celebrating an occasion & went with wife for dinner at stellar at 1-altitude on 9.11.2015. ^^

there was a roof top bar like at me @ oue & also at zafferano (1-altitude is much higher floor).

marina skyline, the panoramic view were of course fabulous.

nice place to have a drink, but it was a bit hazy this evening.

we were there at 6.30pm first seating, it was 1/2 full for the evening.

we were deciding between the regular S$95++ 3-course menu (full portion) or the 6,7,8-course autumn gastronomic (1/2 portions). wife decided to have the 3-course & i was advised that if i took the S$120++ 6-course menu alone i would have 2 desserts.

so we both took the 3-course. wife had 2 appetizers & i ordered a dessert.

we were served only 1 amuse bouche. so we missed the mushroom tea which other reviewers raved about.

this amuse bouche was ok but forgettable.

how i missed the incredible mushroom tea amuse bouche we enjoyed at jaan previously.

wife ordered the oysters. there were 4 in 1 order.

again it was ok but not those very creamy ones. we had better S$3 oysters at tess bar & of course the superb ones at the prime society (only S$2.50ea after palate 50% discounts).

i ordered the diver scallops carbonara style.

the scallops were wonderful, large, plump, tasty, & still have the slightly gummy sashimi bite. i loved the scallops.

but as an entire dish with the carbonara sauce, it was simply outclassed by the excellent scallops at the disgruntled chef 100gourmet dinner we had recently (above photo).

i decided to create a dish myself with my usual pan-seared scallops using a prawn vegetable veloute. my scallops were very good but not really comparable, however my veloute was excellent & the overall experience was much better, though just as outclassed by the scallop dish at the disgruntled chef 100gourmet.

wife ordered the gazpacho in 2 styles.

the cold soup was light, refreshing, tasty.

this was such a wonderful soup, i went home & recreate one myself, and a pretty good one at that. not quite stellar’s top standard, but pretty good la. 🙂

we ordered the king crab, uni, sakura ebi pasta & the rack of lamb.

the pasta was tasty & i liked it.

wife though was not impressed. somehow the uni sauce tasted cheesy (same saltiness?). it was good but not great.

i went back & recreated a very tasty prawn capellini myself in the same style.

the lamb rack was i guess mediocre, at best above average.

it was done medium according to the server’s recommendations.

there was a nice array of sauces & dips, mustard, bearnaise etc& a butter which was very nice with the lamb.

the sides were good.

but actually for the lamb, though it was ok, it was also quite mediocre. there are countless restaurants here that does this better, and much better!

i would prefer my own pistachio crusted lamb to this.

overall, food was good, ambience was fabulous.

the dinner though was quite underwhelming for the price, quite below our expectations. purely on the matter of food enjoyment, we had much better at cheaper places like foc & tess bar.

wife was saying basically we were paying for the view. i guess we were.

c.h.e.f andy