Restaurant Week: Novus @ National Museum of Singapore

Restaurant Week is back for the umpteenth time and I am still a fervent supporter, for some reason despite the misses in the last couple of years and realising that the supposed "deals" are but a couple of dollars cheaper than their regular sets. 

Novus does not offer sets during dinner despite its popularity hence the urgency to get us seats during Restaurant Week - now that's a legit excuse, ain't it?

 

Some call it a fetish to dine in the museum or library, yet this is a completely reasonable excuse. It's akin to dining in court or in an MRT carriage which is usually frowned upon. That's two for legit excuse.

Filled.

Dazzling ceiling lights.



And then, the candle on every table that I do not get.

 

Every table had one too! Cheeky me wonders if the sprinklers are active.



The bread basket wowed us with nostalgic bread buns that resembled gardenia's butter rolls, baguettes, multigrain toasts and milk buns. Doubles of these anytime!

Tasting Platter
foie gras anglaise, burrata cheese, pork belly, accompanied with rocket salad

 
The tasting platter is always an appetizer I look forward to which is usually a showcase of the culinary skill of the restaurant in morsels. First, it arrived short of the pork belly and a huge garden of rocket leaves. Second, the waiters and waitresses were as clueless about the items on the platter. Third, by the time I got to eating it, I was just miffed. 



Flavours were a huge miss for this with foie gras anglaise as bland as unseasoned potato and tuna. The foie gras probably existed in the foam.

Wagyu Rump
seared wagyu beef rump, assorted sauté mushroom, juresalem artichoke purée
 

Our prized choice of wagyu rump had to be the worst gourmet decision made for the meal - all of rubbery. The effort to even plate was lacklustre.  It is a pity that they had their shot at serving the best of the meal and chose to present in such mediocre effort. The odd thing then is, the plating for each table seemed slightly different and I choose to think these inconsistencies are purely a case of luck. 

Macadamia nut ice cream
homemade macadamia nut ice cream, chocolate cookie, coffee syrup
 

When they say sweet finish, it had to be so with a really decent nutty macadamia icecream which fared forks and spoons better than the brownie with an odd mushy texture.

Novus's Triple Chocolate Brownies
33%;66%;85% cocoa, chocolate espuma cream

The "coffee syrup" from Macadamia nut icecream seemed to have found its way into this instead.  Triple chocolate? Hardly so. 

The experience was average truth be told and several factors could have played a role in this. Yet, the interest is hardly piqued for a return. I was looking forward to a molecular gastronomy display somehow with oyster leaves that taste like oysters so on so forth but this was just as plain as it can get. 

$55++

Novus
National Museum of Singapore