Monday 4 June 2007

Basil Alcove

Found a wonderful place for dinner, the food is great, in fact i felt that the ambience is great too, although some might feel that it doesn't fit with the kind of food served. i think the last time i had food that was presented in such a way was when i had dinner at equinox.. to me, fine dining is an expensive experience, but with basil alcove, this has changed. it's fine dining without the hole in the pocket and you can dress as comfortable as you wish and you can talk and chat any way you want to (but being too loud might still attract too much attention from the other customers). now lets take a look into the food... lot's of food.. starting with the side orders and appetisers
fresh white button mushrooms, nice and fragrant, something you would love to start your dinner with.
forgotten the name for this, but it's pig's trotter on the inside, and it's somewhat in a jelly form, never tried something like that, quite refreshing, the meat doesn't have the usual pig stink. interesting
Ceasar salad with chicken, a little disappointing though, didn't had the usual ceasar salad taste, maybe i should try the plain one the next time, cos this one taste more of the grilled chicken. and this review might probably be biased cos i cannot stand rasins and there are lots of it in this salad..
Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes. something simple, seems normal, just that i seldom try having fresh tomatoes on toasted bread
Pasta with bratwurst in cream, i hope i didn't remember this wrongly. very tasty cream sauce, and the spaghetti was well done, not too soggy. totally worth it
Cod fish, served with mash potatoes and beetroot cream. fish is done very well, but the taste seems normal, cos fish always taste this way, this item seems a little more ex than the rest, maybe cod is expensive.
Vegetarian pasta, lots of shitake mushroom it it. this is a little spicy though, the aglio sauce taste very much of the mushroom.
The duck, there's only 1 duck item on the mains, i forgotten the actual name for this. this is really very good, the meat and the sauce blends in totally. the meat was tender and the sauce was apetizing.
Salmon, i felt that this is the item that was most elaborately presented, and it was the first mains to be served, i was so impressed by the presentation, doesn't lose out to the high class fine dining restaurant at all.

If some of you wonder why i said that the dining environment doesn't really match the food, it's because you dine right by the road side, it's outside fortune centre, you the tables are set along the pavement, you can see and hear the vehicles driving past along middle road, pedestrians walking along the pavement walk right beaise you as you dine. interesting? i find it a wonderful experience to dine this way, and i urge you all to try.

With all the above dishes, 2 of the duck item, a bottle of australian white wine, some beer, it comes out to only $169 for 6 person. less than $30 each.. without the liqour, it's below $100.. i dun think you can find this anywhere else. if you do, please let me know, cos i wanna go try it..

address: 190 Middle Road, #01-07, Fortune Centre
contact: 63361318
ambience: 5
taste: 8
service: 9
value for money: 9
overall rating: a place i would going again and again.. hopefully they will have new items in the menu

Other reviews:
ieat-ishoot-ipost

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello! I tink ur photography skills has improved tremendously. The pics look as though they were pro pics fr menu!

jx said...

wah .. thanx!! a big part of the credit should go to the 50mm lens..

Rå!ÑFaNTaS¥ said...

Hi..I happened to came across your blog yesterday and was totally impressed with the pixs u took (must admit is the food tat catches my eyes first!)...

Simply love the review and comments on each places u visited..GOOD JOB! This definitely will serves as a guide for me everytime I running out of where to eat..be it a simple dining or for some occasion..

Keep it Up!

p/s there's a place which i highly recommend u to try..A Jap BBQ located at Chijmes (they have an outlet in UE sq which I never try b4)..It's an authentic Japanese BBQ restaurant called Gyu-Kaku..The source tat goes with the BBQ is fabulous..Check it out at their website http://www.gyu-kaku.com.sg ;-)

jx said...

thanx a lot for the compliment ra!nfantasy.. i'll still new at photography, still learning, hopefully i can show you people better pictures next time. heard a lot about gyu-kaku, but haven't found the right people and right chance to eat there. it will definitely appear here one day.. a friend went there in a huge group of near 20 people .. and spent $4000.. finished the restaurants supply of beef for that night ..

Anonymous said...

Hi, i happen to browse thru and caught this = thanks for recommending and post up. I just went there for dinner today and most of the menu has changed. but the food is still thumbs up.