Boat Quay – YummyDelight

Honestly I don’t really know whether to write a post on this. Cat Cafe Neko no Niwa no doubt is operating as a cafe, but seriously who is there just for their F&B? The stars there are the adorable furry felines. Actually I’m not a cat person…I’m rather fearful of stray cats as they seemed to have very strong predatory character and I am worried that they’ll suddenly pounce and attack me with their claws.

But I went ahead with this one as its one of the jie-mei’s birthday and we planned for a group outing. We only managed to book 1 hour at the cafe as the other slots were full. The 1 hour passed by very quickly as most of the time you’ll see humans eagerly pacing the room to try to snap photos of the cats.

While we were there (ard 2pm), most of the cats were sleeping. Only the young male – Mr White (the black cat) was more active and roaming around.

There’s a booklet provided with introduction on the profiles of the cats. The cafe only sells simple drinks, cakes and desserts. But all of us couldn’t even finish the drink within the hour that we were inside the room filled with cats.

In total we counted that there were about 15 people in the room when we left, that is when its fully booked. Interestingly several of the guests at the cafe shared that they are already cat owners but still enjoyed spending time at the cafe playing with the cats.

While we all agreed that it was quite a fun experience at the cafe, most of the guys who heard that we needed to pay just to go play with cats said they find it puzzling…Indeed that explains why about 80% of the customers there were ladies.

Oh yes, I think I forgot to write that I had a can of Orange juice while I was there..That’s about the ‘food’ portion that I can write about…

Absinthe Restaurant Francais was my last Restaurant Week booking for Oct 13 and I only managed to get a 6pm seating – considered very early for me as I usually have late dinners. I was kinda disappointed when I was shown to the outdoor seats area because we weren’t told that it was outdoor seating during the booking. While we may enjoy the night view when the sky turns dark, at 6pm it was still rather warm.

There was some minor hiccups such as the shaky table and missing utensils when we were seated. While enjoying my bread with butter mid-way, the server suddenly placed the olive oil with vinaigrette for bread on our table. Turned out that the couple seated next to us had requested for it and was erroneously served to us instead. They had to request for a new one.

Their RW menu was $55++ per pax and only the main had 2 choices to choose from, the others were standard dishes without options.

Starter was Ceviche of Hokkaido Scallops, Ponzu Dressing, Pear and Promegranate. I thought the sliced scallops were less than 1cm thick each though the dressing was pretty refreshing. Next was Creamy Lobster Bisque which was smooth and flavoured with truffle oil (I guess).

Main were Braised Wagyu Beef Cheeks in Red Wine, Creamy Mash and Green Beans and Grilled Black Cod, Prawn Risotto and Kaffir Lime Leave Emulsion. I enjoyed the grilled cod which was tender and buttery, but the term “Prawn Risotto” was kinda misleading cos there wasn’t any prawn flesh – perhaps only the prawn reduction? The use of kaffir lime leave was a nice touch as it added fragrance to the risotto. The braised wagyu beef cheeks was tender and soft. The mash was also pretty smooth.

Ended with dessert of Earl Grey Creme Brulee, Hazelnut Sugar and Yuzu Jelly. It was light, refreshing and well-balanced despite putting together ingredients with distinct flavours.

The meal portion wasn’t huge but as it was an early dinner for me, I was reasonably full. For guys maybe the portions weren’t enough to fill their stomachs…

Overall I had higher expectations of their dishes since they were once #1 restaurant in Singapore on TripAdvisor.

This sums up my Restaurant Week booking of 6 restaurants, of which I explored 5 restaurants that were new to me. Time to put on my jogging shoes to lose some weight after a week of intensive gorging.

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