Brunch with style at Origin Grill's new Sunday Vintage Brunch which places a focus on a selection of vintage wines for the ultimate epicurean experience. Why? Because champagne brunches are so over. Adding to the romance and nostalgia is the sunlit grand railway decor that welcomes you as you embark on this gastronomic journey.

The dining experience commences with Chef de Cuisine Heidi Flanagan’s signature appetisers – Yummy Toast, Cured House Salmon, San Daniele Prosciutto, Flaky Pastry, Doughnut Time, Charred Asparagus and Origin Salad – at unlimited servings. Go easy with this, we ordered almost everything and struggled with the lot. Strategy- go with a big group of friends so that you can sample a bite of each and not let all that glorious food go to waste.   

I'm a huge fan of that Yummy Toast, which has a creamy sweet pumpkin slathered over it, sweetened by a floral wild honey, balanced with a touch of tart goat's cheese and given some crunchiness with the pistachio. Perfect little bites these are! The grilled asparagus with gorgonzola sauce, prosciutto and house-cured salmon are standard fare done well and they paved way for the main event.

We started off with some NV Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut Champagne, and then moved on to their Vintage wines selection, a dry 2007 Domaine Trimbach Cuvée Frédéric Emile Alsace Riesling. I thought the petrol aroma was rather jarring but it was a lot better after the wine opens up. I much preferred the Tempranillo 2004 Bodegas López de Heredia, a Viña Tondonia Reserva.

Pick a main course of your choice with grilled mains or breakfast staples like eggs, which i would advise you to skip because what's a meal at Orgin Grill if you don't have one of their grilled dishes!
Steak lovers will Rangers Valley Striploin with Blue Cheese Butter, or the 35-days Aged John Stone Striploin. We had the striploin and it was very flavorful on its own!

What was even more gratifying was the Iberico Pork Chop which was absolutely the juiciest beast on a plate. This is the defining pork chop of my life and i thought it was even better than the steak. I enjoyed the hint of mustard along with the char.

If i have to give up red meat, i'd choose to have this Grilled Sea Bass Fillet for the rest of my life. 

treat yourself to the lavish spread of gratifying pastries, cakes and cheeses that changes weekly, and the live crepe station; as you end the brunch high- spirited with cocktails from the trolley. 

Sunday Vintage Brunch is available every Sunday from 12.00 pm to 3.00 pm; priced at $108++ for food & non-alcoholic drinks, $168++ for food, unlimited wines & cocktails, and $208++ for food, unlimited wines, cocktails & vintage wine pouring. 

Desserts- The Snickers Peanut Bar was more Mars Bar than Snickers imo. Well i can't fault the chocolate caramel but it was missing some peanuts i think. Nevertheless, that's my pick from the dessert section. The Matcha Lemon Cremeux Verrine was creamy but delightfully refreshing with a hint of matcha. The chocolate cone was great too but the rest of the desserts were rather plain. Fresh crepes are also served on demand. 

Lobby Level, Tower Wing, Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore 22 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258350 

Opening Hours:

Lunch: 12noon – 2:30pm (grill) Dinner: 6pm – 10:30pm (grill)

Tel: (65) 6213 4398

Skirt is raising the steaks and is now more than what you'd expect of a regular steakhouse. Using the season's best produce, Skirt is now serving a new menu of modern European cuisine with a distinct Asian overtone.

To prove that it's not just a steakhouse, the first appetizer we had was a Sri Lankan Crab and Caviar with Shellfish bisque and Lemongrass ($32). The cold sweet crab contrasted with the warm umami bisque, which reminds me very much of Thai food, probably due to the aromatics used in the dish. 

Another Asian tasting appetizer was the Marinated Raw Beef with Crispy Rice and Chipotle dressing ($28) which is only available for lunch (Skirt is now open for lunch on Saturday and they serve a bistro style menu). If you like your pungent onion, this spiced beef dish will hit the spot. Me.. well i'm more of a regular beef tartare girl. 

There are other slight twists to the typical steakhouse appetizers, like the Oven Roasted Bone Marrow ($45) which was stuffed with escargot and Café de Skirt Butter. I'm not a fan of bone marrow since there's absolutely no flavor in them are is always very oily. What worked here is garlic butter that flavors the escargot and the bone marrow at the same time. Fresh sourdough is served with this to help you mop up all that mess. 

Sweetbread vs Sweet Bread. Which will you go for? If you got that mixed up, well, you may think that the sweetbread in the Veal Sweetbread and Foie Gras ($45) is a doughy fried carb. Well, brain and pancreas do have that kind texture. I much preferred the pan seared foie gras which was buttery. The richness of the offals is cut by the tangy red wine jus but the mushrooms kinda soaked up all that oil. Definitely not a dish for the faint-hearted. Literally and figuratively.  

Of course, what's a steakhouse without a proper steak! We had the Chef's special, a Grilled Cape Grim Sirloin with celeriac foam, truffle and artichoke caviar. I had mine medium-rare and it was perfect. A similar cut is the Black Market Sirloin ($82) which is on the menu.

To accompany the meat, i'd definitely order the Baby Beets and Blunts with Labneh ($21) because it's cold and refreshing with a lemony burst. 

