Afternoon Tea at Anti:dote Bar @ Fairmont Singapore

Realised that my last visit to Anti:dote was way way back in 2016. Read more about the experience at that time, here. My friend Wendy, wanted to do afternoon tea, so this would be a timely revisit.

Reservation was made a week in advance via the hotel website and received a phone call the day after, to confirm the reservation. Wow, that was fast!

Was greeted at the entrance by the friendly staff and gotten my Safe Entry detected and vaccination status verified. My table was right at the back where there were already a few other tables occupied.

view from my seat

Wendy had arrived earlier and decided on her tea. "Sweet Innocence", she said. The menu stated it as an exceptional composition of black tea and green tea, combined with a fascinating mélange of fresh Japanese flower blossoms and ripe tropical mango.

Sweet Innocence Tea

And what was I having? Long black, apparently. Hahaaa, afternoon tea without tea. Hmmm.

Long black

Chose the $58++ set which was without any amuse bouche. Once order is placed, the famed afternoon tea drawer is brought out fairly quickly. Staff will briefly explain each of the tier and its items.

An Afternoon Indulgence @ Anti:dote

Sweets

Sandwiches

What shall we start first? For me, it would always be scones first. Would be nice if the scones were warm when served.

peekaboo

Madagascan Vanilla Scones

Lemon Butter Curd | Devonshire Clotted Cream | Strawberry Marmalade

The scone breaks open easily by hand with a single twist. And yes, I spread it with copious amount of curd, cream and jam. Wendy was aghast, and asked, "Are you sure?" Yes, I'm pretty sure that I want all the tasty flavours together! Keke.

It was nice but I do wished for different scone flavours to contrast? Perhaps, can bring back the parmesan scone?

eating it anyhow I like~

Next, let's go for something sweet. First sweets we tried was the tea-cake, which was essentially a small piece of financier with caramel sauce and adorned with popcorn. 

Popcorn Caramel | Sea Salt | Tea Cake

The pop-corn made an interesting visual but it was rather soggy and once we got past that, I thought I tasted toffee / caramel. Decided that I quite liked this one, minus the popcorn.

like eating soft toffee~

let's sip some tea/coffee before we continue

Next, one of the sandwiches. First one, was the squarish 'bread' of smoked salmon, ikura, homemade lox and green apple. Hmm, isn't lox the same as smoked salmon? 

Smoked Salmon | Ikura | Homemade Lox | Green Apple

hmmm

Unfortunately, I didn't like the square salmon item at all as it tasted rather flat with prominence of salty taste. However, Wendy liked it hence, am not sure if it was just this particular piece.

Next, I tried the macaron that has the Nespresso logo. So pretty, this macaron!

Philadephia Cheese Cake | Macarons

too much force?

Loved the macaron. The cream cheese was lovely and overall, not too sweet. The sweetness were all from the shell. Let's push this up to top 3 favourites.

There is also a Gin and Tonic Trolley Bartender Experience, and August 2021 collab is Fever Tree x  Monkey 47 Gin. I was naturally curious and requested for such an experience.

There are 3 types of Monkey 47 Gin available; Schwarzwald Dry Gin, Barrel Cut and Sloe Gin.

Monkey 47 Gin

One may inform the friendly bartender if you have any preferences for the drink. Thanks to Debbie, I got to try some tasting samples of Monkey 47 Gin, as I am noob in this area.

Original or barrel aged?

Interestingly, the '47' in Monkey 47 Gin indicates the number of botanicals that went into to gin, and its alcohol content is at 47%. Whoa!

The original is colourless and hits you straight up on first sip. Sharp, sweet citrus-sy, spicy all at once. The barrel aged and Sloe Gin versions are deeper in colour, and sweetest would be the Sloe Gin. There are heavier woody, peppery, berries and sweet notes in these two. 

Made my choice and happy with Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin, served in balloon glass with traditional garnish of grapefruit peel, served with Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic Water.

Monkey 47 Gin with Fever Tree Tonic Water @$23++

top it up with refreshingly flavourful tonic water

top view

Thanks to Debbie, I had a delicious drink. Refreshing and with adequate alcohol strength. And, paired this with stronger tasting savoury food such as Coronation Chicken tart.

