Lightweight fare at Moonbow

NEW RESTAURANT

Moonbow Block 10 Dempsey Road, #01-21 Singapore 247700 Tel: 9010 2717 Open daily for lunch and dinner: 11.30am to 3pm; 6pm to 10.30pm

ONCE in a while, you chance upon a word that just sounds . . . happy. Like Moonbow, which conjures up fluffy images of meadows and rainbows, hopes and dreams, bubbles and cuddles. There's certainly no room in this universe for any one prone to cynicism or criticism, casting sticks and stones or harbouring a deep suspicion of Moomins.

Darn.

Still, just as one doesn't live on fresh air and sunshine alone, Moonbow the restaurant needs something more substantial to do justice to this whimsical dreamscape that veteran chef Heman Tan and co-owner Dylan Soh have created.

You could say it's a dilemma of their own design. If Moonbow looked like any of its dressed down neighbours in the eclectic enclave of Dempsey Hill, we would have walked in without a second thought and lower expectations.

But Moonbow is so pretty - it sticks out like a pair of stilettos in a sea of Ugg boots. It looks like someone went to Odette and tried to recreate it from memory, filling it with creamy pastels, abundant white flowers, a seriously shiny show kitchen and a soft golden glow.

It feels fine dining but somehow behaves like a diner, using paper napkins and covering its tables with copies of The Moonbow Times - a mock newspaper filled with 'breaking news' about chef-owner Tan. The menu lurches from bistro to semi-haute to mod-Asian without missing a beat - but a nod to the servers who present everything with tablecloth service flair.

Instead of a complimentary amuse bouche, we are presented with a cloud of cotton candy dusted with some savoury powder and edible flowers - it's a clever way to make an impression without actually having to cook something, but it's also an indication of the airy fairy ideas to come.

The menu is packed with multiple categories reflecting a jumble of inspirations - big and small plates, healthy dishes, mod - European and mod-European/Asian mashups for good measure. For a sampler of everything at a decent price, check out the four or five-course set dinner at S$79 and $99 each.

Service, by the way, is exceedingly erratic. The first to arrive is a solitary semi-frozen fin de claire oyster, seemingly unable to pick up any flavour from its icy sweet bath of yuzu juice. But the accompanying dry ice effect is entertaining at least.

But it's a long wait for the other appetiser - a surprisingly good bed of greens supporting three hot buttery escargot, delicate truffle sorbet, mushroom soil and mashed edamame. It's a convoluted but winning, with the understated truffle ice melting into the crumbs that you scoop up and eat with the earthy snails for hot, chewy, cold, savoury satisfaction.

Soups are next - an ordinary clear Chinese style black chicken consomme with a packed ball of tough chicken meat and chewy slivers of dried mushrooms; and crustacean bisque that outshines the former with a creamy depth, mound of peeled crabmeat and two little clams for show. They're served in heavy deep ceramic bowls filled just a quarter full - perhaps so you can fully appreciate the aesthetic of the orangey-red bisque against the shiny glazed interior of the bowl. But this is one soup that's hard to scoop.

A fillet of barramundi is fluffy but predictable, paired with an intense Indian spiced Hollandaise sauce that does jolt you to attention. But we're more partial to the Chinese-leaning black berry rice cooked with Chinese sausages for a familiar claypot rice feel. Slices of tender roasted pork jowl are a good match, while a savoury sauce brings you back to its European aspirations.

In between courses, we spy a pile of small suitcases in the kitchen, which turn out to be receptacles for the house special salmon and chips. We don't order it because salmon in fish and chips goes against the natural order of things, but watch the ceremonious way the bag is open at another table, revealing collapsible compartments that hold the fish and condiments. It's not quite the Gucci truffle bag at Nishikane, but at S$68(which serves two), it looks like the salmon's accommodation was priced in.

We make the mistake of choosing the Tomahawk de Swine (S$68) which sounds like a species slur a black Angus might lob at an Iberico pig. This four-day aged large pork chop has been cooked by one who believes that you can neither be too thin nor too cooked - roasted till it's nice and stringy, it's slathered in an unnatural glaze of barbecue sauce, topped with pineapple and roasted garlic that only barely helps to soften the onslaught.

If you're not too shell-shocked for dessert, there is some comfort in a so-called apple crumble that's an apple compote filled churro, and creamy chempedak creme brulee that spars with a scoop of raspberry ice cream.

There's a sense of indecision about the food at Moonbow, and a 'seen this, eaten that' feel that lends an odd datedness about it. It's already got a very nice framework to build on. What it needs is a better story to tell.

Rating: 6

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN

10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average

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