Eat your greens! The Broccoli Rabe ($11) was buttery and salty but still provided the dose of fibre.

For carbs, i'm likely to go with the Lobster Mac & Cheese ($19) instead of the layered Duck Fat Potatoes ($15) because who can resist gooey cheese! There are some chunks of lobster that required some poking around to find. Share this with company as it's unlikely one can stomach the whole plate, even though the cheese wasn't that rich.  

Dessert was a surprise to us and despite all that food, we all made space for the Banana and Pistachio Pizza ($18) with vanilla bean ice cream. YES WE EACH HAD ONE. Gosh that thin crispy filo pastry base was amazing and when the ice cream melts on it, it turned a little soft and chewy. Plus the pistachio fragrance was amazing.

Some hits and misses at Skirt but the steaks are still great, and there are alternatives for non cow-eating creatures, and boy you MUST have their desserts.

Skirt

W Singapore - Sentosa Cove 

21 Ocean Way Singapore 098374 

Tel: +65 6808 7278

Daily: 6 - 11.30pm
Sat: 12 - 3pm

Wah Lok Restaurant at Carlton Hotel Singapore celebrates their 30th year anniversary with a revival of their best dishes in the last three decades! The following dishes are available from now till 31 August and tasted of the good old days of traditional Cantonese cooking. Miss it, and you'll regret it.

We started with a refreshing Chilled Sliced Roasted Duck with Water Chestnut & Dough Fritter ($16 small).  

This definitely wasn't what i expected from the description. To put it simply, this is a Chinese chopped salad with juicy slices of roast meat and deep fried you tiao (which is almost cracker-like) plus refreshing bites of water chestnut, all coated with a tangy cocktail sauce. This could make a good substitute for the Chinese New Year Yusheng. 

I enjoyed the simple but flavorful Braised Bamboo Fungus stuffed with Asparagus and Crab Claw in Golden Crown ($18/pax). The superior stock sauce is key to this dish. Of course, the lovely crab claw was pillowy and sweet. There's a light wok hei aroma to the dish, without any of the bitterness.  

Prawns are usually done rather predictably in Chinese restaurants i.e. Salted Egg, cereal coated, wasabi mayonnaise... It's a first that i had Prawns with Rose Sauce ($30 small). Yes the sauce is made from the bandung syrup and thankfully it was not overpowering. The eggy and airy puff that hides the prawns was a crunchy cloud that did not turn soggy from the sauce. Try it if you're a prawn lover. 

You know you’d be eating balanced and well at Six Senses, a brand that pays high attention to wellness and sustainability. At Yellow Pot, Six Senses Singapore’s modern Chinese restaurant, Chef Sebastian Goh delivers a contemporary Chinese menu that avoids unhealthy additives, banging his buck on sustainably-sourced ingredients and local produce and contemporary techniques to please the diner’s palate. And it works.

Practically everything is made from scratch here- all sauces are made in-house, and there is no use of sugar or salt as well. 

We started with a juicy and refreshing Chilled Organic Vine-Ripened Tomatoes ($8 for 4 pcs) which were infused with preserved Li Hing plum and Farm Delight micro herbs. I was amazed by the tomato- it had a crunchy exterior but a plumy and jammy inside. Great way to whet your appetite.

Next, a rejuvenating Chicken Soup ($12/portion) slow-cooked with a shimeji-stuffed tomato. The rich but not cloying soup is made from simmering chicken for a good 3 days to extract all that goodness. The organic vine-ripened tomatoes are stuffed with an assortment of mushrooms, including wood ear mushrooms, enoki and shimeji and it has a comforting ginger zing to it.

Dashi is the ‘Broth of Life’ to the Japanese- it is the backbone to all Japanese dishes. At NAMI Restaurant & Bar, dashi is an art mastered to perfection by Head Chef Shigeo Akiba. While some fine dining restaurants in Singapore only have 1 to 3 dashi for their dishes, Chef Akiba showcases up to 8 different types of dashi in the refined dashi-forward menu, all prepared in-house using meticulous age-old methods and best picks of kelp and bonito and superior seafood.

To better appreciate this elixir of life, i'd suggest checking out Nami's monthly Dashi workshop  ($118/pax includes a 4 course lunch) where Chef will break down the various components of the dashi and you'll get to compare how superior dashi compares to the commercial hondashi.

TLDR version, awesome dashi at NAMI, it's damn labor intensive to make, and i'm ruined for life because i only have hondashi at home.

Let's get into the 3 (chefs), 2 (nights), and 1 (Michelin Star) on the Beefbar x Ash & Elm collaboration happening this weekend! S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna has brought together the signatures of Hong Kong's one Michelin star Beefbar Chef Andrea Spagoni, and InterContinental Singapore's Chef Philippe Duc and Chef Ben Goh for a special five-course menu. 

The menu starts with an Amberjack carpaccio with wasabi dressing and coriander cress, followed by a Beef tartare “bistro style”. 

There's no doubt of the quality of the prime beef served by Beefbar Hong Kong, the only star-rated steakhouse in Hong Kong. Within the first year of opening in 2017, they earned their first Michelin star, and have kept it for the second year running. Tenderloin is used in this chunky beef tartare. 

