This is a very new restaurant located at Craig Road, near the Duxton area. What’s interesting is that they have no windows so passers-by may most likely miss it. The restaurant is extremely small too.
The interior is very dim, somewhat like a bar. They do offer quite a long list of drinks so perhaps they’re more of a bar than a restaurant. They are only operating from 6pm onwards and are open until 3am, serving dinner from 6pm and a bar menu from 10:30pm.
As it is quite new, business was quite slow on a Wednesday night and I only noticed one other big group there during my 3 hour dinner. 
The food they serve is best classified as Modern Australian and from the variety they have and prices it kind of reminds me of ODP.
Marques de Caceres, Rioja 2008 – $66.00++
They have an extensive wine list of 100 wines under $100 and I liked this one in particular.
Fish Broth with Seafood and Garlic Toast – $17.00++
This is more like a seafood soup as they have prawns, scallops and squid other than just fish. The broth is very flavourful and it does make a good appetizing soup.
Seared cuttlefish, smoked paprika and
edamame – $16.00++
Of all the starters, I like this the most. I like how the cuttlefish was slightly crispy and the overall texture was a mix of chewy and crispy. Cuttlefish itself has a strong flavour and this was just right, not too pungent. I don’t really understand how edamame goes with this though. Anyway, this would be a dish I would reorder if I dined here again.
Tasting Plate of Starters – $30.00++
Here we have the fish broth, grilled Portobello, egg confit, parma ham and arugula, and trio of potatoes, snap peas and konbu.
The fish broth is the same as introduced above. The trio of potatoes didn’t quite leave an impression on me. The grilled potobello with egg confit cannot go wrong. However, I would actually recommend getting the starters ala carte instead of in a tasting platter. I don’t think $30 for this is worth it.
Beef steak with shoestring fries and mesclun salad – $30.00++
This was my main course. The beef here was wagyu rump. Apparently that’s the only cut of beef they offer. I am not a fan of rump since it was more on the chewy side as it has limited fat and marbling, and may have a more beefy smell, but I went ahead with it anyway.
I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out though. The cooking was perfect. I ordered a medium rare. The seasoning was just right and the beef had no funky smell to it. The texture was on the chewy side (being wagyu doesn’t help. I guess it must be a grade 4 – 5 thereabout) but it is still manageable as bring pre-sliced eased the process of eating a lot. I wouldn’t compare this to my usual ribeye steaks as I find this to be more similar to hanger steaks, which has a similar chewy texture. Comparing to hanger steak, this was already better than the one I had at L’Atelier de Joel Robouchon. Overall, even though this isn’t a good cut of beef, the freshness and excellent cooking saved it and I enjoyed my steak and wouldn’t mind having it again.
Lobster Linguine – $28.00++
I wouldn’t order pasta from a non-italian restaurant and I think the same applies here. While this wasn’t that bad, I just didn’t find it memorable enough.
The other main courses at the table were the glazed chicken with pork sausage ($26.00++) and the smoked duck ($28.00++). Both of them weren’t memorable to me, despite tasting very decent. The chicken was essentially a chicken chop, but much better than what you get from coffeeshops. The skin was very well flavoured and seared to be crispy. The sausage was just a sausage, something like those gourmet German sausages. As for the smoked duck, it tasted like ham to me.
Overall the main courses weren’t anything novel, but just straight forward dishes with proper cooking. I didn’t find anything nasty and all were very safe renditions cooked to perfection. There weren’t any twists or play of textures etc. This could be their style of cooking but in my opinion, I would prefer more creative food to pique my interest.
Frech toast with dark rum and sabayon – $15.00++
After the very safe reditions of main courses, I was pleased to know that desserts are unique. This one was my favourity. The french toast was like non other. It was warm crispy and pairing warm desserts with ice cream is always a good idea. I would recommend this dessert for sure.
Raspberry parfait, chocolate cream, basil meringue – $14.00++
There wasn’t anything wrong with this one, just that I preferred the French toast.
Tasting plate of desserts – $30.00++
The one which left more impression here was the mont blanc. It wasn’t made of chestnut cream, but was made of sweet potato, hence the sweet purple colour. While it wasn’t anything out of the world, I liked how it was creative and pretty looking. The texture of the noodles was on the dry side however, and generally chestnut would be a better choice. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this platter and would recommend going ala carte.
*****
Ambiance: 7.5/10
Food: 7.5/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: Not a bad choice if you want a dinner with wine.
*****
43 Craig Road
Singapore 089681
Tel: 6221 3088
*****
6pm – 3am
Hungry Bird 