Hey Hive!
Now that a lot of people here have already gotten vaccinated, I'm very happy to hear that Singapore is now allowing in-house dining again, and now they've eased up on restrictions so that group dining is possible too! This might mean people will be more lax with their hygiene but at least this allows us to try out different restaurants again! We just have to be more cautious around others and will still try to avoid crowds as much as possible since we're not a fan anyway.
So in 2021, the Singapore government gave these SingapoRediscover vouchers to encourage locals to do more touristy things and boost the economy, since there was a significant drop in tourism because of covid. And we actually didn't use our vouchers until about 2 months before they were set to expire in March 2022. So back in January, we went on a tour of Marina Bay Sands (the famous 5* hotel here in Singapore) which included a meal at a fancy restaurant there!
The tour also included a sunset boat ride along the Singapore River; something that we would never do normally so the vouchers were put to good use. There were actually plenty of other things you could do with the vouchers like go to the theme parks here but since we've been to all of them already it didn't really interest us. And we just wanted some free food so why not right? The tour had other locals too but they were definitely at least twice our age. 😅
We didn't mind though, since it meant it would be relaxing and chill. So after walking around the mall at Marina Bay Sands it was time for "dinner"! It was actually quite early for dinner as we sat down at around 5pm or so. I guess because they didn't want us to take up seats from the regular dinner crowd. The restaurant is called RISE and is pretty near to Gardens by the Bay.
It's quite an open concept restaurant too; I think the floors in the background are some of the hotel rooms.
This was basically the "ceiling" of the restaurant, with rooms on either side.
But it was definitely a very fancy restaurant. It was also very nicely furnished with modern plush faux leather couches and seats with some overhanging lamps to add to the ambience.
They even had these huge planters to give it that natural look and blend in with the nature outside.
The kitchen is pretty open too, and I think this might be where they have their breakfast buffets for the hotel guests.
This was definitely one of the fancier restaurants we've been to in recent times. It's very different from Chinese restaurants as well since this is so open and bright. Also thanks to the natural light from the glass windows everywhere.
We were shown to our table and happy to be given a table with the round sofa because that's our favourite kind of seat. And at the tables instead of menus there are QR codes for you to scan to view the menu. This is so much more convenient than physical menus imo; especially in these covid times and just in general if you want to change a menu item.
So for dinner we had 2 full 5-course meal options to choose from. This was the first option:
And this was the second:
Both menus looked really good, but sadly we were only allowed to choose one menu per group so we couldn't get one each and share them. It didn't really make sense, but oh well. Since I'm not a big fan of Otah or green beans, we chose menu 1.
So for the appetiser we had Bak Kut Teh, which is pork rib soup with plenty of chinese herbs and spices in a garlic and pepper broth. The pork was also really tender and easily came apart from the bone.
There were also dough fritters to accompany the soup, which we were actually not expecting!
And our second item is the Ngoh Hiang, or 5 spice roll, which is minced pork and prawns in crispy bean curd skin.
The soup was quite light but very hearty. The spices weren't too strong and it wasn't as peppery compared to our favourite Bak Kut Teh place, but it was still very tasty, and provided a nice start to the meal.
The dough fritters were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and not too oily. Just yummy!
And the Ngoh Hiang was really crispy too, with a nice blend of pork and prawns for the filling. Very savoury and tasty!
These first few items were already so good, and the soup was actually pretty filling.
Then it was time for the main course - Hainanese Chicken Rice! This was the poached sakura chicken, which was so tender and juicy with the sesame soy sauce.
Our chicken of course came with a side of fragrant chicken rice, broth and the standard 3 sauces - ginger, chili and sweet black sauce.
For veggies, we had stir-fried kai lan and mushrooms in oyster sauce. Not really my favourite vegetable since I don't really like stems but it's a common vegetable paired with chicken rice.
It didn't look like a lot of food, but after the soup I was getting full pretty quickly despite it being my first meal of the day. The rice was very nice and flavourful and paired with the chicken so well. The vegetables were a little bitter as expected but was still yummy with the rice and mushrooms.
Everything was so delicious! I could barely finish my plate and I think I gave Sean some rice too. But when dessert came I was really curious to try the Sago Gula Melaka!
The chilled Sago is refreshing but actually pretty plain on its own, with a bouncy jelly-like texture. So we have to add the gula melaka syrup/palm sugar and coconut milk provided to give it more flavour. And it actually became quite sweet with the gula melaka but the coconut milk balanced it out quite well.
It was a very nice dessert to round out the meal and wasn't overly sweet since the sago is quite dense and plain and we didn't add all the gula melaka. But unfortunately we were just too full and were kind of in a hurry for the boat ride so we had to leave shortly after our dessert arrived. It was fine though since we ate most of it and were very satisfied already.
Don't mind our messy hair, but we really enjoyed our first dining experience here at MBS!
If you're interested in checking out RISE, feel free to scan the QR code for the menu! They specialise in classic southeast Asian dishes that you'd normally find in hawker centers here. But there's just a different experience and taste when eating the local fare in a fancy 5* restaurant you know?
And I'm so glad we actually got to enjoy it for free too, thanks to the vouchers!
Thanks so much for reading!
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Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat's TrEats #126: Cheapest and Crispiest Fried Fish! 🐟
