[Media Invite] Monti Festino Sunday Brunch @ 1-Pavilion

It's the weekend and if you are looking to indulge, why not give Monti Festino Sunday Brunch a try? It has a good selection of foods, gorgeous view of the bay and warm service from team Monti. The right recipe for a good time.

Monti Festino Sunday Brunch

every view is good

The brunch at Monti was a relaxed affair. Arrive at the venue, and you'll be immediately greeted and seated by the friendly and efficient team. Browse through the 3-page menu and staff will bring forth the cold seafood platter (fruitti di mare) for starters.

let the feast begin

The Fruitti Di Mare platter consists of chilled Alaskan King crab, cooked tiger prawns, tuna tataki, salmon sashimi slices, Fine de Claire oysters, mussels and clams. Good for two pax. Loved the oysters and tuna tataki!

Fruitti Di Mare

How about some greens to balance out the diet? At Monti, the salad will be prepared at your table-side, ala Italian-style and served fresh.

dressing it up

We could clearly see what goes into that salad. There were Liliput capers, Mediterranean olives,crisp lettuce, onions, shallots, croutons, cherry tomatoes, octopus and lemon dressing. Finished off with lots of care and love for their diners.

The taste of the salad was bright and refreshing. No additional salt added.

Grilled Octopus salad

If you are enjoying the free-flow of alcoholic drinks, then wouldn't the Charcuterie & Cheese Platter comes to mind? Great that Monti has got this covered in their Sunday Brunch menu so just order up! We had salami, San Daniele ham, walnuts, apricot, grapes, pecorini, cheddar and a type of soft cheese.

Charcuterie & Cheese Platter

cheers

And, one gets to order one of Monti's signature dish; the Cacio Pepe e Tartufo or also known as truffle risotto. Table-side service, no less.

round and round, into the cheese wheel it goes

black truffle

more please

But what's brunch without eggs benedict? If you must have it, Monti has it! Eggs benedict, eggs florentine, french toast and basically eggs done any way that you prefer.The poached egg was perfectly runny. Just use those crisp toast to mop it all up. So good.

eggs florentine

eggs benedic t

The french toast was light and eggy. Served with honey cinnamon mascarpone, fresh berries and caramelized bananas. Lovely.

french toast

By then, I was ready for the meats. Bring 'em. But first, how about a pan-fried foie gras on toast with balsamic reduction and served with wine jelly. It was love at first bite. Very nice.

foie gras

For meats and seafood, there's seabass with white wine butter sauce, barbeque pork rib, charcoal girlled iberico pork jowl, grilled lamb chop and rib-eye steak.

seabass with white wine butter sauce

pork rib

prawn bowl

My favourite meats were the pork jowl and ribeye steak. First time having pork jowl, and was surprised by the firm yet not tough texture. The edges of the meat had slight char and the added smokiness was rather enticing.

iberico pork jowl

The ribeye was easy to slice and was of medium doneness. Reasonable amount of fats and it was such joy to eat.

ribeye steak with red wine jus

beauty

Interestingly, there is a DIY station to concoct your own cocktail, specifically Bloody Mary and Mojito. So anyone (that is of legal drinking age) can try their hands in mixing the drinks. No worries, as the friendly staff will be on-hand to guide. Hehe. Quite fun! For mojito, you'll just need palm sugar, rum, lotsa mint leaves, lemon wedges and ice.

Purple Taste Mojito

Don't leave without trying the pasta. Choose your noodles, choice of sauce and ingredients and Chef will fire up a plate just for you. Not to worry as the pasta was done in a manageable portion.

aglio olio

Any room for dessert? You bet! The dessert table was really pretty. The mini bite-sized portions of the cakes and tartlets were really thoughtful as we could try more variety.

tiramisu

torta caprese

amaretti cookies

mango panna cotta

Struffoli with honey and chocolate

Tasted all the above dessert and loved them all. The tiramisu was a favourite and so was the struffoli.

Thank you Elle for the invite and Marina for hosting the brunch. Special thanks to Chef Felix, Martin and team Monti for taking care of us that day.

Buon appetito!

