Valentine’s Day – The Prettiest Places for a Date

Kids needing homework help, tuition centres to drive them do, and the rest of the family insisting on you doing your CNY duties….shall we pretend we are still dating? Here’s our picks for some of the prettiest places for VD dating.

Krish. A newcomer to Rochester Park, Krish has a really gorgeous alfresco bar, with a pretty greenhouse where the drinks are made, and surrounded by lush greenery. Very romantic, with swings, tatami seating and loungers in addition to wrought iron garden furniture that came straight out of ‘Little Women’.

Indoors, the restaurant, set in a colonial black and white, is cosy, homey, with different settings to choose from: downstairs for a more formal, Anglo-Indian feel, and upstairs where it is brighter, more informal and almost Scandinavian in looks. The cuisine here is refined Indian-European. Sounds odd, but it works and the food is really quite good and creative. Their 5-course VD menu ($280 per couple) includes a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Champagne. Dishes include Tandoori Hamachi served with fish head curry consommé, Pongal with white truffles and wild mushrooms, spice-crusted prawns with tangy citrus chutney and avocado salad, Kobe Sirloin and Valrhona Chocolate Frangelico Molten served with pink peppercorn sauce and mint yoghurt sorbet. Nice! VD menu available throughout February.

9 Rochester Park

Tel: 6779 4644

www.krish.com.sg

Halia. This restaurant is not new, but well worth revisiting simply ‘cos it’s so magical, especially at night. Walk through the darkening, winding ginger garden and see how the restaurant pops out among the greenery like a surprise. The food is good and the setting is absolutely fab – it’s a lovely tropical escapade, and for a bit of CNY, you can pretend there are tigers in the dark. (“Ooooo, save me, darling! My hero!”) Thing is, Halia is sticking to celebrating VD on 14 Feb itself, but even if you can’t do it that very day, their usual menu is perfectly delightful as well.

The five course VD set menu ($260 nett per couple) highlights premium foods: angel hair with truffle, scallops and caviar; foie gras, roasted figs and yuzu sorbet (interesting combination), trout and langoustine in sake soy glaze, wagyu sirloin and onion tart, and lemongrass manjari, kirsch strawberry and passionfruit macaroon. But if hubby is chubby and wants to feast up (never mind the romance), they’ve got an extensive and pretty swish dinner buffet going on too ($200 nett per couple) with dishes like leg of lamb, beef shank, foie gras parfait, saffron basmati, crab bisque and lots of dessert.

1 Cluny Road, Ginger Garden

(park and enter via Tyersall Avenue)

Reservations a must: email alicetang@halia.com.sg or call 6287 0711

COVA Pasticceria – Confetteria Singapore. We like the extravagantly cocooned feel of COVA, and their whimsical all-pink VD menu ($88 per person, available 8-12 Feb). The five courses includes lobster medallion served with pink pepper scented béchamel sauce, pink risotto with strawberries, pink peach sherbert and prosecco, salmon with tomato coulis or beef tenerdoin with raspberry sauce and a dessert of passion fruit and strawberry bavaraese with choc sauce. You also get a glass of prosecco and chocolates. But you know what, I’d rather save this menu for dinner with the girlfriends after a credit card-smoking afternoon of shopping!...And anyway, I’m not sure about dating a guy who likes pink that much.

Interestingly, don’t bother to go to Cova on Valentine’s Day itself. You’ll find it shuttered all day. Just makes you go, “Huh?!”

#01-20A Paragon

Tel: 6733 0777

Cova is closed from 5pm on 13 Feb; and all of 14 Feb

- Ee Waun