Harry Osborn aka the new Green Goblin

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Ahh ... the imposing Singapore skyline, a truly inspiring sight on a Sunday afternoon after church. My family & I had a Sunday brunch at Equinox, a restaurant situated on the 69th & 70th floor of the Swissotel The Stamford which offers stunning panoramas of our entire city-state.

We were fortunate enough to obtain a window seat which overlooks the floating platform at Marina Bay.Personally,I think it can't be denied that with stunning views like these, the ambience factor of the dining experience is greatly enhanced.

The restaurant looks rather oriental(some may hv different views abt it).Basically,brunch is served in the form of an international buffet & there is a very impressive spread encompassing the usual pasta & roast stations, as well as the more exotic saute stations for foie gras and seafood salad.

Lots of bread, but somehow none of them looked very appetising to me. The rolls, in particular, seemed extremely hard, so I decided to have my French onion soup without bread.In my opinion ,I find that the French onion soup was pretty good though.

The highlight of the buffet probably has to be the foie gras station, with numerous pieces of liver laid out to dry, just begging to be eaten.

The livers are pan-fried & are served with a croute & a slice of caramelised peach. I was fairly impressed by the chef's ability to handle such miniature slices of foie, without completely disintegrating them into puddles of oil. The foie gras is excellent - slippery, rich and oily, & I could probably have polished off the entire station, but I wanted to try the rest of the buffet too.

There was another saute station serving seafood salad; here you can see fresh prawns and scallops waiting to be cooked and slathered with mayonnaise. Decided to give this a miss, in favour of the Japanese appetisers on offer.

Frankly speaking,I'm not really a great fan of Japanese food, but I do think they make for excellent appetisers. Clockwise from top left: soba served with tobiko and spring onions, tofu cube with shrimp served with a mirin-shoyu sauce, tomato salad, roast duck salad, beet root salad and california maki. I've an idea budding of incorporating some of these into dinner.

The main buffet is an assortment of meats and vegetables, cooked in various ways. There were braised beef shanks, roasted lamb legs, teriyaki chickens, roasted potato wedges and kebabs.

Clockwise from top left: Duck breast, braised beef shank, roast lamb leg, roasted potatoes. Nothing to write home about, as some of the meats were a bit dry, but I did like the roasted potatoes, which were flaky on the inside but have a bit of texture without.

I headed back to the saute station,(again ... ) not for more foie gras but for the roast beef next to it. The roast beef wasn't particularly awe-inspiring, being somewhat on the small side, but by that time I was feeling rather filled up.

This beef looks plain. All you need to do is to add a nice helping of dark sauce and more of those roasted potatoes are just what this beef needs.

The dessert spread at the Equinox is pretty good, including panna cotta, bread puddings, and most importantly, a chocolate fountain. Unfortunately, it's not as good as it looks - the panna cotta wasn't set at all, and just puddled into unappetising creaminess. No complaints with the chocolate fountain though. As extensive as the dessert buffet was, I didn't get the chance to try most of it, since I was feeling rather full.(BURP ... ... )

Equinox is located in the heart of Raffles City, so getting there is a piece of cake. Ambience, as I've said, is pretty phenomenal, though I suppose on a rainy day there isn't much of a view to talk about. Being a buffet, service isn't fantastic, but I suppose it's adequate. The biggest drawback though, is undoubtedly the price. For Sunday brunch, it's $75 per person, without alcohol. With alcohol(I still can't take it until nxt yr), it's $90.By having a Feed at Raffles card,it allows us dine at half the price. Apparently,during weekdays, the price goes down to $40, but the amount of food isn't as generous.

Some people I know who dine at this 'posh' (it may be posh to u) place.They are Ng Kok Wing & my Bro,Evelyn Ng & of course ... ... ME ! !

8:25 PM