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2016-11-28
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No matter how strict my weekday diet is, there has to be cheat meals to satisfy my cravings - a weekend brunch on a no-work-on-the-following-Monday Sunday is just right to set the scene for a feast! $398/head gives you a buffet table with salad, seafood and desserts, as well as one selected main course. For Saturdays, the brunch is served at 12-2.30pm, while for Sundays, two sessions are offered - 11-1.15pm and 1.30-3.30pm. We picked the latter one for a Sunday as we have to first pay our sleep
No matter how strict my weekday diet is, there has to be cheat meals to satisfy my cravings - a weekend brunch on a no-work-on-the-following-Monday Sunday is just right to set the scene for a feast! $398/head gives you a buffet table with salad, seafood and desserts, as well as one selected main course. For Saturdays, the brunch is served at 12-2.30pm, while for Sundays, two sessions are offered - 11-1.15pm and 1.30-3.30pm. We picked the latter one for a Sunday as we have to first pay our sleep debt.
Having tried not less than 10 restaurants which offer weekday semi-buffet lunch in the Central & Western area, here I am for a newly renovated one to be added in my 'collection' - it was previously named as "Blue Butcher Bar & Restaurant", but now iterated as "Blue · Butcher & Meat Specialist". While having vague memories on how it looks and how the menu is, I just know they are focusing more on meat than ever. However heavy they seem to be on meat, luckily they serve an array of finely made salads and desserts which makes it a truly worthy and satisfying brunch to crave for.
The restaurant occupies two floors - or 1.5 floor to be exact. Smokers should fancy the semi-outdoor seats along the pavement area, while most diners choose to be seated upstairs. What is left on the ground floor is a showcase of dry-aged meat as well as a dry-ageing room, which I was told by a server who led me the way that it was previously upstairs. "I see...", I won't really bother where the room is, as long as quality of meat stays.
The metallic (though a bit dark staircase) led one to the expansive upper floor. Whilst friends were able to recall marble tables which looked really grand to be a fine-dining steakhouse, I couldn't remember any except the naturally lit interior with white walls looking 90% the same. It seems that only the furniture has been changed, while the hip and relaxing vibe remains, in addition to the live performance especially for the weekend brunch hours!
It wasn't brightly lit up, thus we remained in our drowsy state before chucking any food down. Apart from wooden 4-seater tables, cosy leather sofa by the window and potted plants is also a great choice for people coming in a larger group.
There are private dining rooms (being occupied thus didn't take any photos), but to make it less formal, this kind of long U-shaped table will do to stay close and cosy.
I recalled other good-for-brunch places like Lily & Bloom, which also features similar kind of retro-industrial ambiance with an open plan kitchen. It is even more transparent here to let you see the cooking process, mainly how they do the main courses (included in the brunch). Salad dishes spread along the area right in front of the open plan kitchen, and you will hit the seafood station at one end.
It is interesting to see foie gras and cake & crepe station locating right next to each other. Pros being that both are serving unique and tailor-made orders, but cons being the greasy smell of grilled foie gras spread to the sweet items. Despite its strange setup, both foie gras and crepe are done quickly and tasted good (though not at the same time).
A buffet of the usual salads, cheese and dessert is on hand, but the real draw is the mains and seafood station that we all focus on when we consider where to go for brunches. Not as many choices as Azure (crab legs, oysters, shrimps..), there are constantly-refilled Fine de Claire oysters and lemon poached shrimps.
What the buffet table is lacking is perhaps liquid - like soup and juice. The restaurant of course offers, though in an additional charge outside the brunch charge. While getting everyone seated, I just randomly picked a Sangria ($110). I was surprised by the cinnamon stick with one end charred and emitting smoke when served. I was asked to dip it into the sangria, but after taking photos, the smoke went off and it was my fault of not following the instruction, thus not much smoky scent was added to the drink. Chase Elderflower Liqueur gave a refreshing and zesty base, which made it an unconventional sangria despite the conventional white wine as one of the ingredients.
