Tung Lok Heen - Luxurious Chinese Cuisine with a Twist

Ah, Tung Lok Heen. I had always passed by this place when going to Robuchon, Osia or Syun. The last time I wanted to try the food there, the restaurant was full, and after that, I stuck to my old favourites in Sentosa after that since my guy and I love the food there, and it helps that the service staffs there know us. Anyway, try to make reservations beforehand to ensure a seat. This time round, the resourceful manager managed to secure a table for us, so kudos to him.

I find that the dishes here are more of Chinese-Thai fusion rather than traditional Cantonese fare. Anyway, onto the individual dishes.

The trio Amuse Bouche hints at a promising start. Beautifully presented and looking exotic, the taste is just as exotic. The steamed shrimp dumpling in chilli oil is reminiscent of the Szechuan wanton in chilli oil. The crisp-fried beancurd skin stuffed with shrimp and crispy siew mai are prepared in such a way that yields texture unlike the traditional ones. With the zesty sauces drizzled on top, we have some pretty unique dim sum that taste pretty good.

As for the braised fish maw and abalone in noble "tanfu" broth, it is filled to the brim with luxurious ingredients, and the taste is testament to this. However, the abalones are pretty tasteless on their own, and the broth is too thick to the point that it feels like a film is left on the palates.

I love the grilled ocean barramundi in chef's specialty sauce. The fish is exceedingly fresh and being cooked to perfection. The flesh is smooth with slight firmness, a delight to bit into. The sauce is tangy and simulating. The only issue I have with this dish is that the sauce does not soaked into the fish. The two are like two separate entities on the menu.

I give thumbs-up to the braised Boston lobster tail with homemade ramen in xo sauce. The lobster meat is very well-prepared, having a firm but chewable texture and the flavours have thoroughly soaked into the meat. Given that it is not easy to prepare lobster meat, which is tougher and plainer in taste as compared to prawns, I am impressed with skills of the chefs in Tung Lok Heen. The xo sauce gives an extra kick to the ramen that is done al dente, kind of.

Chilled cream of pumpkin and purple rice topped with coconut sherbet is an excellent dessert to round up the meal. Among Chinese restaurants, this place serves one of the best desserts. This is comparable to Royal China's Japanese pumpkin puree. The addition of purple rice in Tung Lok Heen's one adds an extra dimension to the texture and taste. Though the pumpkin here lacks the inherent sweetness and aroma of the Japanese pumpkin used in Royal China. It will be perfect if premium quality pumpkin is used.

The settings of this restaurant tends more towards the posh western style than the family-friendly Chinese one. It is actually pretty great for dates.

Service wise, no hiccups reported. But I'm not impressed either. As expected of a Chinese restaurant, the staff is more interested in getting the job done over providing exceptional dining experiences. And the one serving us looks pretty sulky. The standard of service does not exactly matches the price range of the food here.

Basically, the dishes are well-executed, but the service has room for improvement. And until this area is improved, I will only put this restaurant under Recommend, not The Best. By the way, if there is 1-for-1 promotion for Invites members, don't wait, charge for it.

My Thoughts: Nice!

Nearest car park: Resort World Sentosa's car park

Nearest MRT: Habourfront

Resorts World Sentosa

Hotel Michael

26 Sentosa Gateway

#02-142/143

Singapore

Contact No: 68847888

Syun - Waxing Lyrical about Spring

The name of this restaurant, Syun, is actually referring to spring, and yes, the experience of dining is reminiscent of spring, especially the food.

The entrance of Syun has the layout of a Japanese wooden cottage, which is very scenic. So things are looking promising right from the get-go. The moment one steps into the restaurant, one will be greeted with the sight of the chefs displaying their skills behind the counter. The interior setting is more of a combination of rustic and elegant styles due to the dark wooden furniture and pillars.

The salad served with the set lunch is good—the second time I give such comment to the accompanying salad to Japanese set lunch. The yuzu dressing not only gives the kick to the dish, its aroma soaks into the raw vegetables so that they carry the flavour instead of being bland leaves glazed with oil and seasoning.

The chirashi sushi set is an aesthetically pleasing dish where multitude of warm colours of the cubes of fishes is given the spring treatment with the scattering of flower petals over the sashimi. The flowers add that sweet, mild flora fragrance into the overall taste. The fishes are fresh though they are kind of moist on the surface, which can be improved on. After the meal here and the chirashi I had at Kuroson, I feel that I am not into chirashi, so I cannot be raving about this dish. The comparison I can made between the chirashi of these two places is that Syun has the dimension in taste while Kuroson has the variety.

The sake brewed from flower yeast is exceptional: smooth and sweet, with hints of floral aroma. A must order.

