Binge – Awesome Value Christmas Feasts

Christmas and the festivities often mean inflated prices all around town. But you don’t have to bust your budget with these simplyfab deals we sniffed out. Thank goodness for restaurants and hotels who are firm on doling out good value. And trust us to pick out only the swanky spots…

Heart Bistro

This ultimate tai tai hang out is serving up a classy, classic Christmas in its spacious spot in Palais Renaissance. Start with a glass of warm Christmas spiced wine, followed by an appetiser of cured carpaccio of salmon with a dijon dill dressing or Slow roasted pumpkin soup with aromatics + honey. Mains is a choice of roasted turkey roll stuffed with porcini mushrooms + chestnuts with a giblet sauce or roasted shoulder of lamb with a caper mint sauce. End off with Christmas pudding with brandy caramel. See, you don’t need to stuff yourself like a turkey to have a great Christmas – here’s all the good things rolled in a nice, healthy, bikini-friendly menu. (May we suggest a girls’ afternoon out? First a shopping spree or a facial at Sothys next door, then an elegant slither over to the restaurant for yums. How’s that for picking up the Christmas spirit?) The menu is priced at $43++ for lunch, $53++ for dinner. $68++ on Christmas eve and New Year’s eve.

By the way, if you want to get a turkey for Christmas lunch, here’s one of the best takeaway deals in town - $100 per bird (4kg) in Szechuan peppercorn with Chinese wine & giblet sauce.

atrium @ palais renaissance

390, Orchard Road, B1-08/09/10C

Tel : 6737-2148

Wangz Hotel
Away from the crush of the Orchard Road crowds, this relatively new family run boutique hotel is a quaint spot to find some tranquility. It’s great for a Christmas date as there’s lots of old streets nearby to walk around, and a cute rooftop bar for sundowners with a view before heading downstairs to Nectar for dinner. At $140++ for two, their 6 course Christmas eve menu starts with pan seared duck foie gras with caramelised pineapples, a roasted tomato soup with sweet peppers and spinach dumplings, then a green apple sorbet. Main dishes is a choice of beef wellington with mushrooms and asparagus with sherry wine sauce, or red snapper and scallops with carrots and orange confit. End with a raspberry logcake with gingerbread panna cotta.

231 Outram Road

Tel: 6595 1388

Email inquiry@wangzhotel.com

Klapsons, the Boutique Hotel

Until Christmas Eve, this boutique hotel in Tanjong Pagar is serving up a nice little ‘semi buffet’ in its avant garde restaurant, Lucas. A cosy spot, it’s a favourite for corporate do’s, so make sure you call ahead for reservations before turning up with your colleagues! For $48++ at lunch and $68++ for dinner, pick on a spread of appetisers, soups, salads and desserts on the buffet table. You then choose a main course – Duet of Maine Lobster Tail in Vermouth and Normandy Butter and Pan Seared Supreme of Chicken with Glazed Blueberries on Parsnip Puree and Organic Baby Spinach or ‘55’ Degree Veal Tenderloin with Pan Seared Foie Gras and Glazed Raspberries with Baby Vegetables and a Morel Port Wine Sauce to be served. Lunch includes a little gift for each guest, while dinner includes an additional glass of wine.

Lunch is priced at $48++ per person with every paying diner entitled to a Christmas gift, and is available from 12noon to 2.30pm. The semi-buffet spread is also available during dinner, priced at $68++ per person with every paying diner entitled to a glass of house pouring wine and a Christmas gift.

15 Hoe Chiang RoadTel: 6521 9001 

Email fnb@klapsons.com

Jade Restaurant

Bet you didn’t expect Jade, the incredibly polished fine dining Chinese restaurant at The Fullerton Hotel, to be listed among places to go for great value. But it is and it does. I just keep wondering why more people don’t rave over it like I do. The food is great, the presentation splendid, and the service is perfect and the setting just blows you away – and none of it pretentious, and just the way I like it. Plus, all this is immersed in one of the most historical settings in Singapore. This Christmas, do it Chinese style under the able hands of Master Chef Leong Chee Yeng, a young, super creative force in my books, thank you. Ask for the festive six-course dinner (from $88 per person) which I am assuming is served in single portions, gorgeously plated western style as is their usual practice. Here’s what’s on the menu – Sliced Roasted Suckling Pig, Braised Shark’s Fin with Baby Abalone and Scallop in Golden Broth, Sautéed Sliced Turkey with Foie Gras, Shimeiji Mushroom and Capsicum and Pan-fried Wagyu Sirloin Steak with Barbeque Sauce Served with Fragrant Fried Rice with Bacon, Pumpkin and Ginger. You know, you always get absolutely great value from Chinese food. Available only on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

