I was invited to an omakase session hosted by chef Masanao Saito at Caffe B at Club Street in Singapore.
Caffe B moved here in Club Street last year (2018) after 6 years in Marina Bay Sands. Not only the venue and scene changed, the menu too is radically different. Caffe B Club Street is nothing like Caffe B MBS.
Whereas Caffe B MBS offered Italian dishes with Japanese touches, the new executive chef Masanao Saito switched the emphasis to Japanese with European influences. At least, that was what I got during the tasting.
Chef Saito started humbly at age 15 in an izakaya in his Greater Tokyo Area hometown. Honing his skills in different restaurants across Japan, chef was handpicked to head the kitchen in the Japanese Embassy in Sweden serving the ambassador and dignitaries. Chef Saito also worked in Michelin Starred Mathias Dahlgren in Stockholm.
Chef's 5 years in Sweden added an invaluable European perspective to his already impeccable Japanese credentials. He came to our sunny island in 2014 to head an izakaya in Cuppage Centre (a hotbed of authentic Japanese cuisine in Singapore). Two years on, he took over as culinary director of 999.99, a Japanese-European fusion restaurant. In 2018, he joined Caffe B when they moved to Club Street - Singapore's party central.
The ground floor of Caffe B sports a well stocked bar famous for its cocktails. The dining rooms are at the two levels above.
The omakase dinner we had costs S$159++ per pax (drinks extra).
Chef Saito started us off with a cold musk melon appetizer with caviar to whet our appetites for the greatly anticipated exquisite dinner 😋
Signature Farmer’s Egg - an egg shaped cup filled with onsen egg with creamy clam espuma and shio konbu seaweed topped with Hokkaido sea urchin (uni).
It's a titillating blend of eggy sweetness in a stack of soft low temperature cooked egg and creamy sea urchin sashimi.
Potato spaghetti with caviar and colatura sauce.
The sweet crunchy strands of angel hair potato spaghetti was well wrapped with rich creamy savoury sauce spiked with colatura (savoury Italian anchovy fish sauce).
The caviar on a wiry nest of crisp rice vermicelli added more savoury highlights to the savoury sweet "pasta" dish.
Hokkaido flounder with flounder eggs, hamaguri (clams) and namanori (seaweed) in jus de mer (clam and kombu stock) dressed with micro cress.
Flavours were delicate in complementary layers of natural sweetness and savouriness from exquisite fresh ingredients like flounder eggs.
Fresh hamaguri always imbibe any stock with winsome sweet ocean briny flavours in its soft squeaky flesh.
Char grilled wagyu tenderloin steak with porcini sauce.
See already saliva drop 😋 Nice pink marbled meat, full of buttery sweet savoury flavours in the juices flowing from the thick tender juice ladened squishy slab.
Chef rounded up our scrumptious meal with a house made sorbet of zesty sourish sweet mixed berries.
Caffé B's omakase costs S$159++ per pax. The courses are composed by Chef Saito with fresh premium ingredients air flown from Japan. Definitely an option in the heart of Singapore's party street for that special occasion or date.
Disclosure: Please note that this was an invited tasting.
After the cold dessert, we were settling down for a nice hot coffee when buddy said "After this, we proceed to airport".
I laughed out loud 😃
Actually, when I arrived at Caffe B, the first thing he asked me was "Where's your luggage?"
I thought he was just pulling my leg again - as usual 😂
He thought I had kept my bags somewhere in the restaurant - that I was also pulling his leg, as I always did.
Then after dinner, when I saw my buddies' bags, my jaw dropped. It dawned on me that I had mixed up the flight dates. Oh.. no....., I am a long way from home, haven't even packed and the flight is leaving in 3 hours' time 😱
As my good fortune have it, our buddy, renowned flutist Tan Qing Lun came to join us. Before his coffee arrived, he volunteered to dash me home in his motorcycle. I am really grateful as there was a long, long traffic jam on the expressway and if I had taken a taxi home, I would surely have missed the flight.
In 2 hours, I packed for a 6 night trip to Taipei and arrived at the airport check in, in good time. Those were among the most harrowing 2 hours in my life.
Thank you Qing Lun 🙏 Grateful that you saved the day for me 🙏
Restaurant name: Caffé B
Address: 64 Club St, Singapore 069438
GPS: 1°16'54.0"N 103°50'45.7"E 🌐 1.281653, 103.846035
Tel: +65 8218 7751
Hours: 2:00pm - 12:00 midnight (Sun off)
Non Halal
Date: 3 Sep 2019
Luck favors the good. Keep up your good blogs. We highly enjoy it here. Greetings from a Jbkaki living in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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