Salt grill & Sky bar by luke mangan
by Clover Ng
@ 09 May 2014
Have we been missing out this place for years because of its well hidden secret lift to heaven? This is the place that gives you the view of SIngapore in its entirety. With viewfinders located in the restaurant towards the pathway in heading to the 56th floor, you will feel as though you are at the Empire State building but... Singapore version!
Take the lift up to the 4th floor of ION Orchard and you will be able to find the secret pathway (actually not so secret when it's round the concierge) to the private lift that takes you to Salt grill & Sky bar on the 55th floor. Well you'll be glad to know that although the lift only heads up to the restaurant, the public is open and welcome to enjoy the sky view from the pathway to the right of the lift. Stepping into the restaurant, you will find the newly renovated area after a month-long hard work to present a refreshing, younger, and lighter ambience. This is a collaboration between award-winning interior design company
designphase dba and the restaurant. In order to allow the full enjoyment of the new look, the renovated restaurant came ready just in time for spring and for Executive Chef Mathew Leighton to design a spring menu. Chef Leighton is the youngest executive chef in luke mangan group and having stayed in Singapore for 18 months, he has had a taste of the SIngapore flavours and Asian flavours to incorporate into his Australian menu.
On the list of food that we were invited to try includes
1)
bread selection with luke mangan olive oil and dukkah where the dukkah is a combination of macadamia, cashew, sesame, cumin, coriander, and salt in which the eating method involves dipping the bread into olive oil and then to the dukkah to ensure that it stays on the bread until it enters into your mouth.
2)
coconut broth with Sydney spice which some would say that it tastes like a Thai dish but I would prefer to say that it has the Laksa element with hints of lemongrass that made it Thai. It is not too salty with strong flavours of coconut milk and the Sydney spice lifted the taste of the broth to give the amuse bouche a little something to start off your palates.
3)
sashimi of kingfish, ginger, eschalot & goats feta is a dish that really surprised me where instead of the Japanese way of dulling some taste of raw seafood with wasabi and soy sauce, the ginger masked the taste successfully and balances the dish to give a little sweetness that is not spicy and the goats feta to give a little saltiness just in case you get bored of sashimi. Well who does?
4)
baby vegetables, goats curd, ginger bread crumbs, dried black olives is the eat your vegetables time dish. It is a good dish to entice not only kids, but adults as well who avoid vegetables where the colours would invite you to take a bite.
5)
'glass' Sydney crab omelette, enoki mushroom & herb salad, miso mustard broth that diverges away from the usual omelette texture to present a more scrambled egg kind of texture. There wasn't any special technique but pan-frying. Go figure. Other than that, the dish features a little towards the Asian way in which you can imagine having a soft Japanese tamago with miso mustard broth that is smooth and slightly watery, with flavours of mushroom and crab.
6)
tea smoked quail, almon cream, prunes, grains, grilled shallot, sorrel the tea smoked quail is really smoking hot which gave me a very good idea of having bak kwa but in this case with quail instead of pork.
7)
sirloin rangers valley, New South Wales, 300 days grain fed, Moroccon spice, sauté spinach, eggplant puree, red wine sauce with sirloin that is medium rare plated on top soft spinach prepared in red wine sauce, it is soft and tender with slightly charred sides for a little grill flavour.
and wines that made us all so "sober" after a filling lunch.
Well on top of the new menu, feel free to drop by for the lunch set menu and executive lunch set menu or or or! Drop by for their sundowner for some drinks at a special price, like the happy hour time!