Monti at 1-Pavilion

Location: 82 Collyer Quay, The Fullerton Pavilion, 049327 Singapore
Website: http://www.monti.sg
Contact: +65 65350724
Business Hours:

Monday – Sunday:
12.00pm to 1.00am
Public Holidays :
6.00pm to 1.00am

Sunday Brunch Price:
$90++ for brunch without drinks
$120++ for brunch with non-alcoholic drinks
$140++ for brunch with free flow of wine
$160++ for brunch with free flow champagne

[Media Invite] Inaniwa Yosuke 稲庭養助 x J Passport @ Japan Food Town Wisma Atria

Had visited Inaniwa Yosuke prior for drinks and snacks. This time round, had the opportunity to try their Spring Lunch Fair which sees shops in Japan Food Town offering one or two Spring-season dishes at $11.80++. The Japan Food Town Spring Lunch Fair runs till 21st May (Sunday). Inaniwa Yosuke Spring Lunch Fair dishes are Sakura Ebi & Negi Barakakiage and Vegetable Barakakiage Udon (Hot/Cold) at $11.80++ each.

interior

Inaniwa Yosuke has been serving handmade soba with a recipe that has been around since 1665. This labour intensive udon which takes about 4 days and made only in small batches, was only served to the Imperial family. In 1860, Inaniwa udon finally was made available to public.

udon making posters on the wall

Lunch crowd will start coming in at about 1215pm on a weekday. Customers are greeted upon entering and leaving the restaurant. My lunch pick for the day was Sakura Ebi & Negi Barakakiage. Added an order for prawn tempura.

Sakura Ebi & Negi Barakakiage (@$11.80++)

closer view of the udon

Opted for the cold noodles and the udon sauce was served separately. Just pour in the amount desired. Not to worry if you'd like to pour the whole bottle as it was flavoured mildly. The noodles were firm and easy to slurp. The sakura ebi and spring onions fritters were freshly fried upon order. Same as the tempura. The spring onions added a delicate fragrance to the dish. There's a small dish of sliced onions with a dollop of wasabi for that little bit of flavour lifting.

wasabi and onions

prawn tempura (3 pieces @$14++)

The prawn tempura was medium sized, well-fried and its batter remained crisp. However, the prawn was a tad overcooked. It was quite a filling lunch.

Thank you JPassport and Inaniwa Yosuke for the invitation to try the Spring Lunch Fair udon.

Click on this link for more information on Inaniwa Yosuke.

Tunglok Teahouse @ Far East Square

I have been to Tunglok Teahouse at Novena before but this was the first time heading towards the outlet at Far East Square. And, it was so hard to find. A tip is to head towards the Evolve gym and head towards the yellow signage of the renovation walls and turn left.

A celebratory dinner occassion with the foodie gang, we chose to have ala-carte dinner buffet Chinese-style. Endless flow of dim sums, cooked food, fried fish and what not. Our table was filled to its edges in no time! Can you imagine that we ordered 38 dishes?! Am amazed.

full house and not all our food had arrived

The food arrives pretty quickly and this outlet seemed to have lesser patrons than it Novena counterpart. We had fish skin, fried prawn rolls, steamed pork ribs, char siew bao, chicken feet, siew mai, carrot cake and fried prawn dumplings for dim sum. All were pretty good. Then, we had two claypot items which were basically vegetables in soup. The one with nam yee soup was rather nice but nothing to shout about.

prawn rolls

carrot cake

The carrot cake flavour was nice but it was a tad too soft though. Some might feel that the radish flavour was not strong enough in Tunglok's version.

deep fried fish

A must order would be the deep fried fish.  Smallish but tasty. On the other hand, the steamed tilapia was too muddy though. It was the least liked item. We also had jelly fish, oats prawns and soya prawns. Decent but can be better. The stir fried french beans was enjoyable.

蒜泥白肉 - garlic pork

cabbage  nam yee claypot

stir fried french beans

The braised pork belly and beef brisket were good too. The portion was pretty generous. The meat was temder but still retained a bite.

braised beef brisket and pork belly

soy sauce prawns

There's a smoke duck with crepe wrap. Something like Peking duck but this one uses the smoked meat instead.

smoked duck pancake

There were also special items where it can only be ordered once. The shark fin soup and the chili crab.

shark fin soup (one time order)

chili crab (one time order)

The only item that we ordered again, was the fried fish skin. Was too full from barely finishing all the food that we ordered.

Thank you Kris, Justin, Ivan, Elle, Jennifer, Hence, Tracy and Tiara for the wonderful company and the dinner treat! Love you guys!

