Having visited Absolute Haven before, I shall skip the niceties and move on to the food. Do look at my review during my previous visit to find out more about Absolute Haven (AH). I decided on AH for lunch on that particular day since my cousins have budget concerns, and i happened to remember about AH weekly set lunch promotion. A nice fit.

The previous time i had dinner, but being on the mailing list of AH, they sent me regular updates on their current promotions, and now they are having their weekly lunch promotion, $9.90++ for a 3 course meal, available Tuesday to Sunday.

Soup of the day
The soup of the day was grilled vegetables soup, there were green and red pepper, carrot, potato and some other vegetables. Slightly spicy and sour, the grilled-taste was evident in the soup. I ain’t a big fan of soup, o well.

Oatmeal Crusted chicken breast
There’s two main course available for selection from their set lunch menu, and one of which was the Oatmeal crusted chicken breast with miso braised rooted vegetables and pically sauce.

Thinking back now, i didn’t recall tasting any miso flavour in the root vegetables, and just what exactly was pically sauce, i never found out. I reckon it’s the slightly sweet and sourish red sauce which gave the chicken breast an additional zing.

The chicken breast strike out as dry and hard. But never judge a book by it’s cover, or rather in this case, never judge a chicken by it’s look. We were proven wrong by the first taste of the breast meat. Despite the dry look, the inner portion of the meat retained the soft and moist texture. I always dislike eating chicken breast because i found them to be too hard and dry, but this one’s the complete opposite.

Seafood ragout angel hair pasta
The other main course, was the seafood ragout angel hair pasta with tom yam pesto sauce. I was curious about the angel hair, having saw it but never try it before. Like the name implied, angel hair is a very thin variety of Italian pasta, which beared a resemblance to the Chinese rice vermicelli.

The tom yam pesto sauce did gave the pasta a different twist in flavour. It was spicy, sourish all together as one. I didn’t really fancy tom yam flavour, but if you are a tom yam fan then this should do the trick for you.

Dessert of the day
We rounded off our 3 course lunch with a simple triple chocolate ice cream.

Total bill for 4 set lunch was $46.3 which worked out to be $11.50 per person. I was initially skeptical about AH set lunch because at $9.90 per person it’s totally in a different league with its a la carte pricing. How good can a 3 course meal at $9.90 be, when a normal main course for dinner at AH cost around $20.

But like what i found out, there isn’t anything intriguing about the food at AH set lunch, but it does provides value given you can have a soup, a decent main course and a simple dessert all for $11 per person. With western food at some food courts costing around $6-8 bucks, i say this is really a good option for lunch if you want somewhere with a good ambience, but at the same time not hurting your pocket. And one of their main course option changes every other week. So there’s always variation for you.

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

After seeing the many good reviews for Absolute Haven, decided to organize a New Year's eve gathering at the place with a group of close friends.

Overall, the resturant did not disappoint. Given that it's a New Year's eve set dinner menu, food is pretty decent and service prompt. Only complain was one of my friends asked for the rack of lamb to be well done, but it came served more like medium rare.

Will definately come back again to try out the other items on the new menu.

Overall: Good value for money, excellent service and nice ambience.

5 course set


1) Lobster bisque with prawns and scallops


When the soup was being served, the aroma of the soup was nice, however after I tasted it, it was not as good as what I expected. The taste was a little too light and watery for me. However the taste of the scallops and prawns was sweet, had abit of herbs taste. I did enjoy the prawns and scallops. Overall the soup was not bad, however I think there is room for improvement on the soup.


2) Braise baby abalone layered with crispy white bait base on a bed of asparagus and egg tart top with a spoon of artichoke sauce


This dish is new to me. I quite like it as the baby abalone was good and they did not taste like chewing gum. I find it just nicely done, not over or under cook. The egg tart was quite weird for as the egg tart taste was very heavy, thus if you eat the egg tart first then you can’t really taste the abalone. As for the white bait, it was nothing special to me, tasted like deep fried batter fish.


3) Homemade Gnocchi with Stew spring chicken topped with foie gras


This is the dish that I enjoyed the most, the pasta sauce was really good and it went very well with the pasta. The chicken was not over cooked, I believe that they might have use the thigh meat, thus making it taste juicy and tender.


4) Mouth watering grain fed beef tenderloin on a bed of temptation "Baked Potatos" glazed with glossy beef & fig sauce


My choice was medium rare. When it was first served, it looked pretty good, but as soon as I wanted to cut the beef, I found it abit tough on the sides. But the inside of the beef was good and it tasted nice and it was not salty at all. Maybe the beef was too thick and that makes it hard to control when cooking, thus the reason for the beef being alittle tough. As for the sauce, it went along very well with the beef. The baked potatoes were really good and tasty, liked it very much.


