Saturday, May 07, 2005

Iggy’s!


caviar course

The newest addition to our French restaurants received a raving review and so since its opening, we have been looking for a good excuse to make our way down there and we finally did! I’m sad to say that despite the impeccable service which is probably one of the best in our Singapore restaurants, the food didn’t quite live up to the expectations that the price tag put on it. There were sparks of excellence, but other than that it was a little bit of a hit and miss event.

Nosh: The dining experience here enhanced by the fabulous and attentive service staff, the food however was a little more of a hit and miss situation, where the food consisted of mainly good dishes and the gazpacho that was bordering on “yikes, what’s that?!” Here’s the run down of my notes that I took during dinner.

Amuse Bouche
Cauliflower Puree with parmesan
This was interesting. I have seen a recipe for cauliflower puree but I haven’t tried making it, and it was surprisingly delightful – smooth and lightly chilled and accented with small crunchy parmesan brittle and chives.

Caviar – Angel hair pasta tossed in classic caviar condiments
The pasta was a wonderful vehicle for the caviar to sit on. I think it was crème fraiche that was mixed in the pasta that was wonderful and creamy against the salty caviar.

Carpaccio – Carpaccio of Wagyu beef with truffle mayonnaise
Imagine this, melt in your mouth beef with salty parmesan and rocket for a bite. The presentation of the various colours on the plate was simple, clean but good and it tasted as good as it looked.

Foie gras – Foie gras mousse with mushroom cappuccino
A tad on the salty side and the difference in temperature between cold foie gras mousse and the foamy mushroom cappuccino was fun in the mouth. It tasted really luxurious in my mouth, with the truffle mushroom cappuccino and the cold creamy foie gras.

Prawn- Prawn Ravioli with tomato confit and fresh herbs
I was really excited about it because it looked wonderful, however, when I used my spoon to cut through it, I observed that portions of my prawn was grey! We did inquire with the waiter who told us that the chef said it has to be slightly over cooked. Err… just cooked and pink, acceptable, but I haven’t quite heard of prawns being half cooked. Anyhow, the service was fantastic and they took it back and replaced it. I’m still suspicious about this undercooked matter, because if the chef was wrong, he should have just said he was wrong instead of trying to pull wool over our eyes.

Soon Hock – Steamed soon hock, champagne sabayon, cauliflower couscous
This was delightful! The fish is really fresh because they keep live stock and so they fillet and steam it which retains the natural juices of the fish and the light sabayon was a great pairing with the fish, it kept everything light, fresh and it almost felt fluffy.

Gazpacho – Gazpacho with basil foam
This was probably the worst thing I had from their line up. The basil foam was terrible on its own, I felt like I was eating grass. However, with the roasted pepper gazpacho it was slightly better; the only problem is that you have to sip quite a bit of the foam on its own first before you get to the ok bit. If anything it was a great palate cleanser for the next course, although I rather have a lime sorbet.

Lamb – Tenderloin of lamb with roasted artichokes and rosemary jus
Good. Wonderful sauce and artichokes.

Udo – Udo with gorgonzola
This was interesting. I’ve never had udo before. In fact, I didn’t even know what it was! The waiter informed me that it was a form of root that and udo is from the ginseng family. It was kinda tasteless but have a nice crunchy texture to it, so it was a great base for the gorgonzola cheese sauce.

Rockmelon – Rockmelon soup with home-made coconut sorbet
I thought this combination of flavours was really clever, it made me wished that I thought of it myself.

Strawberry – strawberry soufflé with milkshake
Why take a dynamic duo if you can get an explosive strawberry trio. This was wonderful, the milkshake was creamy and cold. The soufflé was warm and light and as you continue over to the other side of the plate, we get cold and creamy ice cream. Sweet ending.

Petite fours, coffee and cake

Pay: S$150+++ for the dégustation

Raves: The service is probably something that many of our posh restaurants need to take notes from. In terms of product knowledge of their wines, you will be in the good hands of Sommelier Ignatius Chan. The rest of the service staff are also attentive, and I’ll give them extra points for serving the ladies at the table first because this is one of the rare times that I have observed this in our restaurants.

When I called to make a reservation, I also informed them that we were celebrating birthdays and so they were absolutely fabulous in arranging for a surprise birthday before our dessert course. Two thumbs for their service.

Disappointed: I feel like most of my cheque for dinner is for their rent and I went home disappointed.

2 Comments:

Blogger Chubby Hubby said...

Joone, when did you go to Iggy's? I had lunch there on Friday, 6 May. I love the burger there!

9:20 PM  
Blogger joone! said...

Just last week! 4th May, we were celebrating my brother's birthday. I have to try the burger then, but if its going to cost me an arm and a leg, it better have a big fat piece of foie gras in it!

9:22 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home