Dinner at Iggy's

We had a fabulous degustation dinner last night at Iggy's!

For those not in the know, Iggy's is reputed to be Singapore's best fine dining restaurant and rated highly by international foodies. They have maintained their standards across some time and their prices remain fairly high. Access is not easy too, as they require reservations and are quite often fully booked.

This year Ma really wanted to try Iggy's and so, for her and Geok's birthday celebration we booked dinner there for the 6 of us. It is a standard dinner menu, available via their website, and is a degustation type of meal. Wine is separate, and they are also famous for having a superb wine list, which is expected, considering that the owner, Ignatious Chan is actually a sommelier by training and not a chef. His team of sous chefs have been in the news recently and were highly praised by the local media too.

Dinner was meant to start at 8 PM but Chris and I were late, as we put Madison to bed first. When we got there, the first surprise was that the rest of them were seated in the kitchen! Turned out that Iggy's didn't receive Geok's email reservation and we did not have a table for the night. They were fully booked but offered us the chef's table at the kitchen instead.

It was a new experience. Instead of fine linen and dim lighting, we were in the bright harsh light of the sparkling clean dining area just outside the cooking kitchen. We were promptly served by the attentive staff, who proceeded to serve us table water and fill our wine glasses with the red that Pa had already chosen, a 1998 French wine ( I forget the name ). Freshly cooked bread was offered, along with olive oil and a balsamic vinegar dipping pot. The menu was already on the table setting and the waiter soon came and asked if we had any food preferences for the night. Geok, being pregnant, needed all her dishes well cooked and he promptly went behind to check. Apparently a few dishes needed some tweaking or replacing because they were not nice well cooked.

The amuse bouche was served soon after, a gazpacho sorbet on tomato jelly. Not bad, tangy and sharp on the tongue. Thereafter, seared kanpachi slices topped with konbu and ginger was plated. It was melt on the tongue with the slightly salty konbu.

The next dish was a salad of mixed greens and flowers with truffle shavings. Light on the palate. Lots of shaved truffle which was impressive. This was quickly followed by what we immediately termed " abalone wanton mee", a capellini with abalone in chicken broth. The pasta was firm, and the abalone tender, not chewy. Slightly salty for my taste but not bad. Did taste like wontan mee though, which maybe was what inspired the dish?

Next up was a braised kurobuta pork cheek topped with a carbonara sauce. Looking somewhat like a lasagna initially, but soon revealed itself to be melt in the mouth tender piece of pork. The sauce was smooth and creamy but again, the dish tasted a little too salty to me. Maybe I'm used to less salt in my diet.

This was followed with a piece of seared ocean trout sitting atop a bed of chopped creamy violet potato. Delicate and mild, in contrast to the pork. The potato was actually purple! The fish was definitely fresh, without any fishy smells or flavour. A piece of wagyu steak covered by the finest piece of rosti was served next. The steak was cooked medium rare and juices ran when cut. The sliver of rosti was a bitter contrast to the buttery steak.

At this stage I think we were getting : 1. tired ( it was close to 1030PM !) 2. increasingly full. I suppose these meals, albeit small in quantity are actually quite rich. The last mains was a dish made from cardoons, baked with a cheese sauce and topped with more truffles. Not bad but a little too filling for the last dish.

Finally, the long awaited dish: DESSERT!

Large white plates emerged from the kitchen, and on them was a quartet of flavours: a thin slice of chocolate mascarpone cake, to be accompanied by blueberry ice cream and berry jelly. Finally, as we were instructed, to be finished with a blood orange sorbet. If followed, the experience was actually quite amazing. The flavours did complement each other and the desert tasted better than if taken separately! As a finishing touch, we were served their signature Iggy's lemon tart. Which was meant to be a surprise taken as a bite: there were bubbly bits at the end as the sugar pops crackle in your mouth!

Compliments of the chef: Ma and Geok had a mini birthday dessert consisting of : 2 candles stuck on a cube of toast, vanilla ice cream ( that obviously had fresh vanilla in it ), strawberry shortcake ( in a shotglass) and a crispy pistachio biscuit.

It was already slightly after 11PM when we were finally done! A 3 hour feast for the tongue and stomach. Would we go back? I think the conclusion was : yes. But probably with a menu change. To try another experience that Iggy's could offer. Chris even said it was better than Tetsuya's in Sydney. I think pretty much on par. Service was better at Iggy's though.