5) Tiramisu


When it was being served, the tiramisu was toppling down. However, when I first tasted it, I liked this tiramisu as it was light and creamy. What made it interesting was the jelly in the tiramisu as I have never tasted jelly in tiramisus before.

First thing first. If you are looking for a place for a date, especially a first date, this is it. The food is secondary.

I came here for my birthday back in August. The service was commendable; I think the whole service crew knew it was my birthday because every one of them wished me happy birthday when I passed them, heading for our table. The restaurant is small but very cosy, and very well decorated for that soft, romantic feel that isn't overwhelming; relaxing enough so that you don't break out in cold sweat on your first date. :P

The lady boss served us personally. I think enough has been said about her generous hospitality. The food, the taste of it, to be honest, was up to standard, though nothing to shout about in particular. It's more of the whole presentation that impressed me, the prettiness of the food served on the table decorated with tealights and soft music floating about. At the end of it, what sank deep was the 'feel' of the place, more so than the food.

My companion had obviously informed the lady boss that it was a birthday dinner so a special dessert was whipped up for me. It was very pretty, on a long rectangular plate, like a piece of art on canvas. It is a pity I lost that photograph of it. The lady boss and the waiter who served the dessert sang the birthday song along with us, and helped us to take a photograph. At the end of the dinner, she gave me an envelope, and inside was a simple piece of handmade card, with the photograph in it, along with handwritten well-wishes, thanking us (by our names) for visiting the restaurant, and penning how happy she was to celebrate my birthday with me, etc. The personal touch was overwhelming (in a good way), which made the place truly memorable. There was also a small black box with a single rose bud in it, and attached to it was a little note with a love quotation on it. That, I thought, was a very classy touch.

The best test of the service was when we totally forgot the time and overstayed by at least half an hour into their closing time. We felt quite bad about that, but at no point in time did they come to hurry us away or start packing up the restaurant, or even gave us the bill until we asked for it. Which was why we didn't realise how late it was until I got up to go to the ladies room and realised that we were the only group left in the restaurant.

Went for the "food-tasting" for Absolute Haven on 11 December 08, which consisted of a 5 course dinner namely:

1) Soup - Lobster bisque with prawns & scallops

One look at the soup, disappointing. Dint really look appetizing, I must say. Kinda contrasting as the fragrance of the soup was damn strong. I could smell the aroma even before it was served before me.

But wait! There was actually quite a generous serving of fresh big scallops and lobster in the soup. But the soup itself was not that fantastic. It was light with a weird taste, probably due to the herbs used. According to the chef, it was easy to cook thick creamy lobster soup as found in most menu. But to make it a lighter base, that was the difficult part. Well hearing this, I guess I will appreciate the soup slightly better, but then it still doesnt mean that I have to like it.. Haha


2) Starter - Braise baby abalone layered with crispy white bait base on a bed of asparagus and egg tart top with a spoon of artichoke sauce

This was kinda fusion dish, with 3 totally different bites: Chinese abalone, Ang Mo asparagus tart and fried small fishes. I would start with the least favourite, i.e. the baby abalone. Even though the menu said that the abalone was braised, I cant really taste all the goodness in it. The sauce and the abalone tasted like 2 separate strangers. On the other hand, the fried fishes were nicely fried to golden crispy and the asparagus tart was simply good and definitely healthy.

3) Pasta - Homemade gnocchi with stew spring chicken topped with foie gras

OMG, OMG... This was definitely my favourite! Definitely dun taste like your everyday spaghetti, macaroni etc. Rather, I find the closest resemble will be the Teochew dish - Yam Balls ( 算盘子), or maybe mochi? The texture was kinda starchy, springy & very Q. And probably because of the chicken stew, you could taste sweetness sensation with every chew. The foie gras served in this dish was absolutely yummy! It totally melted in your mouth. Tasted like the fatty part of the roasted meat. Oh so sinful but irresistible!

4) Main Course -Mouth watering grain fed beef tenderloin on a bed of temptation "Baked Potatos" glazed with glossy beef & fig sauce

Mine was medium rare, which explained the redness in the centre. It was quite tender and chewy, even though the outer layer seems to be slightly charred. Probably the size was too big to control the grilling of the beef? I dunno... But it became "boring" eating the beef after sometime since there was no special sauce, nothing but just beef and more beef.

5) Dessert - Authentic tiramisu

To read more & photo-viewing, please go to
http://fun-hideout.blogspot.com/2008/12/absolutely-absolute-haven.html


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