So what's fine dining anyway? A fancy restaurant, several waitresses attending to you, nice tall wine glass and a piece of half seared tuna the size of a nickel on a plate the diameter of Shaq O'neal's foot. Yeah well of course they made the plate look full by drizzling sauces all over it and placing one or two funny looking vegetables at the side, all this for an exorbitant sum. It's the entire experience, they'd say. I'd say, Go ahead, kid yourself.
Now how about this. Imagine fine dining in a different way; situated in the heart of Singapore, located on the streets, with passer bys and soaking in the hot, humid heat with cars whizzing by meters away from you. Hey, just treat it like al fresco dining aye?
It's special in a different sense, allowing you to really soak up the asian street vendor kind of dining and it feels good every once in a while. The place in question? Basil Aclove located on the sidewalks of Fortune Center and the chef I've read about from a few blogs is Xander.
I haven't spoken to Xander personally yet but i think the food is quite good and price is quite reasonable. For starters, take the Grilled chicken caeser salad. Now, this really caught us by surprise as we were expecting some kind of white chicken chunks in some average caeser salad. It actually turned out that the chicken was really seasoned well and grilled and there were ALOT of them. The bed of lettuce was also generously sprinkled with cheese and coated with tasty dressing. It was also brilliantly balanced with raisins which did gave it a different touch.
Mmm! Not bad for $7++ but I only wished he had eased on the dressing. It turned out to be a little too much and cloying [too jelark lar]
I ordered the chicken with avocado cream priced at $7++ but I didn't really enjoy the dish. It's pretty dissapointing that the chicken was deep fried and ended up really oily. Although the seasoning was good, thhe oil pretty much spoiled everything. One can only take in so much oil in one night right?
But alas, the avocado cream and salsa was refreshing and the cream was really tasty with none of the raw avocado taste. Sides were french beans which I totally lurrrve and mashed potato with chunks still in it [Oola!] and infused with a buttery taste.
Dad ordered the duck breast dish which came in medium done and accompanied with some red wine vinaigrette. Medium cooked duck breast? This is the first time I've heard of such a thing and medium cooked poultry is somewhat a little.. disturbing. But since Dad said that duck meat is technically red meat, well, my Dad always knows best ;-)
I still prefer my duck well done and soft and tender in braised sauce [I know lar so typically Chinese] and the only implication in having it medium done was that it was really chewy. Still, it quite creative (for a sua ku like me) and went well with the vinaigrette.
Mum and Qin ordered the cod fish which was really nicely served. The fish was [Mmm!] fresh! and it was served with a side of pink cream which tasted slightly sweet and buttery. I think it was made of beetroot is my memory serves me correctly. The salsa with mashed potato was also a good combination.
The food here is not bad considering its prices. However, it still needs a little bit of tweaking and a little more getting-right which I hope can be done in the future. Desserts will also be a nice welcome to end a good dinner. If so, the "restaurant" will start seeing larger crowds of people coming to try the food.
Address:
Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road, #01-07, Fortune Centre
63361318
Open 12pm to 10pm
Closed on Mondays
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