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2016-02-21
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Full review's at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.sg/2015/10/candlenut-kitchen.htmlCandlenut's Peranakan fare is exceptional. Familiar favourites and modern interpretations, given equal billing, are executed with both polish and flair. And, prices are wallet-friendly.BUT, I find Candlenut's restaurant policies lacking in sense. For starters, there is just ONE multi-course set for dinner, with no exceptions for ala carte orders whatsoever. To compound matters, tap water is not served at all, only
Candlenut's Peranakan fare is exceptional. Familiar favourites and modern interpretations, given equal billing, are executed with both polish and flair. And, prices are wallet-friendly.
BUT, I find Candlenut's restaurant policies lacking in sense. For starters, there is just ONE multi-course set for dinner, with no exceptions for ala carte orders whatsoever. To compound matters, tap water is not served at all, only bottled water is available, so even though we had ourselves a glass of wine and lemongrass ginger juice, we still had to purchase a 500ml bottle of mineral water at the exorbitant price of $4. Honestly, it's a major turn-off that a restaurant is as rigid as this.
Dinner was a Set Tasting Menu ($50) of 12-courses, refreshed seasonally. Even if each course was considerably petite, 12 courses added up substantively to a most value-for-money dinner if I ever saw one.
We had:
1) Kueh Pie Tee: served DIY and scrumptious
2) Warm Minced Pork Relish, weaved with punchy banana chillis, black peppercorns, aromatic laksa leaf strips, and presented atop a lettuce bed.
3) Grain-Fed Australian Beef Flank Satay burnished in a stickily sweet peanut sauce: so meltingly tender and juicy, I wouldn't have known it was beef if I hadn't been informed otherwise.
4) Tumbuk Prawns, the last of the quartet of appetizers, was served chilled, speckled with laksa leaf, chives, and raw shallots: wonderfully clean and clear; its refreshing overtones enhanced by the starfruit slice.
5) Rawon Soup - fork-tender beef cheeks in a buah keluak-spiked soup spiked with chilli: robust and spicy
6) Chap Chye, a melange of cabbage, shitake, dried beancurd skin, and glass vermicelli softly braised in a delicate prawn stock: Excellent, one of the best renditions of this classic.
7) Blue Swimmer Crab Curry - impossibly sweet chunks of freshly shredded meat flash-cooked in a mild tumeric coconut milk curry, while kaffir lime leaves lent a piquant touch: So freaking good.
8) King Tiger Prawn, wok-fried with pungent petai beans:succulent, fiery and sweet
9) Ayam Bakar - chicken fillet grilled to a smoky perfection with kicap manis, shallots, and green chillis.
10) The contemporary desserts here were exemplary, like the Candlenut Signature Chendol Cream, a panna cotta-like pudding layered with pandan jelly and sweetened with gula melaka.
11) A lighter option was the zesty Mango Cream with Lime Sorbet, dotted with jackfruit, and sago pearls
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