Forest 森 is owned by local celebrity chef Sam Leong (formerly from Tung Lok group) and one of four restaurants (and the only Chinese restaurant) within Resorts World Sentosa to receive Michelin stars but as with Osia, the decision wasn't without controversy.

The Place

Tucked in a corner of Equarius Hotel, Forest's interior seemingly revolves around a rainforest theme; earthen colours with alot of wood and pillars that soar towards the high ceiling and branch out to resemble foliage.

As it was a Sunday, the wife and I decided to partake in their Sunday set lunch menu ($68++/pax) which, I quote, is "An 8-course lunch comprising 13 dishes in tasting portions will be served, showcasing the sheer breadth of Celebrity Chef Sam Leong’s culinary invention."

Double Boiled Soup Of The Day

The soup of the day got things off to a decent start; light yet appetising but would have appreciated a more robust soup.

(top) Chilled Pork Shoulder Marinated with Hot & Sour Five Spice Powder, (bottom) Pan Seared Foie Gras Marinated in Red Wine Sauce Served with Baked Bread

The chilled pork shoulder was rather chewy and lightly sweet (from the apple and carrot salad beneath) with a touch of spiciness (hot & sour five spice powder). A tad too porky for my liking.

The foie gras wasn't quite up to scratch in my humble opinion. Though smooth and coated with black sesame seeds to accentuate the taste and texture, the mousse was literally drowning in the taste of the red wine.

(top) Steamed Egg Chawanmushi with Crab Meat, (bottom) Pan Seared Wagyu Beef Roll with Enoki Mushroom Served in Black Pepper Sauce

I thought the chawanmushi was quite good; smooth and silky without coming across as overly eggy and topped with shreds of crab meat, crisped rice and roe for that extra crunch and pop.

A slice of less than tender, lightly sweet beef wrapped around crunchy enoki mushroom; drenched in black pepper sauce that killed off every other taste.

(top) Deep Fried Hokkaido Scallop Coated in Salted Egg Yolk Mayo, (bottom) Deep Fried Prawn Coated in Crispy Cereal

Although I really liked the salted egg yolk mayo coating and the crisp flour shell, the scallop itself was way too soft for my liking; almost mushy in fact. A pity really.

A singular, fresh tiger prawn coated with rather dry and tasteless cereal. Another shame and honestly, some of the cze char stalls do it better.

Deep Fried New Zealand Cod Fillet with Thai Style Sauce

On to the deep fried cod fillet with minimal but very crisp batter; rich, mildly sweet and spicy from the Thai style sauce. Coupled with mango slices providing a sweet yet tangy tinge. Pretty good in my humble opinion.

Oven Baked Chicken Chop with Sand Ginger Sauce

Unfortunately the chicken chop didn't quite do it for me. I appreciated the crisp layer of chicken skin but the taste of the galangal was a little too strong for my liking. Not quite my cup of tea but definitely palatable.

(top) Japanese Pearl Rice Topped with Abalone, (bottom) Braised Ee-Fu Noodle with Crab Meat

I liked the texture of the pearl rice but found it very bland with only the faintest hint of egg and ginger. The tender abalone couldn't make up for it and the end result was half a bowl of leftover rice.

Shreds of crab meat floating atop a semi viscous broth filled with limp Ee Fu Noodles that had a nauseating effect after a few mouthfuls.

Forest Delight

A small cube of smooth New York Cheesecake sprinkled with cookie crumble paired with rather refreshing lemongrass jelly with mango and coconut chunks for extra sweetness and texture. Not a big fan of lemongrass but this was pretty decent.

Bill

At $68++/pax, I personally found the lunch big on variety but relatively small on quality. The only thing I liked about the lunch was the environment (quiet and largely void of customers) and the decent service. How Forest can be awarded a Michelin star seriously befuddles me.

