It took me a year to finally visit Raw Kitchen Bar. Actually I dropped by when they just opened a year ago, but I did not have my dinner there back then. And despite staying just 10 minutes away from the place, it took me until now to pay them a visit. Yes, I’m a year late, but it’s better to be late than never isn’t it?

And boy oh boy, December is almost here. I like the year-end, for one it’s the month of celebrations with Christmas and New year, and I get to sum up my adventure for the whole year. Food-wise, this has been a fulfilling year, and I thought my winner for the best new restaurant is already decided, until I visit Raw.

Stepping inside, there’s just something different about this place. There’s the flimsy light bulb with different pieces of whimsical furniture to begin with. Then you have the quaint and charming backyard that looks like an awesome place to throw a tea party. The chef/owner Javier comes out and greet every table, all in all, you have the feeling of dining in the chef’s house.

The food is pretty good too. While we looked through the menu debating over spaghetti mentaiko, and commenting that the bun noodle sounds cute; we finally decided on the Capellini cream of ebiko and sauteed prawns ($19). Every slurp of the angel hair pasta seems to make its existence for your taste of the food. The portion might be a tad small, but it should be adequate for one person’s serving. We also like how the succulent prawns and flavorful ebiko enhanced the taste of the al dente pasta.

The Balsamic duck ($23) was a bit of let-down though, and not that it wasn’t good. The duck drumstick was firm and quite unlike that of a duck confit, but it had an uncanny similarity to the Chinese braised duck in terms of the smell and taste. We would probably enjoy it more if we did not have braised duck before; fusion dishes don’t work in this case, but maybe it’s just us. And for someone like me who usually don’t like mashed potato, the ones that came together with the petite drumstick here, was gorgeous in all sorts of ways.

The choice of the pizza was through an elimination method since there was only three to choose from. Spring vegetables pizza didn’t sound exactly appealing to us, and my friend did not want the mozzarella basil rosemary pizza, so we were left with the Prawns & chili pizza ($19). It was an irony that Raw Kitchen Bar was housed in the former premises of a firestation, wewe were about to call in the fire brigade for help – this pizza’s one kick-ass, fiery, spicy pizza.

This might not sounds convincing since I do not have high tolerance for chili to begin with; but even my friend who claimed that she grew up eating chili, agreed that this pizza was literally hot. And for the price, we weren’t expecting it to be so huge, which sort of compensate for the petite portions in the other two dishes.

Now I have a tough choice for the best new restaurant (among the places that I went to), and I know there’s probably a few more like Spruce & Hacienda (I have not been there yet) that will probably make the cut too. See you there!

Raw Kitchen Bar
276 Upper Bukit Timah road
Firestation
Tel: 6467 3987

Raw Kitchen Bar is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Twenty four of us descended to Gunther’s in a foodgraphy-frenzy. Hells hath no fury like a flogger hunger. The long discussion of food, followed by the occasional exclaims of ‘ooh‘, and ‘ah‘. Welcome to the world of the food lovers.

Japanese tomato

It was smooth, and silky, strands of it sticking out; yet in the dim light setting against the white background, it looked angelic, yes, this must be it: Cold Angel-hair pasta. I enjoyed every slurp, and I’ll gladly have it again.

This, is the In-thing for this season, like the latest fashion trends for each year; rejoiced people, it is this time of the year for the sacred white asaparagus, not green, not red, but white. And then, I spotted the yellowish sauce over the the Poached white asparagus with Bouchot mussels.

I stopped, and slowly took a bit of it with my spoon; “it couldn’t be, Oh yes it is!” I dipped everything on the plate with the hollandaise sauce, and made sure not a single drop of it was left.

“Have you had white asaparagus before?”

“No, I don’t see whats the craze over them..”

A surprise always had the biggest impact when you least expected it, and it came pleasantly of course.

There was pata negra, and salted baked seabass for the folks who couldn’t have beef; and damn, the roasted black pig from spain sounded so good, I should have claimed to have allergies against cows!

My piece was very well balanced in the portions of the fats and meat (read: too much fats). I took a bite of the meat, and chewed down some fats. And it’s not that the Grilled Cote de Boeuf wasn’t good. In fact it was more than excellent; the slightly tinge of pink fully captured my imagination.

My eyes tweaked to see what was coming. It was supposed to be desserts next, but they were serving us, pizzas. You know, the elongated slice of thin-crust bread with toppings all over. Ah no, I was clearly mistaken, this was no pizza, it’s the Fine apple tart a la dragees, with rum & raisin ice-cream.

Once we had our desserts, once we paid off the bill, it would be bye-bye until a year later. Or at least that’s what the script wrote. A year, is far too long a time for us to meet up. We should meet up regularly my friends, and hunt down all the good food around our island.

I’ll like to thank my fellow floggers for attending the food bloggers’ luncheon, Gunther’s for hosting the event, our various sponsors and not to forget my lovely partner Yixiao for flooding my mailbox and phone constantly during the preparation stages.