1 Fullerton Square
Tel 68778188

Szechuan Court

Speaking of Chinese, Szechuan Court at Fairmont Hotel is hiding another wonderful talent in the form of Chef Sebastian Goh. He’s got some Yuletide meals going on with Christmas set menus from S$78++ per person. Expect Salmon Tartar with Smoked Duck Roll; Braised Shredded Fish Lips, Dried Scallop and Turkey in Superior Thick Broth; Slow-Boiled Tonic Soup with Fish Belly, Fish Cartilage and Thorny Sea Cucumber;; Grilled Wagyu Beef Roll with Golden Mushroom and Avocado Mocha Ice-Cream with Bird’s Nest. On Christmas day and eve, guests get treated to complimentary servings of Christmas turkey and ham and live carving station too. If grandma is coming along, how about Christmas Day dim sum buffet at $33.80 per person (kids at $16.80)?

80 Bras Basah Rd 

Tel: 6837 3322

Introbar

Of course, Christmas is when we all get as stuffed as the turkey, so it’s forgiveable if we just want to meet up for a drink. Head to Swissotel The Stamford's street-level drinking hole, Introbar in the Equinox Complex, and fuel up on Moët & Chandon Brut at a pretty happy price of $84++ per bottle, or for a bit of pink indulgence, Moët & Chandon Rosé at $105++ per bottle. Chin Chin!

80 Bras Basah Rd
Tel: 6837 3322
- Ee Waun

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Binge - The Turkey Has Landed!

Gosh! The feasting is starting…and thoughts of Christmas cakes and turkeys and stollens and candy are enough to pile on the pounds. But ‘tis the season to be jolly and giving, so Santa should be generous…but if he’s not, let’s all hold hands, and promise to be kind to ourselves.

On the verge of December, SimplyFab has already received some questions from you, our lovely readers, about where to get birds and logs and such – clearly you are planning early and thinking party ideas already – so here’s the start of our Christmas postings. The first of our Christmas series – turkey and all the party trimmings. (Most of these featured are available from this weekend or 1 December but call the individual restaurants for details.)

Goose of the Orient

Fairmont Singapore

SimplyFab puts our stamp of lip-smacking approval on their classic Honey Baked Ham ($38 for 1 kg, good value and no fat!) which was superbly juicy and deliciously tender without that rough feel on your tongue that less than quality ham renders. Their Ginger Mango Twist ($15), a sweetish bread confection with a restrained frosty crust, is also really good even though presentation wise, it looks rather messy. It is light and delicious, definitely a good change from the heavy dishes of the season. I would pick this for a Christmas tea spread. For a show stopper, there's a new creation Sparkling Christmas, a chocolate Christmas tree with almond rocher, sugar diamonds and dragees. Pretty pretty!

What else? The Fairmont bird is largely Asian this time, with Turkey La Peranakan ($280) for something different – boneless, and stuffed with pork buah keluak, chestnuts and turkey jus with kaffir lime. If you want a splurge, and Ah Kong is around, take the $450 Goose of the Orient – don’t you love the campy name? – boneless yet again, and stuffed with sticky rice, conpoy, truffle, dried dates and figs – all Christmas and CNY rolled under one skin! Then end the dinner with Snow Flake Song log cake (above, $25 for 500g/ $48 for 1 kg), Chef Kenny Kong’s charming centerpiece of Champagne vanilla, strawberry swiss roll, melba jelly and biscuit. Just cute, old fashioned goodness.

