Seoul Restaurant - Best Korean BBQ Restaurant

Few years ago, a friend of mine, who is a self-professed foodie, had recommended a Korean restaurant in The Regent Hotel. I was pretty interested since I have very good impressions of Regent's lineup of restaurants due to the fact that I like Summer Palace and Basilico a lot. Though I enjoy Korean cuisine, the truth is it is not exactly the type of cuisine I will jump into trying. So I never got around to trying the food there. By a twist of fate, I end up coming here for lunch, and found the best Korean BBQ restaurant in Singapore.

The appetizers are pretty standard fare of kimchi, which is nice, as expected, sweet potato tempura, beanspouts and potato salad. In this department, I still prefer Hansik's offerings. Then again, the highlight of Seoul Restaurant is the meat, so let's get to that now.

The meat here is the best among all the Korean BBQ places I had been to. The meat is incredibly fresh and thoroughly marinated, thus yielding very flavourful, succulent, juicy barbecued meat that is imbued with the aroma of charcoal. Yes, instead using the conventional heater, we barbecued the thick slabs of meat over charcoal, and this is one of the reasons that make this restaurant a winner in barbecued meat department. And it helps that the grill station is designed in such a way that the oil will not be sprayed onto me, unlike what regularly happened when I visited other self service BBQ restaurants. The sesame oil with salt is a great condiment to go with the meat. Highly recommend the pork collar since the meat is not too chewy like the ribs, and the pork is generally more flavourful than the chicken. Another suggested way of enjoying the meats here is to go light first by savouring the BBQ chicken first, then the pork. And one more thing: the pork belly looks like the thinly sliced type in the menu, but when it is served, I am shocked to see that each slice is at least one centimetre thick! So if one wants to try that, be prepared, especially since pork belly has high ratio of fat.

The spicy soft beancurd stew with clams and egg yolk is another must order. The umami of the clams is impossible to resist.

Seafood pancake is prepared right in such a way that the ratio of vegetables to flour is high.

Chilled buckwheat noodles soup is a novelty, which reminds me of cold soba that I love. Add a splash of vinegar and a dot of mustard, the smooth cold fine noodles, soaked with the essence of the soup, is a enjoyable, refreshing treat. But I do find it a tad too chewy as compared to soba.

Service is, well, pretty okay. Kind of like in the middle for all aspects.

If I want to have Korean BBQ, is fine with travelling down to Orchard area and do not mind the aftermath of strong barbecue smell on me, this restaurant is the first to come to my mind.

My Thoughts: My Number One Choice for Korean BBQ buffet

Nearest car park: The Regent Hotel’s car park
Nearest MRT: Orchard

1 Cuscaden Road
The Regent Hotel #03-02
Singapore
Contact No: 63388548

Basilico - Best Sunday Brunch Buffet

Basilico is where you'll find the Best Sunday Brunch Buffet. This place serves a wide, dazzling array of pure, authentic Italian food (unlike those "international buffets" that always serves common hawker fare which I can get at a fraction of the price at kopitiams).

No punches pulled back when it comes to presenting all those delicious Italian food with the fresh and glorious ingredients. Due to the generous amount of herbs, seasonings and quality oils (think truffle and olive) used, resulting in the food there being pure indulgence. The freshly prepared pasta drenched in thick, flavourful sauce is thoroughly cooked while still retaining the firm texture (as preferred by locals, rather than the al dente favoured by Europeans). The grilled fresh meats and vegetables are done just right: have the distinct smoky aroma yet not burnt. The thin-crust pizza is filled with premium ingredients sitting on top of the very thin dough, just how I like it. 

My favourite of the spread got to be the readily replenished fresh seafood consisting of prawns, crabs (shell cracked already, so it is easy to get the meat out, plus points for this), lobsters, crayfishes, scallops and more. Just this section is enough to keep me happy. Also love the cold dishes section where I can try a variety of Italian dishes not regularly found in buffets in other places. The use of olive oil, Italian seasonings, sweet ingredients make these dishes absolutely enjoyable to tuck into. Don't miss out on the decadent foie gras. However, I find that the cooking standard of foie gras varies on my several visits. Sometimes, it is perfectly cooked with the fatty, flavourful core wrapped in a thin layer of crisp, while there are times where the little morsel coated with bitter charred surface. To be fair, I got the over burnt foie gras during the earlier visits, which is quite long time ago, rather than the latter.

Another must try is the Parma ham. Would not want to eat other types of ham (saved for Iberico) after savouring the premium Parma ... I wanted so much to go at least 4 rounds to enjoy myself fully with all these great food, though alas, my stomach says that I can only go for max 2 rounds. 

The dessert section is another winner, featuring panna cottas, gelato, amaretto desserts, Italian tarts and cakes, which all meet my expectations. Another big plus point; real vanilla beans are used. Though I admit that I prefer the desserts in the buffet spread of another three establishments.

The place is very posh with good service.

A place great for indulgence.