Next, the Pan-seared Hokkaido scallops by Chef Philippe. Chef even gave us a class on how to prepare scallops (that are still in their shell). 

I loved the sweetness in the firm scallop, which had a nice browned crust to it, paired with a tangy brown butter sauce. 

For mains, 2 cuts of beef were served- American prime Black Angus tenderloin, and Australian wagyu-crossbred striploin. The tenderloin slices like butter! For those who prefer a richer flavor, you'd enjoy the striploin for sure. 

Dessert Rouge was prepared by award-winning Chef Ben Goh, and features a lovely Single origin 68% cuvee Bali chocolate crémeux and a yuzu yoghurt sherbet, decorated with strawberry compote and vanilla meringue. THAT CHOCOLATE was amazing! I finished every bit of that dessert! 

Go get a table if you haven't. The five-course dinner is $128/pax and wine pairing is available at an addition $88. Looking forward to more of the Fine Dining Lovers Guest Chef Series by fine dining waters S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna.

Ash & Elm InterContinental Singapore

80 Middle Rd, Singapore 188966

Tel: +65 6825 1008

I cannot emphasize how much of a good deal the Morton's of Chicago Sunday Lunch Special is! From $98/pax, you get to enjoy a sumptuous 3 course set lunch featuring some of their signature steaks. And, there are even more choices now as Morton's has gotten some new additions just for lunch. 

The 3 course includes an appetizer, entree and a dessert and the options are simply mouth-watering. 

Appetizers feature some salads, and i had a proper taste of the Chopped House Salad this time and found it to be very appetizing with refreshing chunks of avocado, onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. Plus one can not resist bacon. 

If you don't mind spending a bit more, how about a heady and rich Lobster Bisque (+$10) with a juicy piece of flesh swimming in the creamy broth. Morton's signature Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail and Maine Lobster Cocktail are also available at an added cost if you are looking to indulge in fresh seafood. 

What's a Morton's meal without some delectable steaks! An 8.5oz Filet Mignon with asparagus and mashed potatoes is available at no added cost. But if you're a steak connoisseur, their center-cut Prime Ribeye, New York Strip, and Porterhouse are available as add-ons. 

Non-steak eaters also have a wider variety of options. Chicken Christopher, Chicken Bianco, Honey-balsamic Glazed Salmon, Shrimp Scampi Capellini, and Short Rib Bolognese are available as entrees. 

Aren't you tired of the usual communal or cafe brunch offerings yet? Well JW Marriott Singapore South Beach comes to the rescue with their classy brunch "A Japanese Affair" at Akira Back. Buffet it is not. Instead, you get to feast on an 8-course brunch designed by Executive Chef Tomoyuki Kiga.

Customize your own brunch with the varied choices provided. For your sake, i've expanded my waistline just to taste everything, so that you wouldn't waste your calories! Start with some AB Sake Junmai Ginjo (30ml) instead of the regular soda or Gemmaicha that is included in the course.

I was half worried that a huge pizza would show up on the table for this carb course. Well turns out that the pizza is more of a thin crunchy cracker. Both the tuna and mushroom are lovely! If you want a rich and robust flavor, go for the truffle mushroom. The tuna with onion is rather refreshing too. 

For the Zensai course, i'm not too sure what we had but it's probably the salad of the day. Loved the presentation of this crunchy salad, adequately spiked by a spicy goma sauce. The way to eat this is to smash it all and mix it together. 

The Sakana course is either the Sashimi or Sushi. Pick 3 from the list of fresh fish that is flown in twice weekly from Tsukiji (where else right?). The regular selection of maguro, hamachi, shake, unagi, tako, and tamago is available.

For a Japanese restaurant, i didn't think the sushi rice was up to standard, it definitely needs more seasoning in it. The fish were alright, but the unagi was a tad rubbery. 

The Agemono course of tempura presents 3 deep fried items of your choice. White fish, ebi, soft shell crab, eggplant, sweet potato and shiitake are available. While i enjoyed the seafood, i thought the batter could less heavy as it held a fair bit of excess oil. 

Cleanse your palate with either the vodka lychee granita or raspberry sorbet before moving on to the mains! I recommend the tender Beef cheek with soy bordelaise, honey roasted carrot, oba kimchee; or the Spring chicken, done in a spicy Korean spicy marinade.

The grilled Hamachi Kama was rather plain, and the chirashi-don failed me with their rice. 

Not full still? Well after the Garlic fried rice or Hosomaki roll, you'll arrive at slumberland in no time.

I'd go with the crunchy and fragrant garlic fried rice for sure, even though you may need more than a couple of mints after. 

For desserts, the Shiratama was gorgeous. I loved the milk pudding that held up all the little Japanese sweets.

The Matcha cake was rich but the sweetness was balanced by the tart strawberry compote. I enjoyed both, but the pudding was just right to end the heavy meal.

Akira Back, JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach

30 Beach Road, Level B1M, Singapore 189763

Tel: +65 6818 1914

Weekend Brunch: 12 - 3pm