[Media Invite] Founder Bak Kut Teh 发起人肉骨茶餐馆 @ Hotel Boss Jalan Sultan

Am a fan of Founder Bak Kut Teh pork ribs and had it occassionally with a friend who loves this when craving strikes. Our usual haunt was the one at Rangoon Road. Can read about the previous visit here. The usual order would comprise of a bowl of Founder Bak Kut Teh, a plate of poached vege with oyster sauce, a small bowl of dough fritters and a bowl of kidney. Was invited to try Founder Bak Kut Teh at Hotel Boss at Jalan Sultan along with Ivan, Vince, Doriz, Kat and Rachel. If you are driving, the hotel offers free parking during lunch hour from 12 to 2pm.

shopfront

The interior of the restaurant is spacious and has no issue accommodating larger groups of diners. For the night owls, good news as this outlet opens till 5am. Comforting to know that, that hot steaming bowl of peppery bak kut teh can be enjoyed at almost any time in the day and night!

wall of fame

table for four

We sampled the Premium, Premium Short Ribs, Founder Bak Kut Teh and Popularity (Ninki) Bak Ku Teh. The difference is in the quality of the fresh pork ribs used hence, the difference in price points as well. The Premium cut will give you a beautiful long length of the ribs. I will recommend the Premium Short Ribs for its fall-off-the-bones tender meat and fats that dissolves as soon as its chewed. Otherwise, one could opt for the Founder Bak Kut Teh for a mix of Premium, Premium Short Ribs and the bak kut used in Ninki.

(center front) Premium Short Ribs , Premium Ribs, Founder Bak Kut Teh

beautiful Premium Ribs @$11.80++

The Premium Ribs is huge. A good mix of lean and fatty. But personally, I was amazed by the Premium Short Ribs. Unbelievably good! The way the meat slid off the bone so easily and that succulent feeling when the fats just melted off on the tongue. Wow.

Premium Short Ribs @$10.80++

Besides the pork ribs, one could order a variety of the familiar side-dishes such as peanuts, salted vegetable, poached vegetables in oyster sauce, you tiao (dough fritters) and many others. Here's what we had:

Crispy Prawn Roll (@$5.80++/$10.80++)

Pig's Trotter (@$9.80++/$12.80++)

Braised Pig's Intestines (@$8.80++/$11.80++)

Trio Steamed Egg (@$5.80++)

Steamed Minced Meat (@$6.80++)

Pig's Liver or Pig's Kidney Soup $7.90++ each)

For the amount of food on our table, it was enough to feed about 10 pax comfortably. The braised pig's trotter was well cooked and retained the collageny bounciness of the skin without being too soft. The meat itself was pretty lean and tender.

One thing to note is that the soup at this outlet has a stronger peppery taste without being too overpowering. Lovely. I drank a whole bowl of the soup.

Also, this is the only outlet that has steamed cod fish on its menu. The cod fish was well-liked and enjoyed by all of us. Its meat was so soft and could be eaten even without much chewing. The soy sauce added a touch of savoury sweetness to the mild flavours of cod.

Steamed Cod Fish (@$18.80++)

Thank you Justin for the invite and Lem and Founder Bak Kut Teh for hosting us. Also thank you to the staff who took care of us that night.

Joo Bar @ Tan Quee Lan Street

It was a ladies meet-up session and the place of choice was Joo Bar. Conveniently located at Tan Quee Lan Street and accessible via the Downtown line. Reservation was made and we made our way there separately. This place serves Korean-styled dishes and brews. Expect tapas sized servings though.

Joo Bar signage

The place was rather busy and our reserved place was at Level 2. Joo Bar is a cosy place with rather dim lightings.

seats at Level 2

As it was still happy hour, we ordered a Joo Beer and Joo Brew for $10++ each. The makgeolli was very nice. The beer was refreshing on the warm night.

Brew and Beer - happy hour

 For food, we ordered some anju (안주) or drinking snacks such as the Kimcheese pancake, Honey Butter Chicken, pork belly and the army stew.

Kimcheese Bacon Pancake @$22++

Honey Butter Chicken @$16++

The honey butter chicken was a wrong order as the Korean waiter had ordered his favourite instead of what we wanted, which was the dak gan jung or spicy chicken.

We were rather surprised by the Army Stew as it was of the smallest size that we've ever seen. Think it was meant for one or two pax. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the rich broth that's robust and spicy.

Army Stew @$24++

Also ordered some meat to share. The Slow Roasted Mangalitsa Pork Belly was nice and tender but nothing to shout about. The side salad was rather enjoyable though. Maybe order the chicken wings next time? Saw the table next to us had it and it looked delicious.

Slow Roasted Mangalitsa Pork Belly @$25++

Overall, we had fun at Joo Bar. The drinks made us happy and the food was decent.