First Visit to Roketto Izakaya

Decided to head out for dinner at the last minute, so something casual was ideal. Roketto Izakaya had a table for us at 9pm. It took us long enough to dine at Willin Low's showcase of mod-Sin fusion of Japanese and Thai flavors. (I know I know, where have we been?!) Willin's food has greatly improved over the years, and I've come to enjoy his menu at the old Wild Rocket. When the lease finally ran out, it was closed in favor of his other ventures in Taiwan and Japan. In December 2019, I briefly considered an eating trip to Niseko in January 2021, interspersed with some skiing (finally a trip after all these years; I wonder if I still can ski those black runs that I used to conquer with ease) Then COVID-19 happened, and canceled the entire 2020 and likely the first quarter of 2021. At least we have Roketto Izakaya at Frasers Tower. Hurrah.

I wouldn't recommend eating here unless you really like mod-Sin creations. I do! There were also mod-Sin cocktails done by Nutmeg & Clove popping up here for July. It's a 'Nutmeg & Clove X Roketto Izakaya' collaboration. The pop-up is meant to last a month, but we were told that it would be extended by another month. The man loves cocktails and he was most interested in checking them out. Unfortunately, a late dinner meant that he could only have two cocktails, in order to keep within the alcohol limit, and we only had one hour and fifteen minutes to gulp our alcohol. (Phase 2 10.30pm alcohol cut-off time) Oof! 

The man ordered the 'Maxwell Martini', which was a really odd concoction of Hendrick's gin, chicken rice distillate, chilli, umami and cilantro oil. I almost gagged at the scent. Well it was inspired by chicken rice after all, and it really subtly tasted of chicken rice. Erm... okay. The man loved having that with the food. He also had a glass of 'Silent Tears' and loved it. It was categorized under Peranakan/Eurasian because of its achar. It was made of Black Tears spiced rum, spiced pickled brine, cucumber, pineapple juice, sugar syrup, and London Essence ginger beer. I didn't want any cocktails. I generally don't like the sugar and so much different flavors in a glass. I didn't feel like an easy G&T either. So I stuck to my conservative sake from Kamonishiki Brewery (加茂錦酒造) in Niigata. I drank all 280ml of it. Hahaha.

I didn't fancy the 'orh luak' which was really oyster omelette spaghettini tossed in spicy hae bee hiam. It was good, but it didn't hit a spot with me since I'm not a fan of dried shrimp paste or oysters. The krapow prata pizza was small and on point with the basil, chicken mince and chilli and cheese. The man ate it all up. I love krapow, but not in this form. I tried a piece and while decent, it's just not quite for me. These aren't quite my kind of flavors. The man had to have serving of 'har jeong tin gai', marinated frog legs deep fried in prawn paste. He ate the bones clean. Marinated with pear and served with Javanese inspired peanut sauce & pineapple salsa, the Iberico pork satay was gorgeous. 

The fish collagen broth shot was beautiful. At S$4.80 for a small glass of broth, it totally packed a punch. I loved the scallop 'her kiao' glass noodles! It was delicious! That was a small cute bowl of scallops wrapped in fish ravioli skin on braised glass noodles and a dollop of spicy Marmite peanut butter. It totally worked for me. We had to google 'her kiao' because the man asked which local dish inspired it, but I don't know what her kiao is or what dialect it is. Hahahaha. I finally realized it's usually served with Teochew fishball noodles, but I have only had sad ones, and never had any good ones. So I never really bothered with hunting down the proper fish dumplings using fish paste. I really wanted the abura-age (油揚げ) rojak salad that uses hae ko ice cream and tiger prawns, but I had no more stomach space. Next round then. We even made it to dessert- a chendol that Wild Rocket used to serve, in the form of a pandan panna cotta, housemade honeycomb, gula melaka and coconut ice-cream. Ahhh Roketto Izakaya, what a lovely meal.

Scallop 'her kiao' braised glass noodles.