Novus - A wonderful experience!

Hello everyone!

Felt really stupid because I charged my camera's battery but forgot to put the battery into my camera -.- so anyway, pictures are from iPhone 4! Please forgive the quality of some pictures okay!

Pretty balloons once you step into National Museum (I think National Museum's really pretty btw!)

Interior

Bread basket, olives, butter with sunflower seeds, balsamic vinegar & olive oil

The bread was slightly warm! Good fluffy quality breads!

I bet you'll NEVER guess what this is unless you've eaten at Novus.

OYSTER LEAVES.

Yes I'll give you a moment to digest that. And I shall repeat that, OYSTER LEAVES.

Now the boy and I were wondering, what the hell are oyster leaves?? Are we supposed to eat the leaf? Or what?? We decided, ok we shall just eat the leaf and we were AMAZED. The leaf taste like an OYSTER. I AM NOT KIDDING. As we chewed the leaf slowly in our mouths, we could taste the saltiness and the distinct taste of oysters, and we were like WOW, this really tastes like oyster!!

You've gotta slowly chew the leaf though! If you put it all into your mouth at one shot together with the gel like thing, you'd barely taste oysters. 5/5

Btw, this was served to us right after we ordered our food, an amuse bouche sort of thing I'd say.

The waiters will give you a small stand with a card telling you about the food that you ordered! I love this because I love understanding more about my food! Great food for thought! Can tell the chef treats his food and his guests seriously. I love this small gesture and feel that other restaurants should do this too!

Yellowfin Tuna & Heirloom Tomato

short seared yellowfin tuna, assorted heirloom tomato, avocado, rocket cress

I think the sauce was made out of avocado because there werent any avocado slices. The tuna was seared perfectly, though it was a little salty for my taste. The tomatoes were sweet! Not a bad appetiser dish! 3.8/5

Foie Gras Anglaise

goose liver custard, duck confit, ginkgo nuts, truffle salsa, parmesan foam

NOW THIS IS A MUST-TRY!!! The boy and I both think this is better than Andre's Memory (click here for review) because this has the same wonderful aromatic truffle aroma but has many more different textures (pieces of duck, ginkgo nuts etc)! Andre's is just a chawanmushi like foie gras with a truffle coulis (though I think its wonderful too), Novus' is a level above it because of the different textures it has that breaks up the monotony. The boy was SO happy that he ordered this!! He couldnt stop gushing about how wonderful and how delicious this dish is! 5/5

Berkshire Porkbelly & Saffron Risotto

thin sliced pork belly on creamy saffron risotto, pork crackers, parmesan, char-grilled capsicum, garden cress, red radish, Joselito ham

Pork crackers - the boy was amazed because he said "omg this really tastes like pork" Haha and he said its really nice!

Pork Belly - he said it isnt jia lat at all, and its soft and tender!

Saffron Risotto - now this was reallyyyyy aromatic!! Saffron is a spice we both love and our eyes sparkled when we ate this, yummy fragrant saffron!

Joselito ham - This is great! Its a 36 months old aged Iberico ham (can have it as appetiser too) and it was mmmm~ You can tell its v different from normal ones in terms of the depth of flavour and the texture

Overall - 4.6/5

Snow Cod in Black and White

squid ink infused snow cod, globe artichoke, Sicilian olive creme, char-grilled capsicum gel, squid ink crumble, smoked ratte potatoes

The cod was MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH. You do not even need to bite them!!! You have the slight smokey taste from the squid ink, and the flakey, melt-in-your-mouth soft and yummy goodness of the cod fish, mmmm~~ was totally in heaven! Squid ink crumble was a little dry but I liked it nonetheless. Potatoes were good!! 4.6/5

Grape Ravioli

Grape jelly stuffed with honey crumble, bee pollen, elderflower sorbet, chamomile infusion

This is a real floral dish so if you do not like that kinda stuff, do NOT order this! It has a really light and gentle soothing taste. They'll pour the chamomile infusion when they've put the plate on your table. The ravioli was quite refreshing though you cant really taste the grapes. Honey, yes you can taste it but not overpoweringly so. The sorbet was good, a little bit of sourness and a mild sweet tinge. 4.5/5

 Valrhona Chocolate Test

L-R 38% aerated mousse, 55% souffle, 66% sorbet, 72% warm custard, 85% dehydrated chocolate

In case you're wondering what the percentages mean, its the percentage of cocoa used. Higher the percentage, "darker" the chocolate, ie more bitter. 

Mousse: We both loved this!! Extremely light and the brown bits on top are popping candies!! So they'll pop in your mouth after eating them haha. This seems quite popular with restaurants nowadays! Tippling Club, Andre, and now Novus!

Souffle: Very light as well, but not the star among all though it was surely yummy!

Sorbet: Now this was GOOOOOOOOD. The chocolate was so luscious and so mind-blowingly awesome that we totally cleaned that small little dish!! We both loved this!!

Warm Custard: This I liked because of the dark chocolate used. This was slightly more dense than the mousse (duh its a custard) but it manages to maintain a sort of "airy" feeling that made it an enjoyable dessert!

Dehydrated chocolate: its like milo powder hahaha. No okay, after you bite it (its kinda hard btw) and taste it for awhile, let it linger in your mouth and you'll think it taste kinda like milo haha.

Overall: a must-try!!! 4.6/5

Complimentary cupcake!

I ate this right after lunch haha while walking out. The frosting was slightly sweet for me but the cupcake was crumbly and yummy though I couldnt really tell whether it was chocolate or a nutty flavour. A really nice gesture anyway! 4/5

The menu at Novus changes very regularly and you can find their updated menus on their website. Set lunches are very worth it I feel, 3 courses for $40++ (we paid I think $96 or so for two?) and 2 courses for $32++. The dinner set menu has about the same dishes though there are slightly more to choose from but the price is very much more expensive!

The boy loved the whole experience so much that he said we MUST go back again to try the food when the menu changes! The service was very good as well, smile on all their faces everytime, constantly topping up our water, and quite humorous too!! The boy said he didnt mind giving them a $10 tip! Thats how good they are (:

We're definitely coming back for more, Novus!

Novus

National Museum

Website

Link to their current (as of Oct 2 2011) set lunch

PS Complimentary parking coupons provided!