more like a nice, modern minimalist cafe. In fact, I asked if it's Brine when I first stepped in 😂. But when I look around the place, I realise that there is a mini art gallery in this! At one side of the place, pottery art pieces and hand made glassware populate the tables and shelves there. This is so cool. All of them were made by the owner and for sale. Needless to say, I take lots of pictures of the art gallery.

The service is very good too. The young lady staff is very friendly and is fast to response to requests.

The second Battered Cauliflower is served, I immediately catch the lovely familiar whiffs of pepper and spices sprinkled over the crispy batter coating each mildly sweet cauliflower. Lots of subtle flavours packed into the cauliflower, and it tastes even more exciting when eaten with the mashed duqqa  for the extra kick in flavour and mashed hummus for the earthy, nutty element. I also love the crunchy roasted brussel sprouts, which is so good to bite on.

Knife Cut Noodles with buttered crab is so delicious. I love the texture of the special knife cut noodles, which is flat, curly and a bit springy. This is different from the usual noodles, and knife cut noodles are not exactly easy to find in Singapore. Hints of spiciness from the chilli and tangy flavour from the lemon juice makes this dish such a delight to savour. And best of all, I find chucks of briny sweet crab among the noodles. Two thumbs-up for the generosity in adding lots of crab meat. Caviar and Ikura are pops of essence of the ocean that add more umami goodness to the dish. A must-try.

Another must-try is Coconut noodles, laksa leaf jelly, kaffir lime meringue. I swoon in pure bliss when tucking into this dessert full of South East Asian flavours. The pungency of laksa leaf actually works beautifully in this dessert, complementing the tart taste of kaffir lim and the mild milky nutty flavour of coconut noddles. And the textures of this dessert is awesome due to the crispy meringue, springy noodles, crunchy sugar-coated peanuts and sorbet+jelly consistency of laksa leaf jelly.

Brine Restaurant is not just any good restaurant, it is a restaurant that serves up very good, unique food that showcases the essence of local food. It is full of passion and vision. I'm so into this place after an outing here. I look forward to come here again.

Thoughts: So Singaporean, So Awesome

This place is no longer in operation

Ginett Restaurant & Wine Bar - Nice Cosmopolitan Place

French food, impressive cosmopolitan decor and value-for-money set lunches at 18 bucks only, with all these factors, Ginett sure attracts quite a crowd during lunch time. The food is actually good. Just that while the service here meets the minimum standard of being quite efficient, I do expect more from the service given that this restaurant is of minimum mid level. Besides the front counter lady who is friendly, the rest look very stressed, to the point that I think I smile more at them more than they do to me.

Setting aside this, this restaurant is good for a nice meal at pretty good price. By the way, one needs to request the service crew to show the set lunch menu since it is written on a blackboard instead of being printed on a paper. 

Despite the attractively priced set lunch, I order Olio Scampi from the ala carte menu instead. And I love my choice. Three huge succulent fresh prawns, smooth, springy house-made linguine tossed with chilli, garlic and bacon, this dish is full of flavours. As mentioned in my posts before, I prefer linguine over spaghetti since smoothness of the surface of linguine is more evident than that of spaghetti. So yes, I like this a lot.

Complimentary bread is pretty okay though not warm and nice. By the way, the staff didn't serve me the bread, which made me wonder at first if the bread is only for set lunch order. So I asked if the bread only comes with the set meal and here it is. Mystery solved. So request for it if it is not served by the time the first dish is up.

Mille-Feuille "Grands Augustins" hits all the right spots in terms of sweetness and texture. The puff pastry is vey crispy and flaky, which is excellent. The Bourdon vanilla cream is light, smooth and creamy. This is one good dessert.

This is a nice place to dine and wine (the wines are of very good price too) on a budget or to have a quick gathering with friends or colleagues. And the good part is water is really complimentary instead of going the still or sparkling water route that lots of restaurants do. The food is good and comes at a pretty good price. Just don't expect stellar service here.