I wish I can say more about Syun since the place looks to be potential. However, as I had only tried the chirashi that did not impress me a lot, I can only add more on the second visit.

My Thoughts: Pretty Good

Nearest car park: RWS car park

Nearest MRT: Habourfront

8 Sentosa Gateway

Level 2 World Square

Resorts World Sentosa

Singapore

Contact No: 65776688

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - One of the Best French Restaurants in Singapore

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Making one's way from the carpark exit to the restaurant is simple pleasure in itself, immersing in the beauty of man-made island beauty of waterfalls, caves and lush greenery under the bright sunny sun (Went for newly available lunch). Then get transported into another world of modern, upbeat and stylish, yet plush enclose upon entering the restaurant.

The service staffs will make the guests felt welcomed and extremely at ease, with their warm, friendly but professional hospitality. Was especially pleased that the service staffs will go the extra mile to engage in leisure chat with all the patrons. They are very knowledgeable about the wine selection, food and parking in RWS. An Pakistani staff even remembers us ... and the wine recommendation he had made to us on a previous visit! Got to say that the service here is the best I had ever encountered.

Like the ambience of bold red and black, the food also excited the taste buds, imprinting such simulating experience deeply into one's memory, from the amuse bouche of custard with foie gras and parmesan foam, pork cheek jelly, Vegetables with Mozzarella Cheese, Seafood Pasta (I like it that the staff makes the effort to inquire on whether I want it al dente), Prawn soup, Cod Fish, Squid with black Rice, to the latest creations. All of them consist of delightful arrays of flavours complimenting each other perfectly, while seeking new grounds to create a new different taste in food. 

Got to mention that the mashed potato that comes with all mains, is very silky in texture and rich in taste and the freshly made bread is probably the best bread I ever had in Singapore. The desserts are very creative in terms of presentation, texture and taste.

Special mention of a visually beautiful dessert: Le Delice, equally beautiful in terms of taste. The mildly sweet, extremely light dollop of rose cream, paired with the thin, crumbly biscuit and custard, adorned with edible flowers, sent my tastebuds in blissful dessert heaven. The addition of tart strawberry sauce and raspberries added an extra punch to the overall taste. Days after I had this dessert, I still reminisced about it. Yes, Le Delice is that good to have that effect on me. 

Even Le Mont Blanc is also exceptional good due to the pleasing combination of yummy cream, chestnut mousse and merigue; seems like the dessert department has improved immensely since my first visit.

And La Framboise—yoghurt ice cream with strawberry puree is absolutely delightful due to the multi-dimensional taste.

Thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Robuchon and have since become a regular. By the way, it is okay to dress casually for a dinner there.

My Thoughts: Fantastic! The Best!

Note: This restaurant is sadly no longer in operation.

Osia (Resorts World Sentosa) - Nice, Leisurely, Casual Fine Dining

Usually, one will not associate the words, leisure and casual with fine dining, but Osia makes it possible. One does not have to dress formally to have a nice decent meal at Osia and surprisingly, kids are welcomed also! Despite these, the ambience is still quiet and elegant with the nice and lush greenery outside the restaurant which embraces nature at the same time.

The food is nice, tending towards simulating kind of tastes with lemons, etc, and exciting the tastebuds, thus allowing me to have a strong impression of the dishes. The barramundi is very fresh and well-cooked to retain the moisture which complements very well with the sauce. However, though the dishes are able to awake my senses, they did not make me go, "Oh, this is so perfect, it is heaven sent!" To be fair, the set lunch is only $38. The seafood experience did not meet my expectations. The main reason is that the flat scoop does not allow one to scoop out both the flavoured ice and seafood together to truly experience the combination of the tastes. Some of the ice is too bitter with alcohol and overshadows the delicate taste of raw seafood.

Updates as of July 2015: the current dishes are fantastic.

The Sunday brunch is big thumbs up, extremely value for money and highly recommended.  For $58 only, one gets to enjoy free flow of tasty food delicately made with fresh ingredients and the succulent oysters paired with the simulating and sublime horseradish cream. The freshly baked (right out from the oven) flatbread here is truly the epitome of quality bread, bursting with that warm, sweet aroma of baked dough. The canapés are delicious: from the foie gras, light yet creamy and flavourful soup of the day, to many others not easily found in any other restaurants.

The desserts are of huge variety and most are creamy and delicious; easily beat the desserts in many other restaurants. Helps that Valhorna chocolate is used in their chocolate desserts.

The service is ok, with smiles, greetings and farewells.

Despite my initial comment that I would only visit Osia if I happened to be in RWS, I have been patronizing this restaurant on numerous occasions—I specially make my way down to there for lunch or Sunday Brunch.  I find that among the restaurants serving European cuisines, Osia's food caters the best to local tastes while still possessing that distinctive traits of European dishes. So naturally, I like the food there a lot. Oh yes, or if I want to enjoy fine dining with my kid around, this is the place to go to.

