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

Song Garden - Opulent Cantonese Cuisine

Song Garden had always been on my wishlist since I had lunch at this place three years ago. It was with family though, so I totally had no impression of what I had eaten since my focus was not on food during such events, except that I like the food here. So I'm finally back again to slowly savour the food and write this post about this restaurant.

Treasure Platter (Chilled) of Foie Gras, Abalone and Sake Infused Crabmeat Salad is a good showcase of what this restaurant has to offer: Classic Opulent Cantonese Food with a Twist. Sake infused Crabmeat coupled with thinly shredded pickles cucumber is very refreshing on the palates. The umami of crab and flying fish roe go very well with the tangy flavour of the cucumber. A good starter. Chilled Foie Gras is very buttery and the jelly that comes with it introduces a burst of refreshing juice that harmonises perfectly with the richness of the foie gras. The abalone is very flavourful and the texture is just right: not too chewy but firm. 

My favourite got to be the Deep-fried Homemade Charcoal Tofu with Crab Meat and Hokkaido Scallop. I love this so much. So traditional yet so unique. Every bite of the soft fresh tofu is filled with awesomely sweet umami of fresh crab. Even the veggie is also soaked with the goodness of the crab. The slightly crispy exterior of the tofu gives a nice variation to the texture. The fresh, well-seared Hokkaido Scallop is plump and meaty, going well with the tofu.

Lots of dim sum items on the menu are the old-school types, and I decide to try one of the staples of dim sum repertoire: Deep-fried Prawn Dumpling with Mayonnaise. Crispy deep-fried thin dough skin wrapping around super fresh juicy, bouncy prawns get the thumbs-up from me. Now I look forward to trying the rest of their dim sum items.

Pan-fried Pork & Foie Gras Dumping is one of the more innovative dim sum items on the menu. This is like gyoza filled with meat and soup à la Xiao Long Bao. So juicy, so good. And the hint of foie gras inside gives the dumplings an extra buttery richness.

Chilled Black Glutinous Rice with Ice Cream Served in Young Coconut is pretty good. The coconut ice-cream is so creamy, so good that I do wish more ice-cream is added. A little dollop of ice-cream is so easily over-whelmed by the sea of black glutinous rice soup. Yes, I said "soup" because texture wise, the black glutinous rice part is a bit like starchy shark fin soup. Some people may like the smooth texture of black glutinous rice prepared this way, but I prefer to enjoy the wholesomeness of rice grains by chewing on them. By the way, I also dig up the young coconut flesh from the shell to enjoy. It is yummy.

The place is very posh and full of traditional Chinese influences, yet inviting and comfy at the same time. The red plush chairs make for very striking impression. I love the semi-circle red plush sofa seats at the side, it makes one feels like one is in a private space of his/her own. The service is professional and efficient. And the tall lady staff is very friendly and helpful in recommending the dishes without hard-selling. This is a very nice restaurant to enjoy traditional Cantonese food, with some twists at times.

Thoughts: Great choice to enjoy Cantonese Cuisine and to have family or friends get-togethers.

122 Middle Road
Level 2 Mercure Singapore Bugis

Singapore

Nearest MRT: Bugis