Cure by Andrew Walsh

Took us long enough to get to Cure for a meal. Properly moved on from Esquina, now Chef Andrew Walsh calls the shots at Cure, offering his own take on British and Irish small plates, showcasing the best of seasonal produce.

We had a quiet table in the corner and eyeballed all the plating and final touches at the chef's station. The set menu changes monthly. Our dinner was capped at S$115++ per person. In future, if we could round up a table of six to eight, we could ask Andrew Walsh to do us a special chef's menu at about S$150 - S$200 per person.

The man went for the four-course meal of meats excluding a sorbet and dessert. I opted for the four-course vegetarian, excluding the same sorbet and dessert. Appreciated how I got unsalted butter to go with the bread, and the man got bacon butter. Oof. For snacks, instead of a meat croquette (the man thought it was pork), I had a square of fried tofu. Lovely.

Loved my chestnut dumpling with mushroom dashi and pickled ginger. Good dashi used. Umami galore. The little quail egg was such a delightful surprise. The man loved his venison dumpling and raved about the dashi too. Had zero interest in the man's foie gras brûlée with burnt cinnamon. Preferred my cold almond soup with grapes and vanilla snow.

Our additional main courses were quite fun. Pea fregola with house ricotta for me and a lovely baked scallop with salt cod mash and sea herbs. Then came the second mains. The man loved his peppered Irish beef slices, tartare and smoked bone marrow with carrots. He loves this kind of beef. I was pleased with my gnocchi with kale, hazelnut and brown butter.

The beetroot and yuzu sorbet, hazelnut and lavender ricotta was refreshing. I liked it. The restaurant's take on cookies and cream was brilliant. Couldn't help but break open the crust of the cute little ball to check out the interior. Took two bites. Quite fun.

The portions were fine for me; on a less hungry evening, it would be a tad on the side of 'too much'. That means it would be insufficient to fill up big eaters. The man said it was fine for him because of the beef, and I gave him half of my gnocchi, and forced him to take my dessert. Haha.

The kitchen operations are probably fine-tuned to perfection by now. Food came at a good pace. Service was all right- friendly, but a bit hassled. They only had two servers on the floor that evening attending to about 30 persons. That infamous $1 donation tagged to the bill? It's optional, of course. For now, the donation is channeled to Food Bank Singapore. No issues with it. Done our due dilligence and put in our dollar. Happy to return to check out their new menu items.

If I'm not behind the lens, it mostly turns out like this.
Almost as if my camera doesn't like being handled by anyone else. :P