Novus Restaurant & Bar - 7th September 2012

It was CC’s turn to take us out, and he chose Novus! I had my doubts about the place, and Dann confirmed it saying that he has tried the place with a client before and was definitely not impressed. Nonetheless, we still proceeded as per club rules, as we agreed that if the venue failed sufficiently to satisfy the party, we will then have little choice but to evoke the club’s dreaded (but never been tested) nuclear option known as “samolah”.

To be fair, CC deserves praise for upholding one of the core tenets of our club, which is to try to always choose the “steady” option. (Yes yes, whilst that characteristic has not shone through particularly well in most of our posts, it is one of the values we seek to achieve as a club. Think of it like a fat man’s quest of yearning for the discipline to go to the gym regularly. It is a laudable but challenging quest).

CC had originally wanted to host the meal on a Wednesday in order to cater to Erap II as he had to go for reservist from Thursday on. However, businessman could not make the date and so CC tried to push to a Tuesday, which businessman also could not make. We then suggested for CC to further postpone the lunch date by another week to Friday the 14^th without penalty, but Businessman and Jon would not have it and demanded the additional EUR30 penalty (now we know who are the unsteady). Eventually, CC decided to host it on our usual Friday despite being on leave and to try to cater to businessman as he felt that businessman had already missed an earlier BML at Punjab Grill.

We arrived (with the exception of businessman) at the National Museum on time and were greeted by Collin and his special guest & eldest daughter Kai Ling (7 this year!) who were already seated.

We were given the order to order between 40 – 45 dollars per pax. I immediately objected on this instruction to the president Jon, complaining that there is something seriously wrong with this habit? It seemed like our BML’s now not only have a floor, but everyone seemed to also be setting a ceiling, which was clearly unsteady and not in line with our club’s philosophies.

In any case, we proceeded to order our dishes, whilst attempting to keep within our “budgetary limits”. For starters we ordered the burrata cheese and mushroom soup. For the mains, we had originally ordered 3 sets of Novus burgers, one duck leg confit and the crispy pork belly.

Upon taking our orders, we were served the bread basket, which came in a variety of mini baguette, soft rolls, white bread and what I believe is rye bread. The bread was deliciously fresh and my favourite in particular was the mini baguette.

We were then served our starters, and boy it was disappointing. The mushroom soup was so-so. It was thickened with cream, and you could feel the texture of the mushroom bits in your mouth, but somehow, the soup did not taste particularly flavourful. It could have been a lack of salt, seasoning, or possibly the quality of the mushrooms used.

The burrata cheese was worse (mind you, I actually wanted to order something else but the waiter recommended this instead). Let’s start with the tomatoes. They were of inferior quality and not at all sweet. I’m fine with such tomatoes if the price reflected the quality. Then coming to the cheese itself, the texture was more like a softer form of play doe. Somehow, it just did not feel like a proper burrata cheese with the mozzarella outer shell somehow totally fused into a giant dollop of thickened paste. I hate to say this, but I had trouble finishing it.

At this point, we were wondering where the hell was businessman as he had yet to arrive. CC texted him, and apparently the reply was that he did not know that the BML was reset from Wednesday to Friday. In fact he was apparently quite furious. We concluded somehow that the fella just forgot to check his mail or his mailbox had reached its storage limit and could not download anymore. What a fiasco. We should have just settled for Wednesday!

Next up were the mains. The duck leg confit was the best of the mains. The skin was crispy, the meat was still tender and moist, and most importantly, the leg was not overly salty which happens to be a key failing for many of the other credible duck confit’s we’ve tried.

The pork belly was not bad although a little small. The skin side was crispy and the fat was soft and tasty although the meat below was a little bit dry and stringy. Overall it was well cooked without any strong porcine flavour.