Coronation Chicken

Tasted of curry, and goes well with the drink. The Vol Au Vent (puff pastry) was nicely flaky and not too thick. Feels healthy too, not oily.

Cucumber sandwich

The green jelly/jam like thingy at the top of the cucumber sandwich, had no taste and again, am not sure if it was meant to be like this?

front (yellow): Roasted Sweet Potato | Coconut Malibu Financier, Strawberry Pistachio Battenberg (cake)

I did enjoy the flavours from the bright yellow, happy looking roasted sweet potato coconut malibu financier. Goguma taste, not overly sweet with a hint of coconut. Yums! 

(left: green) Muscat Cream Choux Puff

The muscat cream choux puff tasted exactly as what it was. Of sweet grapes.

The item that had a heavy 'bread' like texture was the Organic Egg sandwich.

Organic Egg sandwich

eggy and bready

My favourite items from the Sandwich drawer are currently the Coronation Chicken and Old Winchester Cheese Hazelnut Oat Quiche. Forgot to take a photo of the quiche but it was tasty with a burst of soft cheese.

Capsules Coffee Bonbon (looks familiar hor?)

Favourite Top 3 from the Sweets tier are the Philadephia Cheese Cake Macaron, Nespresso Chocolate Hazelnut Sable and Roasted Sweet Potato Coconut Malibu Financier which is tied at third place with Popcorn Caramel Sea Salt Tea Cake.

Nespresso Chocolate | Hazulnut | Sable - elevated with gold flake

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience but the Sandwich/Savoury items could be further improved. 

Alas, we forgot to take our cookies from the drawer and it was whisked away never to be seen again when staff came to clear away the drawer. So sad!

Expect to spend ~$95 (with Gin and Tonic Trolley Bartender Experience), or ~$68 without additional drinks.

Anti:dote

Address: 80 Bras Basah Rd, Level 1, Fairmont, Singapore 189560

Website: https://www.fairmont-singapore.com/dining/antidote/

Contact: 6431 5315

Kafe UTU Revisited @ 12 Jiak Chuan Road

Back again after a month or so, and this time to try some new items in the dinner menu with the rest of the foodie gang. It was a somewhat deja vu moment as we sat at the same table as we did, one month ago! Here is the link to previous visit.

While waiting for the last person to arrive, we ordered up our drinks with half the group opting for mocktails and the other half preferred the alcoholic ones.  That night, we left our drinks selection in the hands of Ivan, the Head Bartender at Kafe UTU.

He asked what would I prefer. I said, "Gin based and slightly sweet. Make it special."  After a long while, my drink arrived in a dainty tokkuri (徳利) and it came with a little cute heart. How'd they know I like Japanese stuffs? *winks*

The Alcoholics

Gin-based Special #1

I liked the special gin mix that was not too strong, sweet and refreshing. Thank you Ivan for the thoughtful creation.

Grapefruit Negroni

Whiskey-based  Special #2

Rum-based Special #3

The Mocktails

Fruit-based and refreshingly tangy

Watermelon-based with egg white

Tiki drink

Berry refreshing

Can you guess which of the above mocktail was for a guy? Hehe.

But where's the food? One word of advice, do place your food order quickly before the kitchen gets really really busy with the avalanche of orders.

KIDOGO (BITES)

Malindi Croquettes @$12

I think the Malindi Croquettes came to our table by mistake but we ended up ordering two more plates of it. Smallish in size, but it packed a punch in flavour. Best eaten when served. The insides are super soft and creamy, with a nice golden crisp batter. Pause for 5 seconds after the first swallow and notice the rising burn. Wow, it was deceptively spicy! Well, the menu did say Habanero...but guessed we just didn't noticed it. But it was shioks!

fresh cassava leaves, ginger, garlic, Habanero, House spices, Bechamel

Pan Con Tomate with House Smoked Anchovies & Garlic @$18

The tomato cold soup was as how we remembered it, and the difference was in the toast. The smoked anchovies added another dimension to this.

