Tales of roe at Caviar

NEW RESTAURANT

Caviar

390 Orchard Road

Palais Renaissance

#B1-07

Singapore 238871

Tel: 9888 1217

Open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Saturday: 12 pm to 1.30 pm (last seating); 6 pm to 8.30 pm. Dinner only on Tuesday. Sunday brunch: 11.30 am to 4.15 pm.

WHAT'S in a restaurant name? Clearly, everything. It sets the tone, the expectations and in the case of Caviar, draws an immediate dividing line through the economic strata of our society - namely the have-nots and the pays-a-lots.

It's why we hesitated for some time before going. We prefer the subtlety of a restaurant that takes out its hatchet slowly than one which swings it before you can say, "What's wrong with a name like 'Zucchini'?" But going by the way curiosity kills wallets as much as it does cats, we venture to the basement of Palais Renaissance, where Caviar sits with its neighbours that include a couple of casual Japanese eateries.

The place is small, tasteful, hardly ostentatious apart from the dining counter where tins of caviar sit on their stage of ice. It's rather pretty, with a restrained blend of rich orange feature walls and abstract patterns on lighted ceilings.

For dinner, the damage starts at S$248 for an entry-level 6-course menu (either the snacks or the petit fours are counted as 1 course) or S$328 for the 9-course (the snacks AND the petit fours are counted as 2 courses). In other words, it's a 5-course and 7-course menu created by a flexible accountant.

This puts them on a par with 28Wilkie - perhaps its most likely counterpart known for its caviar emphasis and comparative discretion - which charges S$258 for a real 5-course menu and has a Michelin star and its own caviar company to boot.

Caviar has an untested team - but it's encouraging to see that the kitchen crew looks young and local. But youth has enthusiasm if not experience, and at these prices the question is how much you're prepared to pay for what is more like a learning experience for them.

Considering its name, you're not going to come away much wiser about the eggs of sturgeons, as little is forthcoming apart from what the brand names already written in the menu. If names like Kaluga Queen Crossbreed, Giaveri Oscietra and Polanco Siberian ring a bell, you're in the right place.

The food itself is generic modern European, with inspiration pulled from whatever fine dining kitchens the chefs worked in before. You'll see familiar flashes here and there, but with some nice touches. The chefs know the recipes and what they're doing, but fall short when it comes to the complete experience and attention to detail.

Cue the snacks (you get 1 more with the "9-course"), where a pleasing small smoked oyster is negated by the hard and stale choux puff it sits on, overstuffed with cream cheese and topped with caviar; munchable caviar and confit egg yolk on equally hard and airy brioche toast; and a crisp tart shell filled with burrata and trout roe that weeps harder than an auntie over a Korean tearjerker, collapsing in the mouth and leaving an oddly sweet aftertaste.

For the bread course, what could be heavenly coils of a savoury Babka-like bun made with beef tallow and herbs starts with a perfectly brown crust but peels away into a dense, underbaked dampness within. A simple white roll beside it fares better.

Things perk up a bit with an interesting combination of botan ebi tartare topped with 2 kinds of caviar and shaved water chestnut for crunch, and a deep fried prawn head as garnish. A refreshing buttermilk dill sauce completes it.

Less fun is the Hokkaido scallop, with heavy, thick corn espuma filling up an empty caviar tin and dressed with grilled corn and slices of the shellfish. No caviar on this one. A dollop of it is reserved for the next dish, to add much needed salty contrast to a cloying potato puree sprinkled with chives and anointed with a soft cooked egg yolk.

Halibut is nicely executed, with a moist fillet falling away in tender flakes, swimming in a not-too-rich pil pil sauce - said to be emulsified olive oil and salt cod, although the latter is hard to detect. If it were a cream sauce by any other name it would still be good, with little Japanese mushrooms having a nice little onsen soak.

The pigeon (pick from this or the fish for the "6-course") isn't bad either, slow-roasted over bincho till still quite rare but tender, accompanied by a pair of drumettes on a bed of pine needles draped with caviar like there was a quota to meet. If you take the S$328 menu, you get a bonus of a teaspoon of Polanco Siberian caviar, this time scooped straight out of the tin in the evening's only bit of show and tell.

The meal is generally heavy, with little thought given to rhythm or flow of the meal. Dessert-wise, a refreshing, caviar-free cranberry sorbet provides much-needed respite, crowned with orange blossom espuma and garnished with pickled cranberries and crunchy almonds. Sake lees ice cream is an acquired taste of funky cream and salty caviar offset with sweet meringue crisps.

If you're really after caviar, S$200 to S$300 can get you a good tin or more to enjoy at your own pace. That same money, too, gives you a lot of fine dining options. If you're on the right side of the income divide, by all means go for the combination of both. On our part, we're just hoping another restaurant doesn't open with a name like Truffle.

Rating: 6.5

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

Our review policy: The Business Times pays for all meals at restaurants reviewed on this page. Unless specified, the writer does not accept hosted meals prior to the review's publication.