Saturday, April 05, 2008
Alright, let me attempt to be a critique and assess one of my preferred dining spots @ Suntec City, Olio..
This dining bistro serves modern cuisine with Singapore's very own local flavors in certain dishes such as its Laksa Linguini, which is essentially an "Aglio Olio" style pasta dish but with the Laksa paste as its base ala "pesto" style...
A Key factor that I look out for whenever I dine at a dining establishment would be with an Open Kitchen concept. The excitement going on in the kitchen can be a fun sight to admire as they work as a team or an ensemble to assemble all of the components of a dish together. In addition, it also brings the kitchen closer to the dining room as one common area instead of two separate areas.
An insight of Olio's kitchen can be seen above.
I went together with a LOVeLY person who is also known as SERENE LIM who I treat as my elder SIS.. *given that she is older than me.. =X but of course, I still love her for all of the tender loving care that she has given to her "SISTER" which is me.. LOL!
and yes, those are RARE solo pics of her given the fact that she RARELY takes solo pics..
anyway, we had ordered 1 soup, 2 starters and 2 mains...
We had ordered a simple soup of the day, which happened to be Minestrone Soup..
The seemingly simple Minestrone Soup. One of the easiest and simplest dishes to prepare in a bistro. It also indicates how lazy or how attentive a kitchen is. Always a favorite choice of "soup of the day" for lazy chefs as they are so simple and "canned". However, I was pleasantly surprised that Olio makes their minestrone soup from scratch. I could really taste the Vegetables in the Minestrone together with the tomato soup base that was freshly made. Unknowingly, if you really do notice and taste extremely attentively, eg: a blind taste test... You can easily differentiate a bowl of Canned Minestrone and a Freshly made Minestrone soup.. The toasted Garlic bread gave me a good reminiscent and familiar taste as a good old fashion style of having soup. A good start for the review...
Next up we had ordered 2 salads.. A Thai Chicken Salad (Top) and a Caesar Salad with Chicken (Bottom). I was slightly disappointed as there was no smoked salmon for accompaniment to the Caesar Salad which is essentially a MUST HAVE as yet another indicator of the quality of ingredients of a kitchen.
Let me begin with the Thai Chicken Salad. Generally pleasing. However, there was nothing spectacular about it. Quite ordinary but I shall applaud the colorful presentation that the dish came along with.
Next up, The Caesar Salad. The Caesar Dressing was spot on and the chicken that came along it was lovely. A dish that you can't go wrong with unless you really screw up. In my opinion, a good way to assess a good restaurant would be to order the simplest of dishes. If a restaurant can fuck that up, what chance does it have for a good review?
Moving on to the entrees. Serene ordered a Tenderloin (Top) and I have ordered their signature Pan Fried Salmon with Miso Cream Pasta (Bottom)
Let me begin with the Tenderloin which was requested Medium. The chefs did quite a splendid job in maintaining the tenderness and the juiciness of the beef. The texture was extremely good and well maintained given that I had only sampled the tenderloin slightly around 10 mins after it was served. The only minus point was with the garnishes or Vegetables. I was actually hoping for more creativity rather than just butter sauteed baby carrots and broccoli. Probably one of the reasons to why I adore Fish & Co would be with its use of Melons as a garnish Vegetable which is not so common and offers a different dimension from the other dining establishments.
The Miso Cream Pasta on the other hand, was rather interesting. The elements blended well together as a harmonious dish and the salmon roe on the pasta was great. I wasn't too sure about the konbu kelp on the pasta as a vegetable garnish apart from the sprouts. The Konbu wasn't really helping the dish much as its texture was too similar to the cappellini with it. I had to put in quite a significant amount of cheese as the Miso kinds of neutralizes the creaminess of the dish. However, upon adding the cheese, the flavor and aroma of the dish stands out and speaks well to me. The whole dimension of the dish just expands with the cheese.
Overall, the dishes were above average compared to some of the more frequently patronized places that I go to. The service was very good given that they were extremely attentive and have topped up my water (which was quite frequently given that I am a water bucket) whenever my glass was getting empty. The ambience is very nice and modern but the empty space at the back of the restaurant leaves some areas to be desired. Serene totally loved the cushioned chair area and I was like O_O!
The pricing of the menu was actually alright given the type of dishes and ingredients given. I feel that it is quite value for money. This is extremely important in any dining establishment as Singaporeans feel quite the pinch if they are paying so much for so little.
Ambience: 4/5 Stars
Service: 4.5/5 Stars
Food 3.5/5 Stars
Price: 4.5/5 Stars
We went on to NYDC for Mudpie which I have forgotten to take picture of it!
So, I shall compensate with a picture of THIS
Quite a lovely view of the urban skyline of Singapore's Business Hub, Shenton Way.
Mesmerized within time...
3:34 AM
