Its “modern European cuisine with Asian influence” — think laksa pasta and yuzu desserts — didn’t blow us away, but we wouldn’t mind coming back. We’d skip the appetisers though.
When your restaurant is right next to the hawker food paradise that is the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market, it probably makes sense for your cuisine to go in the opposite direction. Located in the lobby of the SO Sofitel Singapore, the Xperience Restaurant focuses on “modern European cuisine with Asian influence”. It was quiet when we visited on a Saturday night, the streets outside in the central business district still and emptied of its workers for the weekend. Only Boon Tat Street stirred with activity as the satay vendors fanned their charcoal grills to life for the night. Had we made a mistake choosing modern European cuisine over the familiar comforts of hawker food? We certainly felt that way when we tasted our appetisers — while we appreciated the creativity of the dishes, we didn’t think they worked very well. However, our dinner improved considerably with the arrival of our main courses and held up as we went into the desserts. While we weren’t blown away by the food, we wouldn’t mind coming back — also because of the excellent service — though we’d skip the appetisers next time.
As the sole dish highlighted as a chef’s signature on the appetiser menu, the spanner crab tartare naturally came under our crosshairs for scrutiny. Mixed with bits of apple for crunch and texture, the crab tartare arrived spread on a thick wall of toasted maple brioche, topped with crispy seaweed. On the plate by its side was a line of kaffir lime mayonnaise. And yet, the mayonnaise was anything but a side — we felt it was the main reason the dish worked at all. On their own, the spanner crab tartare and seaweed — their flavours not especially intense in the first place — turned out to be under-seasoned and underwhelming. The toasted thick brioche was a joy of texture, a crispy cloud collapsing and crunching easily to the bite, but its maple flavour leaned on the sweet side. The only real source of savouriness was the side of mayonnaise — and we felt that was a shame in a dish called spanner crab tartare.
For our second appetiser, we settled on the pan-seared Hokkaido scallops. While they weren’t especially large, we felt the scallops were good, with nice crusts seared into their sides but still juicy inside. However, everything else on the plate felt superfluous. We didn’t think the sauces worked well. While the lobster-mango reduction added a touch of acidity to the dish, it was overwhelmed and obscured by a sweet mushy green pea purée. The pea purée’s presence perplexed us — it didn’t seem to pair well with the scallops either. And don’t ask us why there were pieces of fried radish cake in the pea purée — “creativity”, maybe.
After some intense frowning at our appetisers, we were glad when our main courses arrived already looking quite tasty. The chef’s signature main course was the 36-hour sous-vide lamb neck — rich, tender, and served in slices with charred zucchini on a scattered bed of spiced couscous. This came with a sweet harissa pumpkin purée and a spicy chermoula relish, both providing excellent balance to the richness of the lamb. Our only complaint? Please, sir, we want some more lamb.
The chef’s signature pasta of laksa spaghetti was also excellent. We’ve seen a few takes on this mod-Sin (modern Singaporean) dish and this rendition takes relatively fewer risks. Rather than going down the laksa pesto route which many others have tread, it opted for a sauce that’s essentially a thickened laksa broth. Don’t get us wrong — it works, clinging onto the al dente spaghetti as a good rich cream sauce should with all the familiar comfort-food flavour of laksa. The seafood — tiger prawns, squid, and mussels — was also fresh. We loved the cook on the seafood — still a little soft and tender with smoky hints of char, and far from being overcooked into rubberiness. We’re ordering this again the next time we’re here.
Done with our main courses, we waited with bated breath to see if the desserts would hold up. We’re glad to say that the chef’s signature of a yuzu magnum is worth a try. Like the Magnum brand of ice cream bars, this was yuzu ice cream on a stick coated with soft pillowy meringue, sitting in a dish of sweet crumbs. We liked how the crumbs stuck onto the ice cream and meringue each time we placed the magnum into the dish, adding texture to an otherwise mainly creamy dessert. The crumbs also served to add sweetness to the dessert which, together with the meringue, balanced the acidity of the yuzu ice cream.
We were less impressed by the green tea opera cake, though it wasn’t bad overall. We liked that it wasn’t very sweet, which allowed the earthy green tea flavours to stand out — an acidic raspberry sauce was also available on the plate for additional balance. That said, while the cake was rich and dense as an opera cake should be, we have to say — that was a rather small slice.
35 Robinson Road, 068876
+65 6701 6800
https://www.sofitel-so-singapore.com/meetings-events/xperience-restaurant/
