Urgh the thing about smart casual is I never knew where the line between causal and smart casual is. Anyway I pulled on a shirt and jeans and headed over to Swisssotel. Didn't research on what is there because I like being surprised hahaha.

Turns out I was being treated to my first every fine dining experience, at Jaan Restaurant on Swissotel's 70th floor. Cool! Always wanted to do that. And it turns out they only managed to confirm the reservation on that morning itself, via KH's close uni classmate who is now working in Swissotel. 

Award winning restaurant yo! One of the best in Asia. Check out their awards and accolades here. Was afraid that I would do something embarrassing at first lol but KH the experienced was there to settle everything for us. Even asked for the wine menu first (our server later commented that this gave him away as "someone in this field" lol). We ended up having sparkling water and the very safe moscato..honestly sparkling water just felt a lot like water trying very hard to sparkle (be gassy) but fell short so it's a bit of a strange sensation. Moscato was quite nice tho.

Went for their 3 course lunch. There were 3 choices per course and three of us, so we decided to each pick a different one so we had the variety. Server later commented that this is the first time she had to explain all the dishes to the same table haha.

Anyway, straight to the food. Didn't get any photos of KH's food coz he was too far away. Had Stel's coz she didn't have a good phone to snap pictures with and had to resort to mine hahah. 


Started with amuse bouches (I researched okay). There's this walnut crackers topped with Cantal cheese, black sesame sponge with Danish eel, macaron-ish item (research failed) and a little jar of hummus with paper thin lentil crackers (missed the photo). I remembered being impressed by the black sesame sponge and the "macaron". Not a fan of hummus tho the two of them were ooh-ing and aah-ing about it.



This one I do like it though. Cèpes Sabayon and Mushroom Tea which was poured from a French press. Pretty intense mushroom flavour.  

Then came our appetizer courses. This was mine, Jaan's Garden, with spring vegetables, morels, ‘Auvergne’ ham. Can't really tell what the sauces were but they were quite good. 


Stel had milk poached white asparagus with organic egg yolk ‘Raviolo’, burnt bread, “Grenobloise”.  KH's one was a Zucchini ‘Trumbetta' - Burratta artigiana, tomato ‘collection’. Yes I copied straight from the menu because I cannot remember what we had by now. Not that the meal was not memorable, just that this happened a good 1.5 months ago hahaha.


On to the main courses! I really liked mine. Confit rainbow trout sitting on top of Kagoshima pork with miso caramel sauce. Fish was really well done.


Stel's Welsh Organic Lamb 'Rugh Estate' which featured various cuts of lamb and orient caramel, violet artichokes, quinoa. Interesting plating. KH's was Spring barley ‘Comme Un Risotto’, with grilled avocado, brocciu and frog legs. 

Topped up a bit for a supplement of truffled brie de Meaux. Not as gaga about cheese as Stel, but this also came with...

Easily the highlight of the day which blew our socks off. Hazelnut and truffle ice cream! Thought it was a rather surprising way of incorporating truffle and unexpectedly good results.


Palate cleanser of refreshing blood orange, grapefruit and pomelo granita with pop rocks. Down side was that the pomelo bits were bitter. 



The petit fours which impressed us too. Especially the rosemary lollipops which had liquid nitrogen poured inside to freeze a layer of chocolate surrounding the rosemary sorbet. Not just a gimmick okay.

Oh and there's coffee after that too. Stel regretted for not ordering something fancier like cappucino or sth coz she didnt know she could. 

Generally...it's an experience I won't mind reliving somewhere else. The food was great, portions were typical fine dining portions but the pace was appropriate and I even felt slightly full afterwards, which I wasn't expecting to. Service was excellent as well. I am a firm believer that service and food should both be good for a restaurant to excel and this one have both. Another strong suit of theirs is of course their location on a 70th floor which offers magnificent views. 

Anyway for the record..birthday weekend continues with two of them..we had Nihon Mura for dinner (just Stel and me coz KH was attending a concert with his friend), then Victor's Kitchen for brunch on Sunday and accompanied KH as he ran errands etc. Was only able to set up my new comp on Sunday night lol.