2 Stamford Road

Tel: 6338 8785 or cafenoel@fairmont.com

Mandarin Oriental

Need more fowl? How about an indulgent bird by The Mandarin Oriental, Singapore – whose executive chef, Eric Teo, is also the President of the Singapore Chefs Association. Treat yourself to the Mandarin Oriental Truffle Christmas Turkey ($380), laced with black Perigord truffle, braised cabbage, roasted potatoes, festive vegetables and truffle sauce; or an elegant Duck Ala Orange (S$120) or its roasted Beef Strip Loin ($250)? A must buy would be Chef Teo’s Christmas Fruit Cake ($65) baked using his secret recipe, and any of their luscious logs: Dark Chocolate Truffle Buche Noel, rolled with Guanaja 70% dark chocolate, Griottine cherry macerated in brandy, biscuit chocolate and nougatine bits; Framboises Buche Noel (above), a sexy combination of raspberry, jivara milk chocolate supreme, raspberry crameux, biscuit joconde chocolat, cocoa nibs, macadamia and dried raspberry powder; and Provence Buche Noel – fromage blanc and Tahitian mousse, crème brulee centre and pain de genes atop a crumble-crust (All $36/500 g and $68/1 kg).

5 Raffles Avenue
Tel: 6338 0066

1-Caramel
The cakes at 1-Caramel are really, simplyfab, all light in texture but big on elegant, sophisticated flavour. Plus everything there looks picture pretty perfect too. What to pick up here to impress the guests with your unquestionably good taste? How about a myriad marvelous macaroons (above)? Head Pastry Chef Mimi Wahadi has 12 exotic flavours of macaroons for each of the 12 days of Christmas, like green tea with azuki bean, peanut butter chunks and gula melaka with sea coconut (that’s a unique one!). Beyond that, any of her cakes are lovely too – anything with green tea, strawberry and lychee are just the thing.


#01-01A The Luxe

6 Handy Road
Tel: 6338 3282

Rochester Group
If you're a fan of the food at 1-Rochester or 1-Twenty Six, the Group has prepared take-home savouries. Order your birds and bounty between 1-24 December from any restaurant in the Group (including Stellar). There's Roast Turkey with Cranberry and Pear Relish (top picture), Honey Grain Mustard Glazed Ham on the Bone, and Roast Prime Rib with Herb and Horseradish Crust.


klapsons, the Boutique Hotel
Cupcakes may be 'done to death' as we journalists often say, but SimplyFab just couldn’t resist these superbly whimsical ones by klapsons, the Boutique Hotel (their name just throws my sense of correct punctuation to the wind!) in Tanjong Pagar. Just look at the turkey cupcake (left) complete with drumsticks. Don’t you just adore it? The little Christmas tree is so cute too – imagine having one for each guest at their seats at the table. So perfect! These are new offerings by the hotel, and are made in Chocolate Chip, Vanilla and 70% Dark Chocolate, at a most affordable $22.80+ for a box of six. Their signature klapsons’ Or Noir 70% chocolates is also a great value find – just $28+ per box of 45 pieces, and great for a hostess gift. To ensure you get your goodies, order three days in advance (until 17 Dec) or walk in until 24 Dec and take a chance.

15 Hoe Chiang Road

Tel: 6521 9001 or email fnb@klapsons.com

Goodwood Park Hotel

Aren’t the mini designer Christmas cakes (above) just precious? Available at the deli, they come in a choice of two miniature cakes – an elf-sized Christmas tree colourfully decked out in mini macaron ‘baubles’; and an orange pound cake encased in white chocolate ($13.80 each). What we also like are their value-for-money combo specials, and the antidote to hostesses who don’t want to spend all day slaving in the kitchen. If it’s a traditional Christmas you want, get The Traditional Christmas Combo ($280) of classic Christmas turkey, honey-glazed boneless ham with vanilla-pineapple sauce, traditional chocolate log cake and create-your-own gingerbread Christmas tree. And if the old folks are in attendance, they’ll appreciate the Local Christmas Combo (S$260) to serve up Hainanese turkey with chicken rice balls (yums!), Sichuan BBQ pork skewers, D24 durian Christmas log cake and also a create-your-own gingerbread Christmas tree. Orders fully paid for by 10 December will get a further 5% discount.

22 Scotts Road,

Tel: (65) 6730 1867 / 1868

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