My Thoughts: Awesome!

Nearest car park: Resorts World Sentosa's car park
Nearest MRT: Habourfront

8 Sentosa Gateway
Level 2 World Square
Resorts World Sentosa
Singapore
Contact No: 65776560

Forest - The sheer Variety won me over

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Usually, it is very difficult to impress me with international buffet spread but Forest of RWS managed to do so. Forest is not the place where I had the best Sunday brunch but it is one of the few decent ones that feature Asian cuisine.

The main reason I like to dine at this place is due to the sheer variety of the spread ranging from western appetizers (duck and mango salad, tomato mozzarella, asparagus with caviar, pan seared tuna, cajun chicken), Chinese delicacies (hot herbal chicken soup, Peking duck, roasted pork, yang zhuo fried rice, scallop dumplings), few hawker fares (fried items), fresh seafood (crabs, prawns and oysters), Japanese bites (sashimi and sushi) to a glorious array of desserts (mousse cakes, jellies, panna cotta, macarons, tarts, nonya kuehs, cakes). Just one round of trying almost every item, can make one extremely full already. It is good that the hawker fare items are kept to minimum while featuring food of various cuisines, now, that is what I call international.

Taste wise; though the food is not wow inducing, most of them are fresh and tasty with an occasional extra twist in the taste to make an impact. The only ones that disappoint me are the crabs with steamed egg (too bland, the taste of crab meat is totally lost), the crepe of the Peking duck (a bit too dry), grilled mushrooms (a bit bitter), fried items (so so only) and the macarons (too sweet). Desserts are pretty good.

The ambience is clean, chic and simple that provides a nice environment to dine in, provided you are not seated beside loud talking patrons. However, on a raining day, the place is awfully cold; bringing a jacket is a huge must. Service is good as expected from RWS's establishment.

Definitely don't mind going back, especially if there is a promotion with the RWS Invites card.

Note: There is no more buffet spread available at this restaurant.

My Thoughts: Pretty Good

This restaurant is no longer in operation.

Palio - A Mix of Good and Bad

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Actually, I'm torn between whether to recommend this restaurant or not since there is a mix for highlights and lowlights. 

The Good - Risotto ai Funghi is almost the best carbo food (excluding sushi) I had. Exceedingly smooth grains imbued with the aromatic truffle and cream sauce, it is pure comfort food. 

The service is pretty good, especially the managers who are very polite and attentive. The rest of the staff meets the basic standards.

The Okay - The Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse is pretty good with the right balance of sweetness and flavours of hazelnut and chocolate. 

The Bad - Actually, the Parma Ham appetizer is not really in the category of Bad but it is not exactly okay tastewise. The parma ham itself is nice and full of subtle flavours. The problem is in the accompanying sauce and vegetables which taste weird and simply do not go well with the parma ham. Worse is that this appetizer does not match with the house wine. The wine tastes awful if paired with the parma ham dish. While the wine was chosen by us from the wine list, shouldn't the team ensure that everything in the wine selection goes well with the food (at least be at not bad level)? The main course of meat tasted so plain to the point that I had forgotten what meat is that, only remembering how lacklustre that dish is.

The ambience feels kind of like very high class food court, very casual and noisy.

Conclusion: Not really eager to go back but don't mind dining at there due to circumstances.

My Thoughts: Okay

Note: This restaurant is now replaced by a new one called Fratelli

Starz Restaurant - Limited Selection

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Though this restaurant is called Starz, but it is far from bring the star of the repertoire of high profile, top notch restaurants in Resorts World Sentosa.  Almost everything about this place is ordinary, to the point I can only say, worth a try for a cheap hi-tea buffet price of $28 plus but do not expect too much from the variety and the quality.

The spread is quite limited, with some sushi, indian food, few salads, deep fried finger food and certain local delights.  That is all.  I could tried everything with my plate sparsely filled in just two rounds.  The saving grace is that the food taste decent, seasonings are added adequately without overloading and ingredients used are reasonably fresh.  There is no sign of any seafood in the spread, except for one small prawn found in the laksa.  So seafood lovers, take note.  The desserts section is surprisingly well stocked with a huge array of nice desserts of very different origins, from the western panna cotta, ice cream, cakes to the local ones, such as nonya kuehs.  

The ambience is chic and modern, great for gatherings with family, though I had seen patrons snatching the food and piling up their plates with mountains of food, which kind of ruined the atmosphere there.

The service is decent and friendly, being extremely prompt in clearing the plates and filling up of the drinks.

I will not say that I will not go to this place again but obviously, I have way better choices to go to in RWS.

My Thoughts: Quite Okay

This restaurant is no longer in operation.