Then came the Novus burger. It was well presented, and looked good, but the moment I sank my teeth into the burger in a huge bite, all respect for this establishment sank as well. The meat was uncooked inside! The outer area of the patty was nice and brown, but the meat inside was a deep red and the beef was still in its raw marinated pasty form. Having made burgers myself I instantaneously recognised the patty in its raw form. The smell and texture clearly gave it away. Jon however continued to eat his way through the burger, and commented in front of everyone snidely that my claims towards eating almost anything were hogwash. Now now… I must say Jon, my concept of eating almost anything is predicated on those things being done well. I have no hang-ups or ideologies on soups having to be hot (rather than cold), or for dishes to be cooked in a certain way or for certain ingredients to be used. I however cannot eat a burger which I ordered medium done to be uncooked. If I wanted it uncooked, I’d ask for beef tartare. Obviously this dish was not done as it should have been done, and I am not sure the meat was fresh enough to be eaten raw. If Jon ended up with stomach issues over the weekend, let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised.

So I (and Erap II as well), sent the burgers back to the kitchen and in place ordered a barramundi and a mushroom risotto.

The barramundi was clearly better than the burger (thankfully!), but nothing out of the ordinary. The fish was not exceptionally fresh but was acceptable. It was lightly salted and the skin was fairly crispy.

The risotto was quite average. The texture was ok, although the flavour was a tad bland. The rice was fully cooked through.

And on to the dessert course, which we were collectively expecting to share Erap’s single order of yuzu sorbet, but thanks (or maybe no thanks) to the no show by businessman, CC decided to throw in (or more like had to!) some additional desserts for the party, which were the banana split, the bread and butter pudding and a chocolate platter.

The yuzu sorbet was light and refreshing, and you could clearly taste the yuzu flavour. However, there was also a slight bitter after taste which Dann and myself suspect could be some of the rind from the yuzu which may have also gotten blended in.

Then came the bread and butter pudding. This was done pretty well, with the pudding served nice and warm. It was well presented with walnuts and raspberries on top. And with bread and butter pudding being quite stodgy, I felt the portion was just right. The taste of the pudding with the cream that accompanied the dessert was quite delicious. It was rich, soft, creamy and tasty. This was probably the best dessert of the day.

We were then served the banana split in a jar. I have no comments other than it was not good. It was neither sweet nor creamy enough. The banana was bland and semi ripe and whatever came along with it was bland too. It was the blandest banana split I have eaten in my life.

The chocolate platter (which you were supposed to eat from left to right) was another heavy disappointment. Other than the second item which was the “lava-cake in a cup”, the rest were clearly worse than forgettable.

Overall, Novus was a real let down, especially given the fact that it came to S$320 for 5 pax! Definitely a close candidate for samolah, if not for the few respectable / acceptable dishes that salvaged the day by the closest of margins. I blame CC for his poor and sloppy selection. So as a side note to businessman, who was clearly cheesed off by the whole miscommunication over when BML was to be held, and unfortunately missed it, you were probably the lucky one!

By Club Scribe.

Tower Club - 24th August 2012

Other than its great location, interesting design and fantastic price, Businessman’s purchase of One Shenton by CDL brought the added benefit of being a member of tower club.

So thanks to the venue’s nearby location, the drivers were given the day off. We arrived at the restaurant on time, and were given a table which had a breath taking view of the south side of the city giving us a clear view of MBS, our office and the southern waters.

Our table was set in elegant china, in which someone commented that this was probably one of the nicest sets of crockery we’ve experienced using in a BML setting. The décor of the restaurant was also interesting with lots of bevelled mirrors on the walls and pillars and a healthy amount of gold, onyx and polished wooden finishing around. The place was also fully carpeted. If not for the dining tables, I would say the place had the air of a high end KTV.

As the paymaster was late, we decided not to waste the opportunity to use the beautiful teacup and decided it best to start with Pu’er. It was an excellent choice on our part.

10 minutes later, businessman finally arrived, and we proceeded to order. I remember having a meal here once years back and was quite impressed by the seafood, but owing to budgetary constraints on businessman’s part, we were limited to land based dishes today.

