SET Contemporary Cuisine 套 @ PoMo

Located at Level 2 PoMo, Selegie Road. Been to the nearby bean place for drinks, but that was aeons ago. Took bus #166 from Novena MRT station, and alighted at Middle Road (after the stop opp. of Burlington Square). Selegie Road is about 6 minutes walk from there, and there's a traffic light to cross. Just look for the bright neon lights.

@ SET

The place looks spacious, and rightfully so as it is a 94 seater main dining area, with more seats at its alfresco and private dining area.

private dining area for larger groups

Or, if one prefers a more intimate setting, how about a table by the window?

just the two of us

The concept here, is to serve contemporary cuisine at affordable prices. A 5-course lunch @$28.80++, and 6-course dinner @$38.80++. Both courses consist of chef starter, cold dish, soup, main course and dessert, while dinner course will also include the Grilled King Mushroom side dish.

menu

Let's begin, shall we? First up, Chef Starter of bacon and mushroom gratin. Served piping hot, the shallow savoury gratin looked nondescript but was cheesily good with the pillowy white kopitiam bread toasted to a crisp.

Chef Starter

savoury gratin on a crispy toast

Moving on to the cold dishes, there are 4 choices to take your pick from. But before that, a plate of salad roll with pork floss to share, compliments from the kitchen. Thanks Chef.

salad roll with pork floss

Right, now the cold dishes. Huai San Carpaccio is unusual. Thinly sliced, with a very very slight refreshing crunch and the tiny chopped bits of beets and peach added some sweetness to it.

One could really taste the citrus tang in the Smoked Duck Breast dish but my favourite, would be the Tomato Caprese. Mozarella cheese that's fluffy and light, yet creamy smooth coupled with juicy tomato with a light crunch from the sea-salt. Yum.

Huai San Carpaccio

Smoked Salmon Gravlax

Smoked Duck Breast

Tomato Caprese

As it was dinner, the side-dish of Grilled King Oyster Mushroom was up next.

Side Dish - Grilled King Oyster Mushroom

Liked the smokey charred flavour of the mushroom. Tasted meaty and the teriyaki sauce with mayo goes very well with it. There's a small dollop of truffle mayo foam on the side for a variant in flavour.

For soups, there are two Asian influenced ones and two of Western type.

Roasted Pumpkin with Truffle

Mushroom Veloute with Peanut Butter

The roasted pumpkin soup was creamy and milky. Thought the mushroom soup was a tad bitter. Understand that there were bits of grilled king oyster mushroom that was used in this soup, for that intense flavour.

Miso soup with sake

My favourite soup was the Double-Boiled Herbal Chicken soup. Nothing beats comfort food. Velvety hot soup with that homely taste. A nourishing bowl of good soup. More please.

Double-Boiled Herbal Chicken soup

The mains arrived soon after, and the portions are good. Liked that the menu was designed to have most types of meat from the land to the sea.

Marinated Rack of Lamb

rosy pink

Three small chops of lamb, strongly flavoured and well cooked with meat still tender. One of my favourite main dish.

Grilled Snapper with Salsa

The snapper was cooked till firm, and just lightly seasoned so that one could taste the sweetness of the caramelized onions. A dash of salt would be good.

Roasted Chicken

Roasted chicken looked 'cute'. Roundish mound as it was boneless and stuffed. Meat was a bit dry though, hence good to mop it up with some sweetish chestnut sauce.

Baby Pork Back Ribs

Generous portion of back ribs to satisfy the meaty cravings of any carnivore. Slight prod with a fork, and the meat was easily separated. Sweet sauce, very asian-styled.

Crowd favourite, the Roasted Beef Tenderloin. Nice plump juicy meat. Enjoyable chew.

Roasted Beef Tenderloin

juicy and tender

And when you thought your stomach could fit in no more, there's still desserts.

Huai San Jello

Huai San Jello was very likeable. Refreshingly sweet, light and easy to eat. The taste of sweetness from dried longans was very promiment.

Espresso Creme Brûlée

Loved the Espresso Creme Brûlée. Smooth, sweet as sweets ought to be and that touch of bitter espresso. Nice.

Pistachio Panna Cotta

The desserts' menu do have a lot of pudding-like items. Fret not if you're not a pudding-lover. There's cake of the day too.