Final Verdict:

Ambience: 7.5/10

Service: 7/10

Food: 6/10

Price: 5.5/10

Overall: 6.5/10

Address: Equarius Hotel™, Lobby

Contact: 6577 7788 or 6577 6688

Opening Hours:

Breakfast:

7.30am - 10.30am

(Daily, walk-ins only)

Lunch (Mon - Sat):

12pm – 2.30pm

(Last order at 2.15pm)

Dinner:

6pm – 10.30pm

(Last order at 10pm)

Sunday Lunch:

12pm – 3pm

(Last order 2.30pm)

Website: http://www.rwsentosa.com/Homepage/Restaurants/CelebrityChefs/Forest

We decided to give Imperial Treasure Cantonese @ Crowne Plaza another shot for our reunion dinner even after a slip in standards during the same occasion last year (even though subsequent post CNY visits turned out fine).

Fatt Choy Salmon Fish Yu Sheng

Amidst the rise of fancifully premium and aesthetically pleasing versions of yusheng, Imperial Treasure still manages to hold its own with a simple yet delicious rendition. Not cloyingly sweet with a dash of Kaffir leaves for a more balanced flavour; finished with crispy, fresh tasting crackers. Still one of the best yusheng I've had in recent years.

Double Boiled Superior Shark's Fin with Chicken

Flavourful without coming across as too rich; filmsy strands of gelatin shark's fin coupled with a chunk of chicken meat for texture. Good to the last drop and a great kick off to our meal.

Sauteed Canadian Empress Clam with Vegetable & XO Sauce

I'm no fan of celery nor Empress clams but this was very palatable, to me at least. Crunchy clam pieces permeated with a savoury, lightly spicy kick.

Baked Boston Lobster

An addition ($168++) to our CNY set menu, the lobster (1.2kg) was absolutely delish. Huge crunchy pieces of lobster chock full of crustecean sweetness and savouriness from the garlic sauce. Excellent but I'm not quite sure the price was justified.

Deep Fried Soon Hock Fish with Soya Sauce

Crisp skin belying the fine flesh on the inside; sitting on a bed of soya sauce. Pretty good.

Fatt Choy Mushroom and Sea Cucumber

Again, I'm no fan of sea cucumber and I actually try to avoid it. Perhaps its psychological. At least there was cabbage and mushroom.

Diced Pork With Fried Garlic

Pork cubes that looked like beef cubes. Bite sized pieces with an appropriate amount of fat for that sleek texture. Sprinkled with generous slices of crisp, fried garlic chips. Delicious but the old adage holds true; less is more.

Fried Glutinous Rice with Wax Meat & Sausage

By the time this dish rolled around, we were almost ready to call it quits. But we soldiered on and on hindsight, I'm glad we did. The rice was fragrant, a tad chewy but could do with alot more of my beloved lup cheong. Steamed Glutinous Rice Cake

I still prefer the pan fried version but this version was strangely reminiscent of Kuih Kosui (卡穗糕).

Red Bean Cream with Lotus Seed and Glutinous Rice Dumpling

Azuki bean coupled with lotus seed and glutinous rice dumpling (汤圆) filled with black sesame; a deliciously sweet ending to our meal!

Bill

And the damage? In excess of one grand ($1155) for the 6 of us. It was a great meal and although Imperial Treasure's CNY menu stays pretty much the same year after year, food quality is largely consistent throughout and that's what matters in my humble opinion.

Ambience: 6.5/10 (didn't manage to get a private room this year)

Service: 7/10

Food: 7.5/10

Value for money: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Address: #01-02 Crowne Plaza Hotel, 75 Airport Boulevard

Contact: 6822 8228

Opening Hours:

Monday to Friday

Lunch: 11.30am to 3.00pm

Dinner: 6.00pm to 10.30pm

Saturday

Lunch: 11.00am to 3.00pm

Dinner: 6.00pm to 10.30pm

Sunday

Lunch: 10.30am to 3.00pm

Dinner: 6.00pm to 10.30pm

Website: http://www.imperialtreasure.com/

No it's not a typo in the header. I was just too lazy busy to do up a post on our second visit so yes, it's our third visit to the one Michelin starred Osia (you can read about our first visit here).

