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| An abundance of daylight at Halia (Raffles Hotel) |
Helming the premises of the former Seah Street Deli, Halia
(Malay for ginger) at Raffles Hotel preserves the charming black and white
floors of its predecessor, while incorporating the lush surroundings of Halia
at Singapore Botanic Gardens. The 100-seater restaurant offers a spacious
dining environment decorated by planted foliage, a collection of wood-carved
tables and an abundance of daylight that peeks through the restaurant’s classic
French windows. When I visited on a Sunday evening, the service was top notch
though the restaurant was relatively empty.
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| Oriental pulled duck sitting on cold soba noodles, thinly julienned carrots, spring onions and soy sesame dressing |
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| Celeriac lasagne |
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| Deep Fried Wagyu Beef served in Dim Sum bamboo basket |
On the menu, Halia at Raffles Hotel showcases contemporary
European cuisine with Asian inspirations and uses the communal dining style of
two plate sizes, small plates for appetisers and big plates for main courses.
We started with an order of oriental pulled duck. The base is formed with cold
soba noodles, thinly julienned carrots, spring onions and soy sesame dressing.
The pulled duck which lay on top of the noodles was seasoned using five spice with the cinnamon lending a sweet flavour to the dish. The micro herb salad rounded
off the top of the dish which tasted as good as it looked. Next we had the
celeriac lasagne which turned out to be a surprising vegetarian combination of
mushrooms, thyme, baby spinach, lemon and Madeira cream layered between
celeriac sheets. The mushrooms which were cooked in the Madeira cream sauce and
finished with some truffle oil was full of flavour. The celeriac sheets were
slightly crunchy and the only small problem with the dish was it did not hold together when you cut it. The last small plate we had was the deep fried wagyu beef with salt
and chilli which was served in a dim sum bamboo basket. The tender strips of
beef was heavily seasoned, in particular with the hot Spanish La Chinata smoked
paprika powder. The beef dipped in the piquant mayo was very addictive and even
found myself finishing the crumbs.
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| Halia Chilli Crab Pasta |
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| Wagyu rump cap steak topped with tobacco onions |
For the main, we had the signature Halia chilli crab pasta.
The dish consist of spaghettini cooked with crabmeat and a spicy egg based
gravy which was sweet and spicy. The thick sauce held on well to each strand of
pasta but personally I prefer something a little spicier. I can only imagine
how Jumbo’s chilli crab sauce would taste with pasta. Maybe I should ta pao
some of the gravy next time and try it! Halia’s version though suited my wife who
polished it off quite quickly. I had the wagyu rump cap steak topped with
tobacco onions which was served on a wooden board with my side choice of garden
salad and foie gras butter. The wagyu rump cap was tender and full of beefy
umami and sweetness. I chose to add the pan fried foie gras on the steak
however I realised that it was not the best decision as personally I felt the
foie gras overpowers the taste of the steak. I prefer to eat it separately and
enjoy the taste of each one. The tabacco onions are deep fried flour coated
onions which are crispy and resemble tabacco.
For dessert, we had the ginger nougat parfait. This was
served with caramalised pineapple and a puff pastry stick. The ginger parfait
was not too sweet and had a pleasant taste of cream, anise and cinnamon with
bits of ginger in it.
There are not many places in Singapore that do a good job
of blending east and west cuisine but I think Halia has done an outstanding job
of it. Their ranking of 25th out of 7000+ Singaporean restaurants on
Tripadvisor certainly proves that.
Halia at Raffles Hotel: 1 Beach Road #01-22/23 Raffles Hotel, Singapore 189673
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