Spago by Wolfgang Puck at Spago Dining Room in Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Hotel has one of the best 3 course deals for lunch. For $68 a person, you can get three courses of food (or $58 if you become a member of Marina Bay Sands and dine from Monday to Friday). Come along as we try the Spago Dining Room and the Spago Bar at Marina Bay Sands to see what it is like.
One of the reasons to dine at Spago, apart from the California cuisine served, is the roof-top view either of the ocean or of the famous Marina Bay Sands infinity pool and city scape of Singapore below. It's a Friday lunchtime when I arrive with my mother, sister and Mr NQN. Originally we had a table inside booked but the tables outside facing the pool have a better view and it is cool and breezy today.
Service is excellent with friendly deferentialness by our waiter and senior restaurant manager Krishna who goes out of his way to make everyone feel special.
We start with some bread - a soft, square milk bun with a mushroom filling and a rye bread. These are served with unsalted butter and a seaweed butter. We all love the seaweed butter that we generously slather on the bread although the mushroom bun doesn't need any as it has a mushroom duxelle filling. We are having the 3 course set lunch so we decide to choose different entrees and mains so that we can try more. We also swap out two of the desserts for sides as we like the sound of a couple of them.
While each table has a 1.5 hour dining time, it doesn't feel rushed. The fish and chips is a raw take on deep fried fish and chips with a seabream tartare with tartare sauce and chives and served with double fried Kennebec potato chips. The tartare is so fresh with a nice hit of lemon to it and is one of my favourite entrees for both its freshness and balance of flavours.
The other favourite is the restaurant's signature dish of big eye tuna tartare sesame tuile cones. The tuna is finely chopped and served with chilli aioli, soy, wasabi, shaved bonito, scallions and masago roe. This has a supplement of $5 and is usually 3 cones but Krishna upgraded us to 4 cones at no extra cost. It's this extra level of service that makes customers feel special. I also notice another table is given a complimentary entree of agnolotti so that they can try it. Again, a nice gesture that makes guests feel special.
Everyone really enjoys the trippa alla Romana. The tomato braised tripe is buttery soft and cleaned well so there is no trace of aroma. Strewn through it is a pulled apart burrata cheese and it comes with two slices of olive oil toasted bread. Save some of your bread to mop up the last of this incredible sauce.
The Agnolotti with porcini mushrooms, thyme and Parmigiano-Reggiano is nice and a generous serve of dainty parcels. The porcini even has a slight aroma of truffle. But I preferred the other dishes to this.
Onto the mains! The Orecchiette pasta is perfectly presented with soft pork ragu in every single cradle of orecchiette. The ragu is cooked with tomato, basil and pecorino ragu and a sprinkling of crunchy pangrattato on top to finish.
The pork is incredibly juicy with a smooth apple miso purée, confit bacon and a rich sauce made with wheat beer and brandy mustard. The standout is the texture of the Iberico pork, something that we don't often get in Australia so I like to eat it when I am overseas.
The only dish that I didn't go for as much as the others is the broiled ora king salmon. It is good but honestly I prefer a stronger miso flavour to it. It is served with hijiki rice, house made Japanese pickles, wasabi, chives and a generous amount of ikura on the side.
We also really wanted to try the charcoal grilled burger because we were interested to see how Wolfgang Puck does burgers. This is a fat juicy beef patty with pickles, gruyere and aged cheddar cheese as well as garlic aioli and smokey onion jam and perfect fries on the side. If you're looking for a solid burger, this is excellent and delivers with a nice smokey flavour to it.
We also asked if we could swap two of our desserts with two sides instead as we are more savoury eaters (and all but 2 desserts attracted a surcharge). This is not a problem and the first is the pan-seared Australian Brussels sprouts with miso and furikake. They're nice and dainty ones so with a less bitter aspect to them. We usually like them a bit more caramelised but the seasoning is good.
We all adore the caramelised Cameron highlands corn that features super juicy white and yellow corn kernels with tiny Ciopolina roasted onions and sage. The corn is really a standout for its sweetness and juiciness and light smokiness.
There is quite a long wait between mains and desserts and our waiter Krishna notices and brings us a teapot of English breakfast tea. We ordered two desserts to share. The first dessert is a pistachio panna cotta in a glass with an orange gelee layer, chunks of pistachio brittle and a quennelle of creamy orange gelato. I'm not a super big fan of the pistachio and orange flavour combination as the orange dominates over pistachio but the others enjoy it.
The other dessert is an interesting one - it's a coconut coffee made using Balinese Buah Keluak, that intriguing nut that has to be treated a certain way to be edible. The resulting coffee has a chocolate flavour much like dark chocolate. The truffles are excellent - smooth and creamy and strong in dark chocolate and rolled in cocoa powder.
Next door Spago Bar & Lounge offers a more casual dining experience that we also tried another day during our stay at Marina Bay Sands. We mainly tried the entrees.
For something snacky try the chicken karaage served with a togarashi kewpie mayonnaise. The chicken is tender and juicy and delicious dipped in the spicy mayo.
We also really enjoy the chicken laksa spring rolls with laksa leaf, chilli padi and a tart calamansi dipping sauce. There are three spring rolls filled with chicken and noodles with the flavour of laksa but we actually prefer these dipped in the spicy mayo rather than the calamansi dipping sauce.
We also wanted to try something light and the Spago caesar is served like a wedge salad with cos or romaine lettuce wedges dressed in a garlicky caesar dressing with crumbed deep fried white anchovies and a slice of toast spread with creamy ricotta and marinated capsicum.
I am always looking for different ways to serve burrata and this one is a beauty. It's served with confit of Vietnamese cumquats, crispy San Daniele prosciutto, Sicilian pistachios and parmesan. The cumquats really make this dish giving the creamy burrata a sweet, tart counterpoint while the prosciutto and parmesan season the dish.
And for something super fresh and tasty the sashimi salad is big eye tuna, yellow tail and raw Hokkaido scallop with a generous amount of ikura, myoga seaweed and greens with a citrus ponzu sauce.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like set menus or do you prefer to order a la carte?
Spago
10 Bayfront Avenue, Hotel, Tower 2 Level 57, Marina Bay Sands
Monday to Thursday 12–2 pm, 6–9:30 pm
Friday to Sunday 12–2 pm, 6–10 pm
www.marinabaysands.com/restaurants/spago
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