Stone Hearth Flat Bread

We started off with our favourite garlic butter flat bread but on this occasion, it was a wee bit under-cooked. Still good nonetheless, especially when paired with the mildly zesty tomato basil paste. Definitely worth the $11++ price tag.

Foie Gras

Perfectly crisp on the outside but less than quivery on the inside, presumably due to the tiny portion. What I did like about this dish was the pineapple textures served alongside; pineapple jam, mousse, puree providing varying textures and injecting a nice acidity and sweetness to counteract the richness of the foie gras. Can't say this was worth the $12++ top up though.

Capellini with Mud Crab

A right amount of zest in the tomato base coupled with al dente capellini and reasonably plentiful shreds of mud crab made for a simple yet well done dish. I also liked the copious amounts of pine nuts in the mix, which imbued this dish with a lovely nutty flavour.

Bill

Lunch (with complimentary tea/coffee) came up to almost $110 for the both of us. For the quality and quantity of food, I'm inclined to say that it's relatively overpriced. Our service staff, Melissa, was great but the manager seemed a little too stiff for my liking. And I hold my previous view that though respectably proficient, Osia unfortunately isn't really worthy of a Michelin star.

Final Verdict:

Ambience: 7.5/10

Service: 7.5/10

Food: 7/10 (8/10 for the bread)

Value for money: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Address: Festive Walk, Resorts World Sentosa

Contact: 6577 6560

Opening Hours:

Thurs - Tue

Lunch:

12pm - 2.30pm

(Last order at 2.15pm)

Dinner:

6pm - 10.30pm

(Last order at 10pm)

Closed every Wed, except Public Holidays.

Website: http://www.osiarestaurant.com/home/osia-singapore OR http://www.rwsentosa.com/Homepage/Restaurants/CelebrityChefs/Osia

The entrance of the famed Parisan pâtisserie, Angelina, into Singapore sparked rave media (both conventional and unconventional) reviews as well as long queues in the initial stages. Fast forward almost a year later and the queues seem to have vanished (at least on a Friday afternoon during the lunch period) and only a handful of tables were occupied.We were ushered to a table in a corner with an adjourning extension, presumably for us to place our drinks/side orders as our main table was rather tiny. It was so small that we had problems trying to sit around it comfortably as our knees were hitting the legs. Talk about impracticality! To be fair, only a few tables (rounded ones) had this issue.Old Fashioned Ice Chocolate “L'Africain - Touted as one of the definite must tries in Angelina (albeit the hot version, not the cold one), the ice chocolate is apparently made from blending cocoa beans from Niger, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Papua New Guinea and served with unsweetened whipped cream. My humble take on this? Rich and satisfying but the whipped cream didn't quite do it for me especially since the drink was cold and the cream remained in clumps for quite a fair bit of time (stirring didn't actually help much). And personally, 15 bucks a pop (after tax) is a rather ludicrous amount to pay for a glass of chocolate.

Complimentary Bread - Crusty on the outside yet compact on the inside with a tinge of sour dough-ness, the mini baguette wasn't really warm and came served with chilled butter. Which presented a small problem. The bread was warm enough to melt the butter and we ended up having to exert quite a fair bit of pressure to apply a smooth layer of butter onto the bread.Seafood Risotto - What a feast for the eyes the Seafood Risotto was; boasting a variety of colours from the prawns, squid, scallop, clams and cheese shavings. Unfortunately it really did look much better than it tasted. The risotto was al dente (I'll give it that!) but lacked creaminess whilst the seafood just didn't quite make the cut. The huge singular scallop, for example, was a little too soft througout and lacked any discernible sweetness. Ditto the prawns, which didn't come across as very fresh. Overall palatable but no great shakes.Truffle Croque Monsieur - I was enticed by the truffle quotient in this particular rendition of Croque Monsieur and on hindsight it probably wasn't the wisest equation to select. Two crisp slices of toast bearing onto a slices of ham and cheese and topped with a layer of gooey melted cheese, followed by a generous drizzle of truffle oil and finished off with two thin slices of black truffle (more for that visual effect honestly). The wonderful aroma (from the truffle oil) aside, it was nothing much than a decent ham and cheese sandwich with truffle oil; nothing more, nothing less.