Thoughts: Pretty nice place

200 Middle Road

Nearest MRT: Dhoby Ghaut or Rocher or Bencoolen

Takemitsu Omakase Restaurant - The Sushi are so full of Natural Sweetness

I just sussed out a brand new Japanese restaurant that offers a whole new gastronomic adventure in the form of aged sushi made in Ginza style. And so I made a reservation straightaway when I found out about this hidden gem since aged sushi is quite a rarity in Singapore and the price of omakase is so attractive from $98 onwards.

The aged sushi here are so full of natural sweetness due to the amino acids breaking down the tissue through the process of aging. And the taste is different and most importantly, delicious. It's akin to making of the yummy sour dough bread by allowing the dough to ferment over a long period of time to break the starch down into sugars for the extra sweetness and aroma.

Service is outstanding too and Chef Peter serves up the dishes with lots of flair and gusto.

First dish of the omakase is the impressive Uni Chawamushi. And lots of uni added at that. I'm surprised that the fresh creamy uni with its distinctive umami and iodine taste complements the warm smooth egg custard very well. A very good start to the meal.

Cooked dish is Nodugoro, also know as blackthroat seaperch, which is a premium kind of fatty white fish. Due to the high fat content, the texture is very interesting with a bit of springiness, like that of a clam. I like this kind of texture, and it tastes good with the miso sauce.

Fatty chutoro is delicious with a good cut and size to allow the fish fill up the whole mouth with buttery goodness before melting into the mouth.

One of my favourite: Kani Miso! The generous amount of shredded crab meat is bursting with concentrated briny sweetness. One of the best crab dishes I ever have. This is the only place I have crab meat served to me in this way, so this is like another speciality of this restaurant.

First sushi is Shima Aji aged for 14 days. Brushed with heritage Japanese soya sauce aged for years by the chef, the sushi is so full of flavours with extra briny flavours and actually melt in the mouth,

Sake infused Hotate is oh-so-good. The scallop is so plump, succulent and sweet, with hints of floral notes from the sake.

Spineless squid actually has a bit of creaminess that makes for very interesting texture and bite. And it is yummy too.

Usually Hirame, aka flounder, has a clean taste. So is the one here, with the difference being the extra sweetness of the fish, which is definitely a welcomed addition in my sushi.

The chutoro, yes, more chutoro! Not only is this buttery, there is also an extra richness in aroma and taste in this marbled slice of fish. A luxurious treat.

The Akami here is probably one of the best Akami I have due to the additional briny flavour plus an iota of smokiness.

Rare Ishigakidai has the light umami flavours, perked up by the zest of lemon and yuzu. 

Watching the preparation of Flounder Fin Muscle is a delight to the eyes as the Chef Peter seared the top of the fish with hand-held torch. It is a delight to savour it too. This is so creamy, and the light char makes it even better.

The Salmon here is surprisingly from Hokkaido in Japan instead of Norway. The quality and taste is evidently superior. I never know salmon can have complexity in taste until I have this sushi.

Uni on Shimofuritoro, aka Uni Toro Temaki or Uni Bomb, is super decadent. I absolutely love it that so much uni are piled on top of the generous amount of shimofuritoro. Shimofuritoro is actually otoro with the fat evenly distributed. The result of these two premium ingredients paired together is luxurious, rich, creamy umami dream.

Nice miso clam soup filled with the taste of ocean from the clams.

This special Japanese tea ice cream tastes like a lighter and more cooling version of chocolate, nice.

The interior of the restaurant is of zen influences and is a very cozy, intimate space housing only 10 patrons, so it feels pretty exclusive to be dining here. Service is outstanding: Yong Jie is very professional and knowledgable about the food while the lady staff dressed in kimono is very responsive and polite. And Chef Peter is friendly and chatty.

This place has one of the most attractive omakase price ranges, considering the high quality of food, the extra work put into aging of the fishes and of course, lots of uni and various cuts of toro in the Takemitsu course I opted for. Definitely going back to enjoy lots of uni, toro and the speciality of aged fishes.

Thoughts: Aged sushi are delicious!

103 Beach Road #01-02

Nearest MRT: Bugis