Homemade Cake of the Day

Desicated coconut, dense brownie-like cake. A bit dry for me. Perhaps a scoop of homemade gelato to go along with this?

Poached Pear with Gelato

The sweetness from the poached pear was quite intense. Go for this, if you like really sweet desserts. Homemade gelato was pleasingly good.

Here's my pick for a 5-course set menu:
Chef Starter
Cold Dish - Tomato Caprese
Soup - Double-boiled Herbal Chicken
Main Course - Marinated Rack of Lamb / Roasted Beef Tenderloin
Dessert - Espresso Creme Brûlée / Huai San Jello

And, perhaps add a glass of wine with prices starting from $8++.

Special thanks to Petrina and Lay Peng, and the team behind the creative SET, led by Chef Erick. A spacious place with good ambiance, enthusiastic crew and interesting dishes. Not forgetting Li Tian, my fellow blogosphere friend.

SET Contemporary Cuisine

Location: No. 1 Selegie Road, PoMo #02-01, Singapore 188306
Opening Hours: Daily from11:30am to 22:00pm
Website: www.set-sg.com
Contact Number: 6337 7644

Marco Marco @ Novena Square | The Entertainer App 2014

Located at Level 2 of Velocity, Novena Square. It is currently one of the merchants listed in Entertainer App 2014, so thought of using it during lunch time.

However, only 3 classic pastas (Arbuzzo, Jaipur and Bologna) are valid under the 1-for-1 main course deal.

menu

My colleague had an Arbuzzo, while I got the Jaipur.

Arbuzzo @$7.90

Jaipur @$10.90

The Arbuzzo was basically aglio-olio, with plenty of garlic pieces. Spicy as well. The Jaipur was chicken tandoori, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms in tomato based sauce. Vegetarian option is available for the Jaipur.

For drinks, there's ice-lemon tea (@$2.50), some canned drinks and mineral water ($1.50). Illy coffee is available and a black coffee is priced at $3.80. Prices are nett.

With the Entertainer App, the savings was $7.90.

Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 @ Resorts World Sentosa

Located at The Forum RWS, Level 1. Was at the S.E,A Acquarium for half-a-day of entertainment with the family, when we realized that our stomach had been empty since we last ate during breakfast. Thank goodness it was a breakfast buffet (of sorts, well...that story belongs to another post).

So, we popped by Din Tai Fung for an early dinner around 4+ in the evening. Odd timing for a meal, so got our table easily.

wet towel (complimentary)

Of course, one would order the perennial favourite, the xiao long baos with 18-folds. Loved the pork broth.

steamed pork dumplings (aka xiao long bao)

vegetable and pork buns

On hindsight, one can skip the vegetable and pork buns. Very little pork and the filling was too dry. An almost grassy mouthfeel.

vegetable and pork bun

For main course, two plates of pork chop fried rice.

pork chop fried rice

Hmm....fried rice was good looking and seasoned very very mildly. Pork chop was abit dry as well. But we were hungry, so into the stomach it went.

The plate of stir-fried vegetable took forever to arrive, so we ordered vegetable and pork dumplings. Oops, we wondered if it'll suffer the same fate as the dry vegetable bun.

vegetable and pork dumplings

It was actually better than the buns. The fillings were slightly moist and fattier bits of meat. Enjoyable with plenty of vinegar and ginger shreds.

Total bill came up to about $78 and fed a family of 5 adults.

West Co'z Cafe @ Yew Tee Point

Located at Level 1 of Yew Tee Point @ Choa Chu Kang North 6. Yew Tee Point is very near the Yew Tee MRT. Where's Yew Tee? All the way towards the north-west area of Singapore, next to Choa Chu Kang. This place serves halal zhichar (煮炒).

menu

interior

Service was patchy, but earnest. Patience is welcomed.

Signature dish? Ok, let's try one

Ordered some mains to share. Food arrived fairly quickly.

Curry Fish Head @$20+

had to dig quite a bit to find the fish

stir fried kangkong @$9+

bittergourd omelette @$8+

Ordered all small portions for the dishes.

saucy dinner

The curry fish head sauce was thick, tasty, lemak and quite spicy. However, the fish was abit of a letdown as its flesh not as firm as anticipated.

