Restaurant Week Review: Salt Grill & Sky Bar @ Ion Orchard

It so turned out that friend S booked Gaia which I just had a few days before our dinner appointment (I mean, what are the chances?), so we changed to Luke Mangan's Salt Grill & Sky Bar instead, which served modern Australian cuisine (though I can't tell the difference between Australian and normal Western cuisine). 

Some of us may think that Ion Orchard is just 4 or 5 floors of shops, but there's actually a restaurant hidden all the way up at Level 55, accessible from a lift near Level 4 Concierge. There is a counter for Salt Grill there and the receptionist will direct you to the lift. Taking the lift itself, with its astronomical ceiling, is an experience in itself, especially if you go for dinner, and you step into the dark, romantically lit restaurant, with one of the best views of the Singapore skyline. 

Upon arrival, we were pleasantly greeted by the wait staff, who ushered us to our seats. Although we didn't get the window seats, the view was still pretty awesome from where we were. 

We were served with bread first, and interestingly, besides olive oil, they provided dakka/duqqa/dukkah as well, which is an Egyptian side dish consisting of a mixture of herbs and nuts.  

Entree: "glass" Sydney crab omelette, enoki mushroom and herb salad, miso mustard broth (U.P $34) 

You can rarely go wrong with egg, and the crab meat wrapped inside the omelette was sweet and juicy, and enhanced the flavour of the egg. 

Citrus cured salmon, avocado, apple, fennel, with salmon roe 

Then I wished we went for lunch instead of dinner because the lighting was so dim, the photos turned out lousy. We resorted to using a simple trick for the next few photos, which looked marginally better. 

Main: BBQ spiced beef tenderloin, mash, pumpkin puree, red wine jus 

Sad to say, I'm afraid the U.S. Angus Steak served at New Ubin Seafood was much better. 

Grilled barramundi, caramelized witlof, capsicum and sultana  

Dessert: Chocolate delice, salted caramel, honeycomb, and praline ice cream

Lemongrass panna cotta, char grilled pineapple, and ginger beer sorbet 

The ginger beer sorbet and lemongrass panna cotta were refreshing, and the praline ice cream from the other dessert was also very good. Although the place seems pretty atas, once you settle into your space, it's relaxing and comfortable, the wait staff are non-intrusive but readily available, and there's a healthy space between you and your neighbours. 

 2 Orchard Turn, ION Orchard, 

#55-01 & #56-01 

Singapore 238801

Operating Hours: Monday to Sunday

Restaurant

Lunch: 11.00 – 14.00 (Last Order)

Dinner: 18.00 – 22.00 (Last Order)

Sky bar

18.00 – 23.30

(Drink last order at 23.00)

Brunch (Weekend)

11:00-14:00 (Last order)

Afternoon Tea: 14:00-18:00

Dress Code: Smart Casual

http://www.saltgrill.com/ 

Taste Paradise @ Ion Orchard

Looking at various food reviews that had raved about the dim sum at Taste Paradise, I know I just gotta check it out. Therefore I suggested to have the sister's birthday celebration here by having Sunday brunch yesterday! Remember to make your reservations - we made reservations for 11am and they required us to vacate by 12.30pm... We were all right with it though.

 The interior - paintings of emperors from the Qing Dynasty.

Table set-up -

 Embossed menu design -

Complimentary appetizer - my family liked this, because I think the teochews like to eat sze chuan cai. This one was coated with chili oil and sesame oil and maybe some other secret ingredients that we cannot decipher.

Porridge was so-so only, disappointing coming from a Chinese restaurant that's going to give Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure a run for their money. They only have two types - century egg and lean meat, and fish porridge. We had a bowl of each. If you like to eat porridge, you're better off at CJ or IT. Their silky texture is oh-so-good. This one was coffee-shop standard, though the fish in the fish porridge was in bigger pieces and much fresher, unlike coffee-shops' which are rather fishy at times.

Prawn and Mango Roll - 3 for $4.80 When you order they'll actually ask if you want to increase the number of pieces to the number of pax at the table, but we declined, 'cos we like to share, and diverse the risk first before ordering a second serving, haha! When I cut this into two, I suppose I gave the part with the prawn to the sister, so my part only had mango and tons of mayonnaise drooling out. It was yummy, though I thought there was simply too much mayo in it (coming from a person who loves mayo, it says something), and not enough prawns!!

BBQ Honey Sauce Pork Bun - 3 for $3.90. Next time I will remember to order the char siew sou that was a hot favourite among the rest. This one was good too, the pork pieces are larger than anywhere else (hahaha) and sweeter as well.

Xiao Long Bao with Foie Gras - The receipt says 4 for $7.80, but there was only 3 when it came! 0.0 Okay I think we kinda got cheated.... Never mind! Anyway, when I first tasted this I felt that it wasn't any different from the usual XLB that we eat. There was no hint of the heavenly foie gras. 

However, when next you take a bite of the normal Xiao Long Bao (4 for $3.80), you can taste the difference. The above is definitely tastier. But only the normal had soup oozing out, not the foie gras one. 

This is something new to us - Steamed Cod Fish Balls (3 for $4.20). I love the crystal skin! 

 

How it looks like inside - What cod fish balls! There was only one little meagre piece of cod fish inside... It was filled with vegetables and mushrooms. It was still yummy though...

 

I think you can never go wrong with siew mai and har kao.

 Steamed Custard Bun - 3 for $4.20). A highly raved-about item as well, though it's not really to my liking. The custard just screams sinful - lots of butter and egg yolk, I can almost feel my cholesterol levels rising as I gingerly took each bite. It was my first time trying this (yeah sua ku right heehee) but I think once is enough!

Prawn wrapped in Beancurd Skin - 3 for $4.80. The father couldn't wait to tuck in. 

 This is something new as well - Century Egg with Wasabi Mayonnaise (3 for $4.20). I've never come across this combination before, so it was novel to us, and loving century egg and mayonnaise, I've gotta try this one! It comes chilled (therefore should be ordered first), the century egg and ginger slices are refreshing to the tastebuds, and the wasabi mayonnaise shields the taste a bit if you don't like century eggs. I like it! The sisters thought it was weird though, but I'll definitely order it again if I go there!

Pan-Fried Pumpkin Pastry - 3 for $3.20. I don't really fancy this, but the parents liked it.

 XO Carrot Cake - $7.80 No hint of XO. Not bad, but I don't think I'll order it another time!

Their desserts came with billowing dry ice. We had avocado cream with walnut ice cream (which tasted more like coffee ice cream) and Mango with coconut ice cream. We wanted to change the latter ice cream to mango ice cream but it couldn't be done, but it turned out that the coconut ice cream went quite well with the mango sago.

 Service staff was aplenty, though they were shuffling here and there and we had a hard time catching their attention sometimes. It's a good place for family outings/gatherings I feel. There were many families around when we went there for brunch, and it's not as noisy as in other Chinese restaurants.


How much spent: $25-$28 per pax 
Would I go back again? Yes!

Address: 2 Orchard Turn
#04-07 ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 9660