Hopped into the tiny Il Den at Orchard Plaza for dinner. The tiny restaurant seats six comfortably at a communal table, and eight would be a squeeze. The high chairs at the counter take four persons. Make reservations ahead especially if there're specific dates desired, and do cancel in advance too. They now accept not just cash and PayNow, but credit cards too. Run by Chef Javier Low, he doesn't just cook, he also sorts out the washing up. Anyone who's hosted meals for friends without a helper knows that this is a lot of hard work. Tonight, he had two helpers for a full house.
Il Den's food is a fusion of Italian-Japanese, influenced either from the chef's personal preferences or his days honing his skills at Iggy's (which I like, but not enamored with) and other restaurants. The current menu offered us an omakase set of either S$120 or S$150. The difference in price lies in the number of dishes, and we saw a Margaret River duck fillet trotted out to the diners next to us. We blinked at it. Okay, sorry, we can’t do duck this rare. It needs to be at least seared to medium. Luckily we went for the $120 menu.
The appetizer of tomato-something wasn’t impressive. I had no idea what the kitchen was trying to achieve. The pesto was weird, and the tomato froth/foam wasn’t done well and resulted in it tasting like tomatoes dunked in a Slurpee. The fishball with crab meat (surimi-style) in thick soup was boring but tasty. The cold uni and tako somen was expectedly dependable. But for someone like me who doesn’t take wasabi, this dish was a little overpowering on it. If they could have placed a blob at the side instead of mixing it in, it would have been tolerable. It wasn't a good mix of wasabi too, and the elegance and sweetness of freshly grated wasabi didn't come through at all.
The sawara fish fillet was utterly disappointing. While fresh, firm and beautifully grilled, and topped with delicious burdock chips and pureé, the fillet was horribly smoked. In fact, it smelt and tasted of stale Marlboro Lights. It could be smoked with dry salt or wood chips. If they had used bonito flakes, that’s a mangled use of it. I didn’t know how the kitchen smoked the fish, but whatever they used stank so bad that the lingering aftertaste was bitter. My table companions forced themselves to finish the fish, because, 'don't waste'. I didn't. If fish sucks, I refuse to eat it. I took two bites and left the fillet alone. I explained to the chef that the smoke wasn’t to my tastebuds, and that rendered the fish inedible to me.
The red meat came in the form of two small pieces of A5 wagyu beef neck. The neck of the A5 wagyu is a clever cut. It’s not just cheaper for the restaurant to control its costs without sacrificing quality and flavors; it’s not so marbled, making it acceptable for us, who aren’t into marbling at all. The surprise hit was dessert- banana cake with black sugar ice-cream and topped with foie gras shavings. Hmmm. It made dessert sweet and savory. Most interesting.
There were hits and misses in our meal. Depending on individual tastebuds, it can be more misses than hits. It wasn't memorable for me. While Chef Javier Low's flavors and experiments could do with a lot more refining, it’s a pretty okay meal. We hope our young chefs in Singapore can survive the brutal dining scene.
Il Den's food is a fusion of Italian-Japanese, influenced either from the chef's personal preferences or his days honing his skills at Iggy's (which I like, but not enamored with) and other restaurants. The current menu offered us an omakase set of either S$120 or S$150. The difference in price lies in the number of dishes, and we saw a Margaret River duck fillet trotted out to the diners next to us. We blinked at it. Okay, sorry, we can’t do duck this rare. It needs to be at least seared to medium. Luckily we went for the $120 menu.
The appetizer of tomato-something wasn’t impressive. I had no idea what the kitchen was trying to achieve. The pesto was weird, and the tomato froth/foam wasn’t done well and resulted in it tasting like tomatoes dunked in a Slurpee. The fishball with crab meat (surimi-style) in thick soup was boring but tasty. The cold uni and tako somen was expectedly dependable. But for someone like me who doesn’t take wasabi, this dish was a little overpowering on it. If they could have placed a blob at the side instead of mixing it in, it would have been tolerable. It wasn't a good mix of wasabi too, and the elegance and sweetness of freshly grated wasabi didn't come through at all.
The sawara fish fillet was utterly disappointing. While fresh, firm and beautifully grilled, and topped with delicious burdock chips and pureé, the fillet was horribly smoked. In fact, it smelt and tasted of stale Marlboro Lights. It could be smoked with dry salt or wood chips. If they had used bonito flakes, that’s a mangled use of it. I didn’t know how the kitchen smoked the fish, but whatever they used stank so bad that the lingering aftertaste was bitter. My table companions forced themselves to finish the fish, because, 'don't waste'. I didn't. If fish sucks, I refuse to eat it. I took two bites and left the fillet alone. I explained to the chef that the smoke wasn’t to my tastebuds, and that rendered the fish inedible to me.
The red meat came in the form of two small pieces of A5 wagyu beef neck. The neck of the A5 wagyu is a clever cut. It’s not just cheaper for the restaurant to control its costs without sacrificing quality and flavors; it’s not so marbled, making it acceptable for us, who aren’t into marbling at all. The surprise hit was dessert- banana cake with black sugar ice-cream and topped with foie gras shavings. Hmmm. It made dessert sweet and savory. Most interesting.
There were hits and misses in our meal. Depending on individual tastebuds, it can be more misses than hits. It wasn't memorable for me. While Chef Javier Low's flavors and experiments could do with a lot more refining, it’s a pretty okay meal. We hope our young chefs in Singapore can survive the brutal dining scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment