Yi by Jereme Leung (Raffles Hotel)'s Dinner Menu II

👍 Creative Chinese dishes that are mostly very good. Nice ambience, great service.
👎 The signature 100-ring cucumber was surprisingly underwhelming.

With all holidays cancelled for the entire year (and perhaps even into 2021), the darling and I (fortunately) have a little excess disposable income to spare, so we decided to visit a couple of atas restaurants that we wouldn't otherwise visit ... which is how we wound up at Raffles Hotel's Chinese Restaurant: Yi by Jereme Leung!

Unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of the gorgeous entrance (lined floor to ceiling with handcrafted white flower petals), and elegant dining area. The restaurant is a nice place to be in, and sound dampening is above average (for Chinese restaurants) so you don't get too much crowd noise from other diners. Service was great, too!


The little one was a little hungry so between trying to set him up in a baby chair and getting his feed on we didn't really have much appetite to browse the menu properly. We gave up quite quickly and chose the (Set) Dinner Menu II (s$138/pax), to be washed down with a pitcher of Yi's Herbal Tea (s$18)


The eight-course Dinner Menu started off with three Appetiser / Cold Dish items: Hundred-ring Cucumber & Poached Sea Whelk with Soy Sauce Vinaigrette, Sichuan Style Chicken with Peanuts & Sesame Chilli Dressing, and Okra, Tiger Prawns & Arctic Shellfish with Soy Sauce Vinaigrette

Surprisingly, despite the Hundred-Ring Cucumber being a signature dish, we found it a little underwhelming (perhaps we're not huge fans of sea whelk). On the flip side, the Sichuan Chicken was terrific: The cold, juicy chicken constrasting perfectly with the tongue-numbing heat from the sichuan peppers. The Okra dish was well balanced, but ultimately neither particularly impressed nor disappointed.


Moving on: The Fish Cartilage Soup with Abalone & Fish Maw was amazing: Gorgeous, thick, umami-laden broth with tender abalone, fish maw, and hokkaido crab leg. We would come back again just for this soup alone.


The two Main Dishes were Baked Cod with Wild Honey & Soy Sauce Reduction, and Iberico Pork with Golden Garlic & Savoury sauce.

I really liked the pork, which was tender, fatty, juicy, and crazy good with that gravy. And the fried garlic chips. Everything tastes better garnished with fried garlic chips. The cod (technically 'chinese' cod i.e. 鳕鱼 i.e. Chilean Seabass i.e. Patagonian Toothfish) was also executed really well, with the sweet & salty glaze (from the honey & soy sauce reduction) just strong enough not to overpower the delicate fish flavour.


Rounding off the savoury dishes: Crispy Egg Noodles with Shrimp, Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs. This was a decent (if somewhat forgettable) end to the meal, seasoned lightly as to let the ingredients take centre-stage flavour wise.


Oh and for dessert ... a small platter of pineapple, grape, rockmelon and watermelon. Do let me know in the comments if I'm being picky here, but at over s$160/person after service charge and taxes, surely it's not unreasonable to expect a proper dessert rather than these common fruits?


Nevertheless, the meal was overall solid, with decent value-for-money. I think the strength of the outstanding dishes (pork, soup, chicken), service standards and ambience have more than earned a return visit - this time to go ala-carte and try the restaurant's other signatures.

Yi by Jereme Leung is located in the Arcade of Raffles Hotel. Reservations recommended, non-halal.

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St. Regis Brunch: Home Edition (Brunch Delivery) Review!

👍 Great variety of delicious food, prompt delivery, portions are huge.
👎 Sushi rolls were a bit crappy.

Even though our Circuit Breaker period will officially end just a little over a week from now, it appears that work from home - and therefore eat at home - arrangements are going to continue at least throughout June. Most of you will probably already have your day-to-day meal routine sorted, but what if you're celebrating a special occasion and/or would just like to splurge a little to reward yourself?

Well, why not try out the St. Regis Brunch: Home Edition: A weekend-only brunch delivered right to your doorstep? The darling and I did exactly that this weekend, ordering their Duo Set for 2 Adults for a long weekend celebration.


Delivery was prompt, and while presentation/plating wasn't quite up to fine dining levels we thought it was really more than good enough for a home celebration. The amount of food included in the St. Regis Brunch is a little ridiculous: We kept almost all of the cold dishes in the fridge and ate them for dinner. You'd need to have two teenagers, athletes, or competitive eaters to finish everything off in one seating.

Most of the dishes were well cooked and delicious, except for the Sushi Rolls which were 'meh' at best. If you've got an oven at home, we found that holding the hot dishes at 55°C allowed us to eat leisurely while still having good temperature food.

COLD ENTRÉES
Crab Meat Salad, Celeriac Remoulade, Baby Radish
Smoked Salmon, Green Asparagus, Yoghurt Cream
Burrata, Tomatoes, Rocket Salad
Pâte en Croute
Assorted Sushi
Selection of Charcuterie
Cheese Platter

HOT ENTRÉES
Pan-seared Lobster, Garlic Parsley Butter

CHOICE OF TWO MAINS
Saumon Rôti, Ratatouille, Olives, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Capers
Beef Sirloin, Roasted Potatoes, Carrots

DESSERTS
Raspberry Pistachio Financier
Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Tartlet
Orange Mascarpone Dôme*
Seasonal Fruit Platter
Chocolate Pralines

* Replaced by what I assume is some sort of peach cake

JUICE
Choice of Alain Milliat Juice: Orange or Strawberry


You can check out complete details of the St. Regis Brunch and order online on their Oddle website. We paid $156 nett for the set for 2 adults, and thought it was amazing value given that it fed us for literally one entire day.

Hope this express review helps you, and do stay well fed for the rest of these strange covid times!

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Raffles Hotel Singapore Staycay: Palm Court Suite Review

👍 Terrific service, gorgeous deco, thoroughly modern rooms.
👎 No executive lounge (but it doesn't matter, really).

TLDR: Raffles Hotel is doing a "The Suite Life" staycay* package for bookings by 9 April for stays til 30 June. Weekend/holiday dates for the 'base' Courtyard Suite (s$795++ for 2 nights) are sold out, but the Palm Court Suite (s$975++ for 2 nights) is still tremendous value. Book on their website before rooms run out!

* Hotels in the Staycay tour:
Raffles Hotel | Capella Singapore | Marriott Tang Plaza | The St.Regis Singapore | Grand Hyatt | The Fullerton Bay Hotel | Parkroyal Collection, Marina Bay | Marina Bay Sands.


The legendary Raffles Hotel Singapore just completed 2-year long renovations in August 2019. The 100-ish suite hotel (even the basic rooms are suites) has long been known to be the epitome of luxury in Singapore ... with normally a suitably luxurious price tag unaffordable by the proletariat. So while the darling and I have wanted to get a taste of the atas life for a while, we could never really bring ourselves to bite the bullet, until a combination of the forced cancellation of our Japan Sakura trip plus a ban on foreign visitors thanks to the covid-19 situation gave us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!


The hotel, naturally, is ridiculously gorgeous, and (mostly) immaculate.


We booked ourselves into a Courtyard Suite, but were very graciously upgraded to a Palm Court Suite. It's a huge, luxurious, gorgeous room with just the right balance of classic design language with thoroughly modern amenities (including tablet-controlled lights, curtains, and television). Check out the video tour below:


More photos of the room below:


Little touches like this birthday 'cake' and Raffles Tiger soft toy (done by the Butler team) are always extremely appreciated as they set a great first impression.


More photos of the Palm Court Suite:


The room's design is really classical, but the fixtures are most definitely modern. Everything in the room (except the ceiling fans) can be controlled by two iPads: One in the parlour / living room, and the other in the bedroom. It's pretty nifty being able to turn off all the lights at a single touch.


There is a walk in wardrobe area in between the bedroom and bathroom, with a dedicated hair-drying desk.


The bathroom also is gorgeous and fully equipped with anything you could ever expect from a hotel. Except maybe a high-tech Japanese bidet/washlet on the toilet seat. You do still need to manually wash your own bum.


The hotel's surroundings, of course, are also gorgeous, even for the darling and I who aren't able to view it through colonial-tinted lenses.


Raffles Hotel has an outdoor rooftop swimming pool which is salted (instead of chlorined), which is always a nice touch. The water temperature was great for even our 6-month old, regardless of time of day. Except maybe when the sun's out in the middle of the day, as there's not much shade.


For food, we had lunch at BBR by Alain Duccase, which is now a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant (verdict: The set lunch is pretty good value). We also splurged a bit for a dinner at the Butcher's Block (verdict: A little pricey, but service and food rivals any other top-tier steakhouse in the city). Full reviews will come in a separate post.


Breakfast is at the Tiffin Room (in Raffles Hotel's main building), and is currently unlimited ala-carte (instead of a buffet) because of the covid situation. We actually really loved this breakfast format; not sure if the kitchen can handle it during higher occupancy period, though.



All in all, Raffles Hotel certainly lives up to its reputation. What these photos weren't able to capture, however, was just how amazing the service was. From the moment the iconic doorman greets you at the entrance, all the way til check out, you always feel like the staff are out to make your stay as comfortable as possible. It truly is amazing service, and has spoilt us so badly that we're not sure how we'll go back to "normal" hotels after this.

As I mentioned at the top of the post, Raffles Hotel is running a killer promo now if you're comfortable with doing Staycays at this time - it's a bargain that you really shouldn't miss!

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