Mont Blanc - Another of Angelina's signature dishes, the famed Mont Blanc pureed chestnut dessert. Maybe the issue lies with me but I really didn't quite fancy it. The chestnut puree came across as a little too heavy and stodgy which made this small dessert rather nauseating to consume after a few bites. So much so that I left half of it untouched. So much for the high expectations.

Lunch for 2 came up to about $60 after a 50% discount only on the food (~ $105 without discount) which was still acceptable for the rather pedestrian quality of food. However, take away that discount and Angelina would be seriously overpriced in my humble opinion. Service was reasonably competent but stiff.

See all my pictures at http://www.timelessfacade.com/2016/04/angelina-singapore-famed-parisan.html

A colleague had recommended Seletar Hill Restaurant so a couple of us got together for lunch one weekend to give it a shot. This place apparently sells "westernised" Chinese food like General Tso's Chicken as well as Szechuan dishes which the owners picked up whilst cooking in the kitchens of Chinese restaurants in New York. Having lived in the Americas for quite a few years, that little bit of history honestly didn't quite assure me.The Place - Facing a neighbour park/playground along Jalan Selaseh (along Yio Chu Kang Road and a few lanes down from Orchid Live Seafood @ Jalan Kelulut - http://www.timelessfacade.com/2014/09/orchid-live-seafood.html), Seletar Hill Restaurant (or SHR for short) is an unassuming eatery that has a typical, dated interior that is commonplace in many older Chinese restaurants.Cold Dish - A rather typical old school Chinese restaurant starter; the appetiser platter aka "cold" dish. Consisting of the usual sliced prawns with thousand island sauce, ngoh hiang (五香), jellyfish etc. Everything was palatable but nothing quite memorable honestly.

Fish Maw, Fresh Crabmeat, Chicken and Mushroom Potage - Not too starchy with relatively generous shreds of crab meat, chicken and pieces of fish maw. I personally prefer double boiled soups (like the ones from Lei Garden - http://www.timelessfacade.com/2014/06/lei-garden-hong-kong.html) but this was pretty decent.

Camphor Tea Smoked Duck - One of SHR's signature dishes. On my first bite, I could make out the pleasantly faint smokiness that permeated through the entire piece of meat. However the entire duck didn't seem evenly smoked as parts of it seemed a little bland. Also, the meat did come across as a tad dry. Still a very decent eat nonetheless and definitely one of the better ones I've had.

Claypot Duck Wing with Sea Cucumber - I personally wasn't a fan of this dish. Although the duck wing was well braised, the gravy came across as one dimensional. Don't quite fancy sea cucumber as well.Fried Red Garoupa with Sweet and Sour Sauce - The fish was quite fresh and sported a crisp exterior drizzled with a mildly sweet and appetising sweet and sour sauce. Not too bad honestly."Tung-po" Pork Belly with Steamed Buns - Another of SHR's signature dishes, the Tung-po pork belly with steamed buns aka kong ba pau (扣肉包) was melt in your mouth tender but the gravy did seem a little bland. Nothing quite like the one I usually have from Beng Hiang - http://www.timelessfacade.com/2006/10/beng-hiang-restaurant.html (I have yet to visit them since their move to Jurong so I am unsure if standards have been maintained).

Our set lunch for 6 pax cost just over $240, which honestly wasn't too expensive given the quantity of food. However food quality isn't much to shout about and I guess SHR is just another ulu Chinese restaurant; worth a try but not worth a revisit in my humble opinion.

See all my pictures at http://www.timelessfacade.com/2016/04/seletar-hill-restaurant-just-another.html