Odette
We spent Christmas with my family at home in Singapore and while it was a whirlwind, wonderful trip, The Husband and I took an afternoon to ourselves for a delightful lunch at Odette.
The two-hour, six-course lunch was the best meal I'd had all year and I'm not exaggerating - the entire experience from the moment we entered the beautiful space to the last sip of coffee was something I hope I never forget. Odette will forever be the standard against which I hold all other fine-dining restaurants.
The food itself was phenomenal - every course was flavorful, interesting in preparation, and the meal as a whole took us through almost all textures. It was as visually stunning as it was delicious (my iPhone pictures do not do any of it justice, apologies). Highlights of the meal:
- The mushroom tea - talk about starting things off with a bang. The first course was a tea of various dried mushrooms that had really bold flavor. I know I already said this but it bears repeating: texture. All too often food is just what it is and a soup is a soup but this had crunch and a real body to it. I could probably consume an entire pint of it, it was that good.
- The miso caramel that came with the salmon/kurobuta pork belly dish. I could have literally licked my plate if I no one watched me. Good miso has such umami and to cook it down to a caramel and it had this every-so-slightly-but-perfectly-present char flavor that was [insert mind blown emoji].
- The bread course. This wasn't one of the official six courses and the bread sat there. There was a rice sourdough that brought tears to my eyes.
- Their signature smoked egg and potato foam with chorizo soup course. This was the theatrical course, clearly - it came to our table cascading dry ice "smoke." The bowl that holds the soup had rosemary smoke held under it and it was the oddest, coolest aromatic complement to what we were eating. You'll have to see it for yourself HERE on my Instagram account. Tap on the "Odette" Instastory archive.
Who am I kidding? Every course rocked my world. When the dishes were being described to us, it all sounded like there was a lot going on but it all made sense and tasted so so great. From the champagne cart (yes, a cart full of different kinds of champagne) to the five-part dessert, we left feeling the perfect level of full and I could have easily repeated the meal the next day and probably would have found new nuances in everything.
As for the restaurant... I was blown away by the attention to detail. Every little thing was thoughtful from the furniture to the utensils, the music, the lighting... each detail complemented the next and I wish I could tell the owners in person how beautiful it all is. There were elements of pink everywhere but not gaudily so and, in fact, extremely chic and tasteful. The uniforms (and I'm talking back of house and front of house) were smart and stylish, they thought through the presentation of the food and drink and I will never tire of gushing over this place. You HAVE to go to their website and just look at the images - it is GORGEOUS in there.
If you are in Singapore or you know you're headed over there and you love good food and are just looking for an all-round spectacular experience I cannot recommend enough that you make your reservation at Odette. There's a four, six and eight course option for lunch, six and eight for dinner on weekdays (6/8 lunch and 8 dinner only on Fridays and Saturdays). They recommend making reservations at least a month in advance and if memory serves I made mine two months ahead (that was the furthest I could do it in advance) to make sure I could get in over the holiday.
If you can't go, you should at least follow or take a look at their chef's Instagram feed and live vicariously through his posts.
