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!

Restaurant Capri

We were rather worried about where to park our car, but in the end our fears were unfounded because they have complimentary valet parking! There isnt like a "stand" outside the restaurant like normal restaurants where a waiting staff stands there, you tell him/her your name and he/she will usher you to your seat. Here, you open the door and tell your name to whichever staff is closest/makes eye contact with you and they then ask this other staff who seems to have all the names of those who made reservations, who then shows you to your seat.

Bread Basket

I didnt bother because the bread was cold

The restaurant at approx 6.50-ish? It was full later on in the night though! So make your reservations!

Carpaccio di pesce $18

Slices of raw marinated cod fish dressed with salmoriglio sauce (special tangy South Italian sauce of olive oil, lemon, garlic & oregano)

I thought this was not bad, the cod fish was sliced thinly and the lemon was really strong but in a good way. Though I probably wouldnt order this again because I thought I was eating more sauce than fish? Carpaccio has never been my thing though. 3/5

Pappardelle al ragu' napoletano (Chef's Recommendation) $24

This Napoletan ragu is a dish that is cooked in clay-pot for seven hours with pork ribs, veal, onions and peeled tomatoes, served with pappardelle pasta

The boy loved this homey dish with soft and tender pork, "Wah I think even a 70 year old man can bite this man", and yummy sauce! 4.6/5

Ravioli al nero di seppia $20

Squid ink ravioli stuffed with seafood and mascarpone cheese, served with home-made squid ink sauce cooked for six hours

I loved the sauce and there was quite a lot of seafood too but the ravioli skin was too thick? Kept eating thick clumps of flour towards the "sides" of the ravioli. Wish they'd make it thinner! Then I'd definitely love this! Oh could mostly taste cheese in the ravioli though, not really seafood. Nonetheless, I quite like this! 4/5

 Tartufata (12 inch, $25)

Mozzarella cheese, truffle cream, porcini mushrooms, smoked cheese, shaved parmesan

I loved the thin crispyyyy crust!! Traditional wood fired pizza here mind you and the smokey wood-fired taste is very distinct which I LOVE!! The crust stayed crispy even after quite some time which was v surprising and was what we loved! You can hear a loud "crunch" whenever we bit into the pockets of air in the pizza like the one shown above. The truffle cream was unmistakably aromatic, this definitely had more mushrooms vs spizza. Love the pizza!! 4.7/5

Torta al limone $9

Lemon cake prepared with special recipe of Mama Teresa (Luca's mom)

This isnt your normal lemon cake. It tastes faintly of lemon only, more like a crumbly cake with nuts studded throughout. We were quite disappointed because we wanted a cake filled with the sourish tang of lemons. Thats cream btw on the side. The cake was certainly crumbly and was not bad 3.4/5

Lava Cake $9

Flaming grand marnier laced chocolate cake with warm melted filling

The flames certainly attracted a lot of attention! Haha. Besides the flame, there wasnt anything uh surprising about this dish, just a simple lava cake. Chocolate wasnt very rich nor smooth or dark. I wouldnt order this again unless you want to see the flames I guess? 3/5

Spent a total of $123.20 for 2. Thats inclusive of 1 bottle of still water (yes they have iced water). I felt that the desserts here are their weakest, somewhat like Valentino's (nearby! But Valentino's slightly better) though the pizzas and pastas are good. The chef came out to great us and ask how things are (he does that from time to time!) and he has quite a few regulars already though they just opened not long ago! Worthy contender in the Italian restaurant scene I'd say. Though with SO many Italian restaurants in Singapore, I'd probably wouldnt be raring to go back though I wouldnt mind just having more of that yummy pizza ;)

Service there is extremely friendly, even the valet guy! He asked us how our meal was with a genuine smile on his face and went to get our car, then we wanted to tip him but we both didnt have small change so the boy went to exchange money. During this, the valet guy came back with our car and there was a long queue of cars behind him (the road can only accommodate one car) so he had to drive away (I went to get the boy) and drove back with a smile on his face again! Really good service. He even helped us stop the cars so we can drive out! Good service really makes one's day! (: Thank you to the team at Capri!

Restaurant Capri

64684886

3 Binjai Park

Website

Tomi Sushi, 7th Manna, Ice Cream Gallery

Having read about how authentic Tomi Sushi's food is, how value for money it is and the good presentation, my best friend and I decided to go and give it a try!

Please note that Tomi Sushi is at the Parco side of Millenia Walk, so take the escalator near tcc up, then turn left (ie walk into Parco) and then take the escalator up all the way till Level 3 where you'll see a green "itadakimasu"sign. Walk towards that direction, straight in and you'll feel like you're in Japan! Many Jap restaurants and Tomi Sushi's just right in front of you.

They'll great you with a hearty welcome! And present you promptly with hot green tea and the menu.

As read online, they have special shoyu for sushi and sashimi!

Chirashi Lunch Set $25

Comes with fruits, small salad, miso soup, chawanmushi, fresh sashimi and rice!

The best friend let me try her chawanmushi and it was reallyyyyy smooth. The smoothest I've ever eaten! Really really good (:

Tokujyo Chirashi $54

Botanebi (Prawn), 2 pieces of maguro chutoro, eel, tamago, salmon roe, tako (octopus)

I thought mine was so-so only and would rather recommend the chirashi lunch set, more sashimi, and you get more variety of food too! Mine was mainly expensive cos of the chutoro. I wanted the chef to do a mixed sashimi platter for me because I wanted to try the different types of sashimi (ie I choose which fish/seafood I want), but the waitress said they cant do it for me. I have to either choose the fixed mixed sashimi platter for 1 or I can order the different types of sashimi (ie the normal serving, 5 pieces per plate), then they put all the sashimi I ordered in one plate for me. Sigh, I think it could've been done just that she didnt ask the chef.

The service there is really friendly though! They constantly have a smile on their faces and will always refill your green tea haha. Worth it to go for their lunch sets! It gets pretty full during lunch from the working crowd so I'd suggest going early/reserving a table.

******

Carrot Cake

The best friend and I decided to give 7th Manna a shot, because the best friend says they always close really early and she doesnt get a chance to try their cakes! So we went in and ordered a carrot cake which costs $4.50 I think? The cake was rather bland I feel with occasional specks of walnuts though the frosting I thought, was not bad as it wasnt too sweet. However, I think I've been spoilt by The Muffinry's signature spiced carrot muffin and my bar for carrot cakes have been raised by a huge mile. So I'm sorry, but this cake just doesnt reach it! 3.4/5

Green Tea Ice Cream with Red Beans

Tried the ice cream from Ice Cream Gallery further down from 7th Manna. Green tea flavour was rather strong and quite a lot of red beans I'd say. But I still prefer Cedele's somehow (: (Cedele has the exact same flavour, and the best friend tells me ICG has earl grey and fig just like what Cedele has too) 4/5

Tomi Sushi

3F-04 Parco Marina Bay

11.30am-10.30pm

Website

7th Manna

368 Tanjong Katong Road

Tue-Fri 9am-6pm

Sat 10am-4pm

The Ice Cream Gallery

242C Tanjong Katong Road