Sunday, September 10, 2006

One-Ninety, Four Seasons, Singapore

One-Ninety revamped their menu a few months ago to offer a more family-style dining concept where dishes could be ordered and shared with a few people. The menu now is systematically laid out to offer you mix-and-match options going down from their appetizers, salads, mains, sides and desserts. The Wagyu burger also now has a more prominent position right in the middle of the "Grilled" section of their new menu.

We were offered some bread to whet our appetite. This brioche-looking loaf is made of laminated or layered dough, which is a similar dough used in crossants, puff pastry and Danish pastry. Although it's almost hollow in the middle, it's still rather filling if you eat too much of it which is pretty hard to resist since it's so buttery and tasty.

We had their parma ham salad to begin. Toss in fresh, crunchy salad, the nutty flavor of the virgin olive oil went well with the saltiness of the parma ham. There were also slices of caramelized grilled aubergine and honeydew melon to lend a slight sweetness to this salad.

The Wagyu burger can be ordered plain or with some nice enhancements. We opted to add American chedder, grilled foie gras and the black truffles. The ultimate indulgence of a grease bomb, the bun below was virtually soaked by the juices (and oil?) from the Wagyu patty and burst with juicy beefy flavor in every bite. Onion rings, fries and a little salad came as standard sides and there was also a little dipping platter of mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup. Juicy hand-minced Wagyu, foie gras, truffles sandwiched between two soft and warm sesame buns. Is this the perfect burger? I'm not sure, but it comes pretty damn close.

This side of grilled asparagus provided a nice little vegetable breather between the mouthfuls of the rich burger. Despite their charred appearance these asparagus stalks were really fat and maintained their crunch and juiciness.

I'm also a sucker for mushrooms and wanted to add some to my burger but on second thought decided to order it as a side instead because I didn't want it to compete with the truffles. Grilled mushrooms with a generous dash of herbs, garlic and butter - a tasty addition to complete the savories.

I ordered the foolproof, trialed and tested chocolate lava cake for dessert. Despite trying chocolate lava cakes at numerous places I'm still slightly inclined to the ones served at One-Ninety, maybe it's because of the consistent richness of the chocolate or the ratio of molten chocolate to its casing but I've always found theirs to step up to the task. I also like it how they serve their chocolate lava cake with citrus sorbets rather than rich ice-creams because it's more refreshing and you won't get too much of an overdose of richness.

One-Ninety is a nice cosy place to have a personal dinner but can also cater for larger groups. Their well-spaced tables ensure a comfortable privacy for diners. This meal very happily fed two persons at about 130SGD.

D

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow for fine dining thats not too bad for the price.

You didn't have any drinks or anything to wash down those delicacies with?

Prolly reserved for those special occasions to pay 'maintenance' i guess ; )

Anonymous said...

you know, why not extend this to wine reviews? :)

-grace

J said...

woah wine review....what about some whisky review?

Anonymous said...

Whisky review is good, maybe put some photos showing the aftereffect of one bottle of whisky in BKK. Haha?

D said...

I need to do that whisky pepsi challenge pretty soon haha.

red fir said...

d: The burger: I take your word for it. :D