Michelin meals to go

Basque Kitchen by Aitor 3 Fullerton Rd #02-01/02/03 The Fullerton Waterboat House Singapore 049215 Tel: 80311993 Takeaway/Delivery: 11.30am to 9pm daily. To order, go to: basquekitchenbyaitor.com

Buona Terra 29 Scotts Road Singapore 228224 Tel: 6733 0209 Takeaway/Delivery: 12pm to 8.30pm daily. To order, go to: buonaterra.com.sg

Candlenut 17a Dempsey Road Singapore 249676 Tel: 1800 304 2288 Takeaway/Delivery: 11.30am to 3.30pm; 5pm to 9pm daily. To order, go to: takeaway.comodempsey.sg

Summer Pavilion The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore 7 Raffles Ave Singapore 039799 Tel: 6434 5286 Takeaway/Delivery: 12pm to 9pm daily. To order, go to: summerpavilion.oddle.me

IF the first Circuit Breaker aroused some feelings of sympathy towards Michelin-starred (and award-less but similarly expensive) restaurants, the largesse they have enjoyed since - not to mention ever-rising prices - has tempered our sentiments this time around. Especially so with more experience, better systems in place and just as many appetites and fat wallets staying intact.

If you've been suffering reservation resentment of late, now's the time to pick any Michelin eatery you want, and have a good meal sent to you that will cost less than it would to dine out. And with some making the switch to comfort food, it lends another dimension to Michelin cooking that you can only enjoy while it lasts.

Basque Kitchen by Aitor

First, it was the cutback from eight diners to five. Then the complete ban on dining in. After spending months preparing for its grand re-opening in brand new sprawling premises, you'd think the one-starred Basque Kitchen by Aitor had annoyed a tapas god or two to only enjoy a couple of weeks of business before having to shut its freshly painted doors.

But the Spanish-accented restaurant and pintxos bar is back swinging on the delivery front with a casual but classy home-style menu that travels well and is comfortably priced.

The S$138 set menu for two is a good buy especially if you compare it against the ala carte pricing. For this price you get truffle croquettes, heirloom tomatoes in burrata cheese, barbecued pork ribs, a whole sourdough loaf and two jars of chocolate mousse for dessert.

The restaurant's signature dark sourdough loaf arrives still warm - pillowy soft in the middle and crusty on the outside. A jar of smoked butter provides more than enough to smear generously over each slice. Or dip it into the cold and refreshing sweet tomatoes drizzled with herb oil on creamy burrata cheese.

The truffle croquettes are a casualty of the trip, the limp cylinders of once crisp fried batter barely holding in their oozing bechamel filling, like an informant dying to spill the beans. We can imagine how good they might have tasted fresh from the fryer but we can't taste our imagination since it got burned in the fictitious hot oil.

But the pork ribs are real and they are good - a meaty thick large slab of ribs slathered in a sticky, sweet, smoky and almost char siew-like glaze. There's plenty of meat to get your teeth into, with creamy mashed potatoes on the side to break the momentum.

Order the txuleta wagyu burger (S$48) if you like your burgers classic, juicy and sloppy because this one wins on all counts. It's nothing to look at with its flattened mess of soft bun (soggy in parts), charred meaty aged wagyu patty and melted cheese but this is the real McCoy as you bite into the macho beef. Another plus are the potato wedges which are the best remedy to the usual soggy French fries. These thick spears still have bite and are creamy-fleshed within - and a perfect match with the spicy pimento dip that comes with it. Even the bland mashed potatoes from the set menu get a good kick with a dollop of this dip.

It's a pricey burger but this and the ribs will keep you going until the doors open to the real thing.

Buona Terra

Dennis Lucchi may be the chef of a one Michelin-starred restaurant but he has the disposition of an Italian nonna from the way he thinks his diners must be half-starved weaklings in need of a fat infusion. From the number of paper bags that arrive at your door holding his takeaway five-course tasting menu for one, you'd think you ordered food for two instead.

Priced at S$178, there's enough to split between two average appetites, or if you're on a date with a cheapskate.