SALADS

Roasted Pumpkin Kale Salad (V) @$20

FROM MAMA AFRICA

West African Charred Aubergine Stew with Angus Beef Cheek (served with basmati rice) @$30

We loved to hear the origins of the dish and the aubergine turns out to be Kurt's favourite birthday dish! Can easily understand why, as the beef cheek has a pleasant smokey flavour yet tender with each bite. Moist with the Liberian sauce, its spices were pleasant and delightful when laden ontop a spoonful of basmati white rice. Yums.

Moroccan Lemon Chicken Tagine @$29

Yes, there was no tagine (طجين) for the Moroccan Lemon Chicken Tagine dish. The tagine is a shallow earthen pot which is often recognised for its upside down cone shaped cover. It's ok not to have the tagine though because the chicken was still very delicious.

The star of this dish, got to be the quinoa. Superbly moist, flavourful and delightful with the onions.

Macanese African Chicken with Mango Salsa @$29

The Macanese African Coconut sauce looked a tad oily but we did not care a bit. Cut a small piece of that chicken, swirl it all over the sauce and into the mouth it went. Lovely.

The Macanese African Chicken With Mango Salsa is served with quinoa, and the quinoa in this dish was rather interesting as well. It was made into a patty and pan-fried, which resulted in a nice crust on its outer part much like the taste of scorched rice.

We also had some of the favourites from the previous round; the Swahili Fish Curry and Liberian Peanut Chicken Stew. These two dishes paired so well with the basmati rice.

PASTRIES

We ordered our previous favourites; the carrot cake and the soft serve ice-cream. Malindi Halwa was added after Kurt shared more stories of how this dessert snug into the menu. Yes, we do love stories especially if it was about Sheiks, master craftsmen and their favourite dessert.

Malindi Halwa @$10

"Would it be too sweet?" I was thinking in my mind. "How does Kafe UTU's version of Halwa taste like?"

Halwa is sweet confections made in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. There's flour based halwa, nut butter based halwa but this texture was something unfamiliar. I felt like I might be eating a cube of watermelon (based on visual), but it tasted of spices and a pleasant sweetness with a light but not so bouncy texture. The Kafe UTU's halwa is made of dragonfruit juice, hazelnuts and cashew nuts,  macadamia, pistachios with Malindi spices. There's yoghurt on the plate for a slight sour taste. There's crisp spiced Dukha filo too. Interesting!

Carrot cake was a crowd favourite, but soft serve ice-cream is life! The flavour on that night was dark chocolate. Previous visit, we had coffee soft serve.

UTU Soft Serve Ice Cream @$4

SIPPING GIN

One shall not pass a chance to savour some sipping gin. Sipping gin is basically a gin that is good enough to drink neat.

Cheers to Good Food, Good Drinks and Good Company~

Procera Gin

Procera Gin, is an African craft gin and has African botanicals from Morocco, Kenya, Somalia, Zanzibar, Madagascar and Sierra Leone. It is the first and only gin crafted with African juniper.

Lovely aroma, strong and pleasantly smooth on the throat.

Kurt asked if we would like to try something that is currently not on the menu yet. Would we be too full since we were done with dessert as well? And miss a chance to try new menu? No way. And that was how we ended up with more food.

Off menu special Nigerian Beef Suya

The meat was tender, marinade was on point and the crispy homemade chapati provided the contrast in texture to the tender flavourful meat. Eaten like a wrap with pickled thinly sliced cucumbers and piled with as much kachumbari as you like.

lovely onglet

Once this makes its appearance in the menu, hesitate not. It was delicious.

All in all, expect to spend between $40 to $60 per pax for a drink and a good meal.

An enjoyable Friday night out with Kris, Elle, Rachelle, Tiara, Shermaine, Alvin, Hence and Ivan. Thank you Kurt for your hospitality, and team UTU for taking care of us that night.

Kafe Utu

Address: 12 Jiak Chuan Road Singapore 089265
Contact: +65 6996 3937
Website: https://kafeutu.com/

Business Hours:    

Kafe Utu
Closed Monday
Tuesday – Sunday: 8am – 5pm

Utu Lounge
Closed Monday
Tuesday – Thursday: 6pm-11pm
Friday & Saturday: 6pm-1am
Sunday: 1130am - 5pm