Restaurant Week, 2012 edition: B @ Rochester

This time round, we headed to B @ Rochester for our dinner. The last time we came here was to celebrate our 1st year anniversary (when we were still pator-ing). Fast forward several years later, we arrived here as a married couple :)

 

Don't be deceived by its colonial outlook. B @ Rochester is actually a modern Japanese restaurant & bar. The restaurant is helmed by Chef Joseph, who has worked in various restaurants (Shima Restaurant @ Goodwood Park Hotel, Meritus Mandarin Hotel & Majestic Restaurant) in his decade of professional experience. He is widely advocated for his impeccable infusion of diverse culture into Japanese cuisine. 

 

Let's get the night started!  
 
From the outside, this is the only tell-tale sign that this is a Japanese restaurant.
 

Leecher with the ala carte menu.    

 

Check food blog for recommendations, then flip flip, see see. 

The chef preparing the sashimi platter, which we ordered on the ala carte menu. 

Waiting for our food. 

We ordered salmon & tuna to kick-start the evening. Salmon slices were thick & fresh, much to my delight!

 

3 course dinner was priced at $35 per person, we started the course with a complimentary entree - mixed kinoko of enoki, shitake and shimeji, mixed mesclun, yakiniku dressing. In short, a mushroom dish which I enjoyed tremendously. 

 

Next came the starter, which was a seafood combination of baked diver scallop with cod roe, mayonnaise and swiss emmental cheese, spicy lemon soft shell crab with diced strawberry. I'm not a fan of (any) soft shell crab as I dislike the oily after-taste in my mouth. Scallop was juicy, but a tad salty.

 

2 choices of mains available, so we went with both: I went for alaskan black cod with akadashi miso, sauteed portobello & baby spinach. Leecher had rack of lamb with homemade black pepper sauce, sauteed portobello, arugula and fondant potato.  

 

 

 The mains were average in taste, nothing particularly wow-ed our taste buds.
 
Dessert came in the form of homemade warm bread and butter pudding (with vanilla sauce). 
 
I wished we had time to linger on for a drink @ their bar,  but we had to rush off for another appointment. 
 
Strolling down to carpark area. You could literally walk in the middle of the road!  
 
*love*
 
Got a shock while we entered the carpark area. 
 
Wa, which car so garang go and bump against the barrier?  

B @ Rochester

No. 8 Rochester Park

Singapore 139219

Tel: 6778 1788

Restaurant Week, 2012 edition: Stellar @ 1-Altitude

Long weekend is over & Monday seemed extra blue today :( Gotten my laptop back 3 weeks ago & my hard disk was replaced (yet again!). So, I spent my weekend re-installing all my applications to get the laptop functional again. I hate having to deal with technical issues on a personal level, even though I have to deal with these all the time during work, haha! I've been blogging using Leecher's laptop and it certainly felt GREAT to have my own laptop back :) Frantically did a backup of all my pictures and transferred them to another ext HDD - so now I have copies of them on the laptop & 2 ext HDDs #kiasu.

Another edition of Restaurant Week 2012 with the BFF @ Stellar. This was taken eons ago when BFF was still working in the city and we met up for restaurant week over lunch :) Miss those impromptu lunches! 

 

The dark world before you can see light on the other side #cheesyline, lol! 

 

We sat smack in the middle of the restaurant without a city view. That was akin to giving the kid his favourite candy, only to let him find out that it was the wrong flavour. Well, nothing beats the wonderful company I have! 

The usuals - warm water + bread to kick start any meal.

Since BFF is much better with food description than me, hop over to her review here :) The best way to "leech", gosh ~ the negative traits that I'm picking up from the hubby.

 

Till the next entry & Monday will be over soon! Hang in there :)

 Stellar @ 1-Altitude

1 Raffles Place 

Singapore 048616

Tel: 6438 0410

Opening Hours: 11.30am till 2.30pm, 6pm till 12am (Mon-Fri) & 6pm till 12am (Weekends & PH)

Restaurant Week, 2012 edition: The Tasting Room

 

I've long heard about The Tasting Room, not for the food, but more of their wine pairing. They have over 50 unique & interesting selections by the glass from their extensive wine list, which seeks to provide new levels of experience to everyone, from the novice to the connoisseur. So, when the opportunity came, I reserved a table @ the place for my 1st wine pairing experience. 

Took the new camera out for the journey! Haha, that goes to show how backdated this post is :P We took a lil walk across the bridge while Leecher was keen to test out the pus pus, the new nickname of our camera.

 

The familiar sights on the bridge. It still tickles me whenever I see people with their giant tripod and zoom-until-can-see-the-pores-on-your-face cameras on the bridge, waiting to catch the perfect view during NDP.  

 

As the sky turned darker, the lights came on and the landscape changed into a different mood.

 

I loved how the pictures turned out!

 

Making our way to The Tasting Room, reached there just in time for dinner. 

 

We were given a table just outside their private room, which you can request for when dining in a large group.

 

Needless to say, we had the Restaurant Week Dinner menu with wine pairing at $69++/pax. 

 

The place was filled up with diners, all for restaurant week.  

 

 Can't wait to start! 

 

For soup, you get to choose b/w Truffle Wild Mushroom Puree Soup or Curried Cauliflower Soup. We both went with Truffle Wild Mushroom Soup, paired with Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2009, with pure aromas of apricot nectar, lifted honeysuckle and orange oil perfume. 

 

The richness of the truffles permeated my nose as soon as it reached the table.
 

Testing the wine, it was slightly acidic for my taste buds, but Leecher enjoyed it.

We had Squid Ink Linguine with fresh calamari for the 2nd course. Not appealing to the senses at first glance for it looked like a gooey mess. 

This was paired with Ata Rangi Summer Rose 2010, which is a type of cheery-ish wine with hints of floral and herb. It left a drying tang on the finish despite it tasting slightly sweet.

 

With the dearest Leecher, while we waited for our main courses.

Leecher had Wagyu Beef Cheek slow braised in red wine & paired with Chateau Lavison Bordeaux Blend 2008. Bordeaux is arguably the most famous wine region in the world & I'll definitely love to pay a visit one day! A Bordeaux blend, is any combination of those grape varieties typically used to make red wines in Bordeaux. Red Bordeaux Blends are known for their powerful structure and deep flavours.

 

I went for 48 Degree Confit of Dill Infused Salmon & this was paired with Trinity Hill Hawkes Bay Pinot Noir 2010. This wine came from New Zealand, where grapes were hand-harvested from 3 different vineyards.

 We got to choose b/w Apple Fran or Tiramisu for desserts, so we ordered both to share. 

 

To end the night on a sweet note, we had Beni di Batasiolo Moscato Spumante. I love all types of moscato & will usually stock up a couple of bottles for own consumption at home :)

 

A pic with the hubby before leaving the restaurant :)   

While walking back to get the car, we came across the light show @ MBS. 

 It reminded me of the Symphony of Lights show in Hong Kong, where it involves more than 40 buildings on both sides of the harbour. Nevertheless, the one that we had was good enough.   

The Tasting Room

6 Raffles Boulevard

Marina Square #01-08

Singapore 039594

Tel: 6338 1829