Binge - The Platters

I like Coriander Leaf. I don’t get myself there as often as I like, but I do like that restaurant very much. There’s something light, airy, feminine and so elegant about it. Yet it’s so informal and laid back, you want to kick off your shoes and relax as you wait for your food to come. I love the large windows that overlook the river, the raw concrete floor, the sunlight pouring in, the high ceiling and the courtyard at the back. It’s a place I’d bring my gaggle of girlfriends to for lunch…..or for dinner.

Not long ago, I had lunch there and checked out its newly introduced appetizer platters. Just right for a light lunch or to share for more variety, these platters are based on cuisines, each offering six kinds of starters, served in portions for either one person ($16 - $18) or two ($30-$34). I liked the South Asian Sampler which has a particularly lovely lentil dumpling in spiced yoghurt sauce, juicily light corn and tomato salad with green chilli dressing and a yummy tomato soup with cumin. The Southeast Asian sampler includes a delicate yet fiery tom yam soup with a big fat ‘highly bitable’ prawn, dainty crab cakes, a crisp, springy calamari tempura and smoked duck and mango salad. The mezze sampler, which has been a bestseller since the restaurant opened in 2001, though is still my favourite – the red pepper and walnut dip is out of this world, the hummus comfortingly familiar, the fried haloumi is creamily indulgent and fattoush salad refreshing. At the end of your meal, you can have a dessert sampler too. The picture here says it all - jump in and eat your way out!

You could easily order just one platter with a good glass of wine for light but oh so elegant lunch, or order a few and share. What’s even better is that each variety on the platter can be ordered as single dishes costing only $8 with the exception of crabcakes which cost $12 (higher food cost, you see). That’s really not bad value at all.

I also noticed that the restaurant has a very good value wine tasting set menu at only $95++. You get four wines and four courses featuring the restaurant’s signature dishes, and ending with coffee and tea.

How does this sound? Appetiser of muhammara (the red pepper and walnut dip I mentioned earlier), haloumi cheese, roasted eggplant with pomegranate salad with Frizzante Trocken Sparkling Wine, Burgenland, Austria; crab cakes with tomato chutney with Three Miners Riesling 2006 from Central Otago, New Zealand; followed by a main course of tandoori chicken and cucumber-yoghurt relish, mint chutney and butter naan with Durvillea Pinot Grigio 2008 from Marlborough or a Thai Inspired barramundi with tomato-namprik fondue and butter rice paired with Auntsfield, Long Cow Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Marlborough. Dessert is Trablit coffee fondant with vanilla bean ice cream and wild summer berries washed down with Michelini Frangolino, Alpine Ranges, Victoria, Australia.

Reservations for how many?

3A Merchant Court #02-03

River Valley Road, Clarke Quay
Tel: 6732 3354