PUBLISHED March 6th, 2012 09:56 am | UPDATED March 28th, 2016 12:23 am
When we were first invited to the Ritz-Carlton’s ‘SuperBrunch’, my knee-jerk response was “Ok, I’ve been to some pretty great brunches here in Singapore at various restaurants and hotels….What makes you think you think you can call this brunch ‘super’?”
Let me just put it this way, within 3 minutes of stepping into the the lobby and spotting even a fraction of what was on offer I was already eating my words…and awaiting to eat brunch.
So here’s the dealio, it’s $208++, and for that you get freeflow 2002 Grand Siecle Moet Chandon (and Rose) along with all the culinary creations to fulfil your wildest fantasies.
As my friends well know, I usually turn my nose up at Moet (so sue me!), but I must admit that the 2002 was really palatable and the rose was actually very good. I decided to take full advantage and set my target for a glass of Champagne per course.
So, back at the entrance, I was confronted by the most impressive sushi and sashimi display i’ve seen at one of these fair brunches. Not just a superb selection, but phenomenally well cut thick pieces of sashimi and nigiri. It reminded of me being back in Tokyo. Just look at the examples below and cue immediate sushi craving…
And on the other side of this display was an stunning selection of various iberico ham, ready to be cut on order. Well hola señor pig! What a nice leg you have.
After getting my appetite whet, my partner in crime, Ms Demeanour arrived and we were lead to our seats.
So after walking around and seeing most of the offerings, I set myself of target plan of what to eat and in what order…
To start with, as one must, we headed straight for the seafood. With fresh and vibrant crabs, clams, mussels and lobsters, my eyes almost popped out of my head!
Oh, and they shuck the oysters right in front of you! To boot, there was a fine selection of condiments to enjoy with the seafood. Personally, I loved the mango and tomato salsa..which went particularly well with the giant mussels (so good!!!).
Round 2- Cooked, cured and smoked fish. With a selection of tuna ceviche, baked nori-wrapped salmon and various other dishes to make your mouth water, what caught my attention the most was the smoked salmon section. Yes, an entire section devoted to smoked salmon!
I am a self-professed smoked salmon addict and eat this stuff as often as possible so imagine my joy when after already getting excited about the other dishes, I came across an entire 15ft table with 10 different kinds of smoked salmon with every possible condiment you can imagine…
Challenge accepted!
To name a few flavours: Applewood, Oak, Cold smoked, beetroot….even Teriyaki smoked (surprisingly one of the best, a gorgeous sweetness to it).
Just see below and you will know what I mean. And no, there is no such thing as too much smoked salmon. Even after this plate I went back for a few more pieces. All this lovely looking salmon is smoked in-house. And it was done to perfection…just superb.
Round 3, we revisited the sushi and sashimi and got a nice cross section of salmon, tuna, hamachi, scallop, unagi and tamago. Let’s just say it tasted just as good as it looked. I was personally very pleased with an inside-out roll with grilled unagi on the outside and fried salmon skin inside. Crunchy, gorgeous.
Finally at ‘Round 4’ we approached the hot section…a wonderful array of international cuisine, but like most people there, we couldn’t help notice the giant ‘thing’ in the middle of the buffet table…
At this point, you maybe looking at the picture below and asking yourself…What the hell is that???
To answer your question, this is an entire Wagyu beef leg weighing in 68kg! Slow roasted over 32 hours…this thing was GOOD! If you are a beef-lover, this is for you. Imagine devouring this juicy, lean, roasted medium rare beef with a helping of dijon mustard. Hungry yet?
Oh and a little birdie told me that this is will now be a regular feature on the Ritz-Carlton’s regular Champagne Sunday brunch.
To ‘help’ this down, we tried some of the delectable lamb chops (a person favourite of mine), peking duck and some taleggio-filled veal meatballs. This was quite the meat plate.
At this point my stomach was beginning to feel the wrath of brunch and both Talya and I started feeling what some refer to as ‘Food Stoned’… When you’ve eaten so much incredible food that you enter a sort of delirium…of course the champagne might have had something to do with it as well!
Anyway, to wrap things up, we visited the cheese section and demolished a few of the desserts. My personal fave was the tiramisu which had immensely strong and high quality espresso soaking the bottom. Though I adored the immense and perfect collection of cheeses on offer…a worldwide and world-class selection.
Shown above is the chocolate Mr and Mrs Potatohead which Ms Demeanor and I spirited away to our table. Lucky Mrs Potatohead even made it out of the dining hall intact…Sadly Monsieur Potatohead was not so lucky and after five minutes at our table was ‘defaced’, ‘de-shoed’ and promptly devoured.
To summarize, this superbrunch has blown me away. It is so deserving of the name ‘super’, they should make their Chefs outfit with capes and with a massive ‘S’ on their chests.
Sadly folks, this is a biannual event and the next one won’t be until October. Reservations will become available about a month beforehand and you can be sure us Nomads will be sounding the SuperBrunch trumpet loud and clear.
To see the complete selection of photos taken at the SuperBrunch, visit our City Nomads photo album.
If you can’t wait that long, the Ritz-Carlton do a Champagne Sunday brunch every week at the Greenhouse which is also rather good, their Superbrunch is just something else!