Started off the brunch by dropping at the Salad Bar. Other than the lack of fruit-based salad or simply a plate of cut melons, there is nothing to criticize. It runs the gamut from cured meat, cheese cubes (including blue cheese), well-mixed salad with meat to simply a green base with a variety of dressings at your choice.
Hope to have biscuits coming along with cheese to make them "fully functioned"! My vote goes to the jasper grilled beetroot which is so flavourful with highlights of pistachio and nuts dressing on top. Grilled chicken breast and seared tuna with a base of greens live up to standard as well, though the seared tuna isn't of the common thickness but thin in the form of slices.
You may say it is a must to have DIY salad station, allowing you to pick your own greens and apply your own dressing. This basic element is here, though I don't really focus on this as well-carved salad dishes above suffice in terms of variety and amount already.
Before any main dishes are served, it is simply hard to control how much we put on our plates. Our focus is inevitably on oysters and shrimps which make the most value out of it. Oysters here are of the fine de claire species, with a balanced taste of marine odour and sweetness. Fresh as expected, we have around 3-4 each. Oysters are pre-shucked before served and we spend no effort in getting them melted in our mouth.
Fine de Claire oysters
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If salad doesn't fit your super-clean appetite, the corner for foie gras, cake and crepe should be great enough to satiate the cravings. Ventilation isn't that good in the dome-shaped corner as there is pretty much frying involved, luckily there isn't a queue and it takes just around a minute to get our custom-made food served.
Foie gras are pan-fried to its optimum, being crunchy on the surface but tender and melting with fat in the interior. As the usual practice of serving it on top of a bread crisp, fruit jam can be added to neutralise the grease.
DIY crepe is definitely a must-go checkpoint. A range of ingredients can be selected to put on (or into?) the crepe, eg. fruit cubes, banana, nutella, chocolate and so on. What I like most is the vast amount of blueberries, cranberries and strawberries to be served at the crepe station - even not putting them inside the crepe, I am simply thrilled to have it served next to it.
Having our stomach 70% full with salad, seafood and crepe, we realise that we should ask for main courses to be served. Hearty mains menu runs the gamut from a simple burger to steak, mostly without having an extra charge. 45 Day Dry-aged Butcher's Burger with fries and aioli
45 Day Dry-aged Butcher's Burger
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It is heavenly made, however we just manage to cut it into half but not smaller portions, for fear that a bad cut will ruin it. Remaining pinkish in the interior, it tastes buttery smooth and nutty. The aroma can't be any more concentrated due to its dry-aged processing and just right doneness.
Half French Organic Free Range Yellow Chicken with potato puree and grilled spanish peppers
"Free range" plus yellow chicken makes it a flavourful chicken dish ever. Normally we don't expect much surprises in roasted chicken as it should be more or less the same, but this comes in a tender and juicy state with an intense aroma which is well above our expectation.
Portion suffices to be shared among 2-3 people at least, which must be more fulfilling than the burger on the portion basis. What I love most is the not-so-fat state indicated by the thin slice of fat, which is roasted to the perfect golden-brown. As a person resisting fat, I am not so picky this time. The jus goes so well with the potato puree which basically melts in the mouth.
Spanish Suckling Pig Roll, Brioche Bun with fries and aioli
Spanish Suckling Pig Roll, Brioche Bun
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Our stomachs are exploding and can't be any more full, though we still ask for our ice cream because of the special flavour of corn. This isn't served at the buffet tables outside but on request. Among the three flavours (Vanilla, 70% chocolate and corn), I bet most will flavour corn as it isn't so common to be found. I tried once at ATUM before and this one is definitely on par with that. Clean and not heavily sweetened, it doesn't bring extra burden to our palate but refreshing it.
We stayed till around 3pm to finish our 2-hour long brunch, which basically occupies over half of our Sunday daytime already, how luxurious. This is quite a relaxing place to chill out and relax, given that around $450/head (including service charge) gives you an feast of seafood, salad and its signature dry-aged beef. Of course it will be cheaper to come for semi-buffet lunch on weekdays, the trade-off is of course the rush and there won't be seafood to try. Will be back for sure, at least for its divine dry-aged beef
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