Piggin' Out: Cilantro

I was supposed to blog about this ages ago. Once I found out Cilantro had reopened, I checked with the family for the next available dinner slot and booked a table straightaway. I got so excited, I blogged about it on the day we went to eat there in late December.

The main question most people would have in their minds would be - how different is Cilantro to Sage? At least that was on my mind when I got there.

First up = the truffle butter.

I can sing songs and write poems about this truffle butter. I read so much about it before, having never tried Cilantro before it closed for the renovations. It was a really glorifying experience to finally have tasted it.

We also got to taste the nori butter, a specialty that isn't made and therefore isn't served that often. Good, very good infact, but still couldn't beat the truffle butter. We were shy about asking for more truffle butter. In our next 2 trips to Cilantro, we literally gobbled it all up.

One point I would like to make though is that the bread at Sage is much much better than the one in Cilantro. We had Cilantro and Sage within the space of a few days so the memory was still very fresh in our minds. Maybe Cilantro should pinch over the person making the bread at Sage, just to complete the experience.

Starters (from bottom right, clockwise - that was the order we were told to eat it): Raw tuna with truffle shavings, uni or sea urchin pasta (absolutely heavenly), prawn with avruga caviar, raw oyster and umeshu.

Next was pan seared foie gras with braised quail. Yum... How can one say no to foie gras?

This was probably the highlight (apart from the truffle butter, of course) - lobster consomme. Really really good.
For the mains, my dad and I chose the grilled Japanese beef while Rommel and Patteh chose the lobster.


For dessert, passion fruit creme brulee with mango sorbet. I like...

That first meal there was really good, I must say. However, my third visit to Cilantro proved to be a slight disappointment because I didn't quite remember the food itself. Although, that could have been because I was with a whole bunch of girls and we talked non stop throughout the entire meal and so I didn't spend as much time savouring every bite.

In any case, I will definitely be going back there...