Gunther’s
36 Purvis street
#01-03 Talib centre
Tel: 6338 8955

Meet my fellow food bloggers:

Yixiao @ hautestaff
Catherine @ Camemberu
Nic @ Black tie white lie
Fen & Yuan @ sgdessert
Dave @ Importance of salt
Cheryl @ thebakerwhocooks
June @ joonelovesfood
Mia @ skinny-epicurean
Jiaxin @ foodiesqueen
Jeremy @ eggtoast
Antonio @ foodieah
Phil & serene @ keropokman
Karen @ superfinefeline
Leroy @ thehungrycow
Elaine @ divine essentials
Kelvin @ timelessfacade
Maureen @ jaime-la-nourriture
Ryan @ caramelcorn
Evan @ bossacafez
Ivan @ food.recentrunes
Claudine @ claudzratznblabz

UE Square is in between Mohamed Sultan road, and Robertson quay, together the area’s a conclave for food and beverage alike. Bontá Italian restaurant & Bar is one of them, located within UE square facing Mohamed Sultan. Having seen this place on both my past visits to Sage the restaurant, and Epicurious, I immediately recalled this place when my partner mentioned that they are famed for their complimentary bread.

We troted down, from Raffles place, Boat Quay, Central, Clark Quay, and the Robertson Quay area. And in turn, passing by many restaurants, but my partner seem to set her heart on the complimentary bread, so we arrived rather late at Bonta.

A quiet affair on a weekday dinner, Bonta had a very beautiful al fresco area, which was definitely welcome if you need some private moments while enjoying the air outside.

If sweating isn’t what you really imagine on your first date out, you can of course enter the cozy and elegant interior of the restaurant. Coupled with the warm lightnings, Bonta does makes a nice place for a romantic dinner. There’s also a private room available just beside the wine cellar.

Complimentary bread

The complimentary bread which Bonta’s famous for. We were full of expectations since we heard rave reviews about the bread, and when the bread came, we were not disappointed. Coming in the form of a cup, the bread at Bonta’s baked freshly everyday, and the smell of it was captivating enough.

Usually the idea of a fresh complimentary bread is dry, unappealing to the palates, and the main reason for its existance is to have a bite while waiting for the appetisers to serve. But not this one, the walnut foccacia bread was totally in a different league on its own. It’s crispy outside, soft and fluffy inside, with walnuts, sundride tomatoes, and feta cheese.

Feta cheese, made from goat’s milk, was the chief architect for the aromatic scent. Crumbly and grainy texture could be best used to describe feta cheese, but if you ain’t a cheese person, and didn’t really like the smell of feta cheese, then maybe you wouldn’t appreciate the bread very much.

Lobster tartare ($39)

Tomato salsa, olive oil, capers, sicilian olives, rocket leaves, and of course lobster made up the lobster tartare. We ain’t quite sure what exactly made us order the most expensive appetiser on the menu, but since we weren’t very hungry, and wasn’t planning to order a lot, plus my partner didn’t try lobster before, we decided to go for it.

The first form of emotion felt when the lobster tartare arrived, was a rather let-down feeling. Well to be frank, paying almost 40 bucks for such a appetiser did not make economic sense when you could order a main course with the price.

The tomato salsa which formed the top layer of the tartare, was too overpowering and jarring, which almost completely covered the taste of the lobster. So even if the lobster wasn’t fresh, you couldn’t really tell. Lobster meat wise, there wasn’t much of it to be seen and felt.

Basil infused angel hair pasta, with jumbo crab meat ($29)

The angel hair pasta was apparently green with basil providing the colour. Chives, white wine sauce, and jumbo crab meat was part of the ingredients which accompanied the pasta. Basil infused angel hair pasta, was definitely a better pairing compared to the tom yam one we had at Absolute Haven,

My partner found the pasta bit soggy, and the lack of sauce which made it too dry for her liking. The jumbo crab meat serving though, was rather generous, with big bits of crab meat. Angel hair still tasted like Chinese rice vermicelli to us. The salmon roe, was quite a good addition apart from the crab meat. Overall there wasn’t anything intriguing about the pasta, just a good and solid version.

Total Bill was $80.04 for one main course and one appetiser for the two of us. We didn’t order a lot because we weren’t feeling very hungry. The walnut foccacia bread was certainly excellent, and one of the better complimentary bread around. The same couldn’t be say for the lobster tartare, which we felt was a rather let down since we expected more from it.

There was a rather unpleasant incident at the beginning because initially I asked permission from the restaurant manager, Mr Karim Benramdane to take photographs of the restaurant, and he agreed with politeness. But after I took some pictures, the executive chef, Mr Luca Pezzera came and asked me to stop taking photographs, citing reasons that they had bad encounters with customers taking photos, and written bad reviews about Bonta, which caused negative publicity for them.

I did agree with him that different people have different taste and preference, so reviews cannot be properly judged the standards of a restaurant. But i felt that if a restaurant is really good, they shouldn’t be afraid to let the customers take photo of their place.

I’ll also like to praise one of the staff, Mr Morning, who was really polite and professional in his work. He greeted us with his friendly smile, and also explained to our enquiries diligently, for that i’ll say there isn’t many restaurant who has professionals like him, and he will go a long way in serving Bonta.

I don’t think that one appetiser and one main course can be used to judge Bonta fairly, since we didn’t have their signature dishes, it will be unfair to make an early judgement on their standards. Therefore, i’ll return for their valued set lunches which at $28, comes with appetiser, main course, dessert and tea.

Bonta Italian restaurant & bar
207 River Valley Road
#01-61 UE Square
Tel: 6333 8875