My Thoughts: Wow!

Nearest car park: The Regent Hotel's car park
Nearest MRT: Orchard

1 Cuscaden Road
Level 2 The Regent Singapore
Singapore
Contact No: 67253232

Summer Palace - A Chinese Restaurant where one can have it All

I have been to many Chinese fine dining establishments and Summer Palace is the best all-rounder among the Chinese Restaurants. 

Reason: They provide the best service among all the Chinese Restaurants I had been to: meticulous, friendly with a genuine warmth and prompt response. It definitely helps that they actually remember our preferences whenever we go there (Yeah, we are kind of like regular customers there already). In addition, they do not have this timing thing, commonly seen in Chinese Restaurants where they only allocated 11/2 hours or so for you to finish dining, which is all good with me.

As for the food: No over-powering sauces or MSG needed (which is exactly what I like) since the natural sweetness and fragrance of the extremely fresh ingredients used, say it all. The dim sum items are one of the best, with moist texture and light aromatic flavours, showcasing the great creativity of the chef. Bird's nest dumpling is a must try. The other dim sum items are all delicately made and are delicate in taste. 

The creation of fresh garoupa fish with truffle is absolutely beautiful in taste due to the silky fish meat being drizzled with the strongly flavoured sauce of the woody aroma. The crab meat with rice is another winner—the result of the generous helping of fresh crab meat adorning the top of the pile of fragrant, lightly seasoned rice. The double-boiled soups are bursting with flavours of the abundance of treasures put inside them. Scallops, fishes, shellfish, herbs, fruits, vegetables, this restaurant is very generous in adding these into the soups.

The ambience: unbeatable also. Since the tables are amply spaced between each other and the view of the bamboo-like greenery outside, extending across one entire side of the place induces a calm and serene mood. Book early for a table by the side of the glass panels (max four persons for a table there).

Good service and good food is a winning formula for me!

My Thoughts: A Class of its Own!

Nearest MRT: Orchard

1 Cuscaden Road
3F Corad Singapore Orchard
Singapore

Dolcetto by Basilico - Italian Desserts and Breads Galore

I had always enjoyed the authentic Italian desserts in Basilico, so the opening of Dolcetto was good news to me since I can still get my hands on their desserts when patronizing Summer Palace in The Regent instead.

The breads are of hits and misses, some like the chocolate roll (the chocolate chips inside are delicious) are really good while others are just so so only.  For the desserts, most are pretty good while the star is the Torte Nocciola.  What I like about it is that the overall, well rounded taste is very unique, unlike that of the usual cakes, and the raspberries, hazelnut sponge and the big dollop of cream on top complement each other excellently.  For the macarons, the shells are very well made though I find them to be a bit too sweet.  Vanilla and strawberry balsamic macarons are the ones that stand out for me, lavender one smells too much like perfume.

One more thing: a must buy when visiting this place is the Amedei Chocolate—one of the best chocolates in the world and it is not easy to find a store carrying them. I only know that Dolcetto, Chocolate and Gelato Shoppe sell these. In fact, I only like chocolate desserts made with chocolates of Amedei, Valhorna calibre. The Amedei milk chocolate I had gotten is incredibly smooth, warm in taste with strong hints of honey. Though no honey is added. Amazing, right? That is the beauty of premium cocoa.

Service is good and professional.

Look forward to go back for the Torte Nocciola and grab a bar of Amedei!

My Thoughts: Nice!

Nearest car park: The Regent's car park

Nearest MRT: Orchard

1 Cuscaden Road

Level 1 The Regent Singapore

Singapore

Contact No: 67208000

The Regent's Golden Treasures

I decided to splurge a bit and made an advance order for The Regent's Golden Treasures consisting of 10 miniature mooncakes in which five are Bird's Nest with Custard, another five are Amedei Chocolate with Amerena Fabbri and Grappa.

I love the thin real gold leaf plastered on top of the chocolate mooncakes, I just simply have a visual thing for the luxurious addition of gold on chocolate desserts. The taste of the Italian's Amedei chocolate mooncake is simply decadent; being complex, rich with light hints of sourness from the Amerena Fabbri to balance the overall flavours. The taste of alcohol is not obvious though. My main complaint is that the mooncakes are too small for me to be enough to fully indulge in them (though the upside is that I can keep my weight in control).

Bird's Nest with custard is nice and light with the Bird's Nest making up of at least half of the filling; thumbs up for this. Though personally speaking, the taste is not heavenly and pales in comparison to the chocolate ones.

One thing I like about the snowskin mooncakes from Regent is that they are freshly made. I got to find out that my order was made in the morning right before the collection!

All in all, this is the gift that will impress many if you are willing to spend.

On a side note, while waiting for my order to come out from the chef's kitchen (I arrived earlier than the stated time), I got to try the other mooncakes, I absolutely love Very Berry and Granny Apple ones because they are so refreshing and unique, yet harmonious in taste. Maybe I am going to get another box of these flavours.