Once you've unpacked everything, you'll find a flaky tart of puff pastry topped with tomato paste and fresh roasted tomatoes. It manages to hold its shape and some crispness despite the trip, although we're more partial to the appetiser of fleshy slices of raw marinated kingfish - cool and refreshing, decorated with avruga caviar. Fat spears of white asparagus and Hollandaise sauce with shavings of black truffle are also a treat.

A coil of squid ink pasta is understandably clumpy but it's easy to wiggle the strands free. They still have a good bite to them, coated in a briny glaze from crunchy razor clams. If that isn't enough, slices of seared A5 wagyu and mixed grilled vegetables round off the savouries.

A light, luscious rum baba of booze-infused sponge, chantilly cream and strawberries sweetens the deal.

The tasting menu changes according to what he has on hand, but you can also pick from the range in Buona Terra's online menu. It won't look as nice in its takeaway boxes but since you can't swipe food from your companion's plate at the restaurant, consider this a happy compromise.

Candlenut

Yes, we've heard how Candlenut tends to polarise diners - some who swear by its Michelin star-worthy Peranakan cooking and those who say the cooking is inconsistent, pricey and its portions keep shrinking.

It's been a while since we've been there but a recent order reminds us of why we've always enjoyed Malcolm Lee's cooking - for its thick, multi-ingredient rempahs, intense and distinctive flavour profiles. At first glance, he seems to dish out portions like a budget-conscious bibik trying to stretch a pot of curry to next week, but when you consider how rich everything is, the portions add up to quite a bit, especially when copious amounts of rice are involved.

Now is also the time to re-acquaint yourself, because Candlenut has lowered its prices for the duration of the current dining in lockdown, with ala carte portions priced at an average $20 to $25 each.

Among the highlights are mainstays such as Chef's Mum's chicken curry that's as homespun as its name; a toasted coconut-enriched beef rendang; and a dark-as-ink buah keluak with slightly stringy pork instead of chicken. The bakwan kepiting broth is intense to the point that it's almost milky. Two plump crab-pork balls, tofu puffs and bamboo shoots add a layered mouth feel. The blue swimmer crab curry is more Thai than Peranakan with its heavy emphasis on lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf and lime juice to cut the richness of the coconut milk, but still a favourite. There's a new dish that's also done well - a kind of sayur lodeh amped up with a thick piece of otah and moist mackerel.

There's a must-have new dessert - besides the star kueh salat and caramelised kueh bingka - a lemongrass pandan sponge that you will curse for being so expensive - S$20 for a largish slice. Blame it on the amount of lemongrass manually shredded to extract its natural essence for the delicate mousse (even better when semi-frozen), which is layered between light pandan sponge and covered in delicate rose jelly. Inventive but not pretentious, it's an extravagant but luscious treat.

From June 7, some of Candlenut's highlights will be packaged into an omakase menu for S$120 to serve two, so plonk what extra savings you get into a slice of cake. It may well be worth the splurge.

Summer Pavilion

We don't know what's more impressive - a whole smoked duck from the kitchen of one-starred Summer Pavilion or the cool black thermal Ritz Carlton bag your order arrives in. But you can contemplate that as you devour the fragrant, smoky herbal sweetness of the marinated signature duck (S$81.30).

Eat it fast while it's still warm and you can still relish the fleshy chunks before it quickly cools down. It's not the optimal way of enjoying this but it's still worth it when you're craving some classic Cantonese goodness. The dimsum of prawn dumplings (S$8.05) and poached prawn and preserved vegetable dumplings (S$8.05) look like they escaped from a sauna in a hurry but they taste fine even when cold. The poached dumplings are revived somewhat in a black vinegar dip and both retain a resilient texture. And, in a case of good old fashioned technique, the fried rice with crab meat, dried scallop and egg white (S$31.05) has barely a trace of oil sticking to the individual grains of perfectly textured rice with generous crab meat and a shower of shredded dried scallop.

It's nothing fancy but just familiar comfort that hits the spot, especially with a 15 per cent discount off its signature dishes now.