We ordered their house specialty starters of beancurd cubes and crunchy corn, Peking duck (again!!!!, even though we knew it wouldn’t come close to our favourite version at Paradise Pavilion), roast pork, stewed pork with preserved cabbage, crispy roast chicken, sliced beef with enoki mushrooms, kurobuta pork in coffee sauce, poached spinach, and chee cheong fun.

The beancurd cubes were a decent treat, with the skin fried to a delicate golden brown crisp all round and covering the soft inner beancurd. Taste wise, it is what you would expect from lightly salted beancurd, but the texture was commendable and well worth ordering again for a starter.

The crunchy corn was coated with a salted egg yolk batter and also fried till golden brown. You could taste the salted egg yolk flavour through the batter, and in this instance, it was the crispy corn that provided the texture. Having not had any dish like it, I think that this is definitely an interesting starter worth ordering if you want something different.

Next up was the peking duck. It was so-so. Better than the one we had at The Majestic, but clearly inferior to the one at Paradise Pavilion. The duck itself was ok, but the wrap or pancake skin was really dry, thick and had a strong taste of flour.

We were then served the roast pork, which was more in the style of say peach garden than the ones you get at imperial treasure, crystal jade or lei garden. Overall the roast pork was well done and the skin was crispy throughout despite it looking a tad thick on first glance. One of our members however commented that the dish had a bit of a porky taste.

Our chee cheong fun was ok taste wise, nothing fantastic. Definitely not a chee cheong fun I would come back to. For comparison you can get better ones with more delicate skin at even a crystal jade kitchen for the same price or less.

We were then served our beef with enoki mushroom. This was the dish that really needed improvement. The beef was not well marinated, and the meat was slightly tough, despite it being in rather thin slices, somehow we felt the cut of the meat was probably inferior, which resulted in this. The real test of the failure of this dish was when Dann surrendered his portion (he does not eat beef for religious reasons), and no one took up the offer, leaving his portion eventually wasted, which is a definite no no in our club’s context considering our appetite.

Thankfully, the roast chicken was served after that, and you could say that this was one of the better roast chickens we’ve had. The skin was crispy yet not overly oily, and the meat was tender throughout, even at the breast. Dann however pointed out after heartily eating what I remember was either the wing or the drumstick, that this unfortunately was a frozen chicken. After polishing off the meat from the bone, he then (like Sherlock holmes, or a chicken seller 20 years in the business) raised the bone for all to see and pointed to the colour of the cooked bone exclaiming “you see guys, the bone is grey, which means this is a frozen chicken”, to which I asked what a cooked “fresh” chicken bone will look like, and he said “it should be white”. This is one interesting proclamation that requires further investigation.

Following this was the poached spinach. The vegetable was definitely fresh, and the broth in which it was poached in had enough of the savoury goodness. For a vegetable dish from such an establishment, this met our expectations.

We were also served our braised belly pork with preserved vegetables. This had mixed reviews with the crew. I felt it was done pretty well, with the pork belly soft and tender throughout, and the preserved vegetables not overly salty. The flavour of the star anise in the sauce was also just right. Someone however mentioned that it was still a little too salty to eat on its own and recommended that if there was white rice accompanying the dish, it would’ve been better.

Then came the kurobuta pork in coffee sauce. This was arguably the best dish of the day. CC commented (in his usual fashion when lost for words on a good dish), that it was pork that did not really taste like pork. Well folks, it was definitely an interesting dish. The pork was somewhat drier than what I was expecting, but this gave it a crispy outer edge. The coffee sauce accompanying the pork was very tasty with a not overly strong flavour of coffee and caramel and it was also somewhat oily, which went well with the texture of the fried pork. This is definitely a dish worth ordering if you are looking for something different.

We ended the meal with fried rice that was mixed with the remnants of the meat from the peking duck. Whilst the rice was tasty and grainy, it was also a tad on the dry side.

Overall, Tower Club is a place that definitely sells more on its views and ambience than on its food. The damage of almost S$375 after a club member’s discount would not be considered cheap by most standards, and for this price you can definitely get better quality chinese cuisine elsewhere. But for the views, few other chinese restaurants can beat this