Private Affairs - Anniversary Menu

To celebrate their 1st anniversary, Private affairs launched a special offer menu for the month of October, featuring 8 of their best dishes for S$88++.

The amouse bouche was a creme fraiche with apple and walnuts. It's the kind of dish that will be appreciated by dairy products lovers.

The Seared Tuna with red peppers and "sauce vierge" was tender and tasty, and offered a good contrast of sweet and sour. On the other hand, I didn't particularly appreciate the Raw Hokkaido Scallops, perhaps due to the fact that I prefer my scallops all in one piece. I find that once they are sliced into thin slices, they tend to lose their most attractive textural qualities.

The Ocean Trout was accompanied by a garlic soil, a sea lettuce foam and a "salsify puree'". A pleasant melangee of flavours that enhanced the rich, tender and chunky trout meat. I didn't find that the garlic soil added much to the dish, besides its ornamental aspect, so I just left it aside.

I was surprised by the Wagyu Cheek, which was unexpectedly chopped into cubes on a bed of diced vegetables (a sort of cooked vegetables salad). A good combination of flavours, where the crab on top of the meat didn't seem to emerge and was a little wasted.

The Kurobuta Pork Cheek was the best dish of the night. The cheek was cooked sous-vide and texturally unprecedented. This is where flavour, textures and presentation really came together at their best.

After a selection of 3 French cheeses, I was served a Lavender Sorbet topped by a slice of gelatin, which washed my palate quite nicely

The final dessert, an Apple Cake, was the second best dish of the night. I really loved slurping the apple cinnamon spaghetti, but the highlight was the bit in the middle, which was a caramelised hazelnut with some fresh raspberry. The apple Bavarois was excellent both in texture and flavour, and the lemongrass ice cream was a wonderful palate cleanser.

This selection offers an ideal opportunity for those who haven't yet had a chance to try the food at Private Affairs. My only observation is that the Hokkaido scallops could have been replaced with something that I believe Chef Paul is great at: soups with ravioli. That element was kind of missing and I think it would have made the course selection more complete. Nevertheless, I would recommend this great value deal before it's over.