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.