The best dish, was actually the stir-fried kangkong. Thumbs up for this plate of well-fried vegetable.

Drinks prices varies between $1.50+ to $2.50+, and a plate of white rice goes for a dollar each.

Total cost was $60 inclusive of drinks, and enough food to feed 4 to 5 pax.

Tim Ho Wan 添好运 @ Westgate

Located at Level 1 of Westgate, Jurong East. This outlet was opened last December 2013. It's been 10 months since, and here's an account of a first-time visitor. Neither have I been to Tim Ho Wan's original outlet in Hong Kong where its Michelin star shines.

Visited on a weekend, during tea-break time, close to 4pm. Shop was bustling but there was no queue. Got our table within 5 minutes.

Paper menu on table, take your pick and write it down on the order-chit. Pass it to the service staff and food shall be served within minutes. Fast and efficient. For a family of 5 (adults), we had 13 items and 2 bowls of congee to share. That was like 3 plates per pax. Wow. Haha, guess we wanted to try it all! (almost)

食点心

write your orders here

3 dishes that's under Chef's Recommendation

Started with a bowl of congee, of chopped bits of lean pork, century and salted egg.

light tasting bowl of congee (@$4.20)

For contrast in texture, have the congee with a plate of Chef's recommeded crispy fish skin with garlic.

crispy fish skin with garlic (@$6.80)

The crunch from the fish skin was quite shiok. Sis ordered the glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf.
 

lotus leaf glutinous chicken rice (@$5)

chicken thigh meat, lean pork, chinese sausage and mushroom

Flavours for the glutinous rice was good, but too much rice compare to filings ratio.

pan-fried carrot cake (@$4.50)

vermicelli roll stuffed with pig's liver

pork dumpling with shrimp (@$5)

The cheong fun with pig liver was different from expectation. Thought the liver would be mushy but it was slightly sprightly and chewy. Think I'd stick with shrimps and char siew version of the cheong fun for now. Carrot cake was nice and fragrant but lacked the chinese sausage and dried shrimps kind of oomph.

spring roll with egg white 赛螃蟹春卷 (@$4.20)

beef balls (陈皮牛肉球) with beancurd skin (@$4.20)

Spring rolls were well-fried but couldn't really discern the ingredients inside the rolls. Beef balls were tender but a tad soft. Thankfully, the taste of dried tangerine peel is not too strong. Subtle yet distinct enough. Quite enjoyable. Not too sure about the role of the beancurd skin here though. There wasn't any sauce for it to soak also.

chinese tea @$1.50 per head (refillable)

Beancurd skin rolls is also something that I'd order when having dim sum. The version here at Tim Ho Wan was three nicely padded rolls and lots of sauce.

beancurd skin roll with pork and shrimp (@$4)

well steamed, adequate ingredients

Coming up, plates to munch that doesn't fill you up. The chicken claws and pork ribs.

chicken feet (@$5)

pork ribs (@$4.20)

One word to describe the pork ribs: 滑 (smooth).  Seriously, smooth. But has small bones, so eat cautiously. The chicken feet is not fall off the bones tender, yet can be easily 'tackled' (解决). The sauce for both were pretty light. Mild flavours, more on texture.

The last are reserved for the last two heavenly kings; 四大天王之二.

steamed egg cake (@$5)

baked bun with bbq pork (@$4.50)

sweet bbq pork

Felt that the baked bbq pork bun was more value for money (in comparison to the rest of the dim sums here). Baked till crisp outer layer that's non-greasy, with strongly flavoured moist sweet bbq pork fillings. The 马来糕, or steamed egg cake was a tad sweeter than expected and was rather enjoyable. Less fluffy than expected, more moist and can taste the brown sugar. Think it'll pair quite well with a cup of coffee.

Service staff was efficient, and worked swiftly to clear off plates that are empty. Liked that there are conscientious staff, whom would finish topping up the tea before attending to the needs of other customers. Generally quite friendly too.

Felt that the flavours at Tim Ho Wan Westgate, tend to be on the lighter side of things and its prices are best suited for dining in a group or at least with a partner.


Expect to spend between $10 to $20 per pax when dining here.