Mykii

We were in the Holland village area and chanced upon Mykii, a new café / bistro type place that looks like it took over the Marmalade Pantry. Mykii is suppose to be inspired by the Greek island of Mykonos and I can sort of get that vibe in the café. The café has a washed out, bluish appearance with the service staff smartly clad in white overalls. The place is stylish and feels like the owner put a lot of effort into the look and feel. I almost feel like I’m teleported away on a holiday somewhere in the Mediterranean.

We were seated very quickly by a friendly young waiter, with a nice but somewhat awkward disposition. When we asked for recommendations, he didn’t seem sure about what was good to eat so we decided that it was probably better to go through the menu ourselves. We however found it hard to fault him as he looked like he had just stepped out of school and this was probably his first job.

We started with the Mezze platter, an appetizer of salmon, chickpeas and eggplant dips. The dips were excellent with the eggplant dip being my favorite. The dips came with a type of crispy flat bread and breadsticks. It went quite well with the dips but I would have preferred more variety of breads such as ciabatta or other softer breads to spread the tasty dips on.

For our mains, we had the Prawn Casserole in a Spicy Tomato Sauce and the Seafood Linguine with Laksa Pesto. The Prawn Casserole was presented very well in a nice piping hot orangey coloured casserole. The thick paste of tomato sauce that covered the rice was enticing to the eye and the prawns looked nice and succulent. Like the previous reviewer, I found the taste of the tomato a little too strong and the chef may want to take it down a notch or two. However, I could taste the spice quite evidently and this blended well with the sweetness of the prawns served. The underlying rice was a little too wet and could have been cooked out a little more to make it dryer.

The Seafood Linguine was served in a Korean like stone bowl, also piping hot. The linguine was done perfectly al dente. You could definitely taste the laksa pesto and for a brief moment, I thought I was having a bowl of laksa when I bit into the fish cake. A very interesting dish indeed and one I would recommend people who wouldn’t mind a fusionie type experience with their food.

We were too full to try their coffee and desserts which looked pretty good which we will save for another time.

When I first saw this place a few months back, I was very sceptical. There are hardly any decent eating places at Holland Village (the opposite side of the road doesn't count). I've always found the area more like a collection of drinking holes and coffee joints, catering to the happening crowd deep in bohemian Singapore. Which is a good thing sometimes.

I decided to give it a shot after seeing all the positive (well, no condemning) reviews here. Also, its a sponsor of HGW! The third push factor was a nasty run in with a thaipusam crowd on the way to dining near the serangoon area, which resulted in an ad-hoc change of location to Mykii.

I didn't step into the restaurant at all the entire evening. The alfresco area looked extremely pleasant, and although it has been rather muggy of late, the weather that evening demanded we savour it. The interior of the restaurant does look rather spacious, and I love the sky-blue and white colour scheme. Makes the place look very clean! A friend also commented, after dining there, that the predominantly white colour scheme is probably the most greek thing about Mykii other than the name.

The service was quite good, the waiters were attentive, and were quick to refill water glasses (which were provided for us without prompting). There was also co-ordination between the staff to produce our mains immediately after we were done with our starters.


For starters we ordered:

Pissaladiere, a signature dish, which was described to be an "open-faced provencale tart perfectly dressed with a healthy wholesome selection of roasted capsicums, anchovies, olives and onion jam." I didn't really like this. I detest anchovies and eat vegetables only out of necessity, which will probably only change if I ever get to eat at L'Arpège. For what its worth, my friends actually quite liked this, although I question their taste, as well as good sense in paying good money for a vegetable tart!

Mezze Platter, which was essentially 3 types of dip - eggplant, chickpea and salmon I believe, with 2 different types of bread - lavosh and grissini. Grissini is just the fancy term for breadsticks. Lavosh is round, thin and crisp. Both were suitable for the dip in taste and texture - slightly wheaty and very crisp. Both were extremely unsuitable for dipping in form, however. The breadsticks were simply too thin to scoop up any decent amount of dip with. Or maybe I'm just greedy. I barely managed to attain a pocky-like coating on the breadsticks. The lavosh presented a different problem. It's initial size means it has to be broken up for dipping. The dips come in little shot glasses. The lavosh doesn't break cleanly. Little chips break off the lavosh as you try to reduce it to a manageable size. Think cream crackers. My dining area had quite a bit of debris on it at the end of this course. The dips were quite good, however. Even the eggplant one. I think I am over my eggplant phobia. I really liked the salmon dip. It's a bit too troublesome a starter, however.

Mains:

Prawn Casserole In Spicy Tomato With Kaffir Leaf Pilaf came in a rather small portion, like blargh mentioned. My friend who ordered this was done about 5 minutes before I finished my food. It probably didn't help that I tried some of his food. The prawns were fresh enough, but didn't have the bounciness you get with really really fresh prawns. Everything went rather well with the tomato sauce, but considering that the rice is supposed to taste special (Kaffir leaf etc), I felt that the tomato sauce overwhelmed the entire dish. It was rather nice, I suppose, but I'd had enough of tomato because of my main.

Pot Roasted Chicken With Almond & Olive Pilaf was what I had. It was essentially a large piece of chicken, reminiscent of a chicken chop. This was served atop a pile of rice, and the entire thing was again drenched in tomato sauce. The chicken was tender and flavorful enough. The tomato sauce tasted very similar to the spicy tomato sauce served with the prawn casserole, and it was also much larger than the latter dish (more rice too!). Also, I also felt that any subtleties the almond and olive might have imparted to the rice was overwhelmed again by the tomato sauce. It got cloying after a while, but this dish is good if you're either hungry or sharing with someone else.

Seafood Linguine With Laksa Pesto was the last main we ordered. This was quite good, and the laksa pesto was highly reminiscent of - you guessed it, laksa. Taste wise, of course. Ironically, we were within sight of a Katong Laksa outlet right across the street, a few doors down. For those who like the taste of laksa but don't fancy being confronted by a bowl brimming with laksa gravy (full of fattening coconut milk), this is definitely for you. It really was quite good, and a decent rendition of this fusion dish. The combination was first popularised at Wild Rocket, I believe. Don't expect an eye-opener, though. The seafood was, again, fresh. No complaints at all.

Desserts:


Granny Smith & Aloe Vera Crumble was rather average, in my opinion. Others might disagree, but I'm a huge apple crumble fan, and I like my apple crumble piping hot with sweet caramelized apples. This appeals to some because it isn't that sweet, but if you don't like your apple crumble sweet, you have no business ordering apple crumble at all! Anyway, I suppose this was adequate, in my opinion, but didn't really hit the spot for me. The aloe vera added an amusing accent, but the crumbs which was supposed to be the crumble simply wasn't satisfying to bite on.

The chocolate pudding was made up of a rather dense mousse that went rather well with the walnut brownie and chocolate pearls which made up the rest of this dessert. The contrasting textures were interesting. It wasn't that chocolatey, though, which made the dense mousse slightly cloying. I would have preferred it to be more chocolatey, contrary to the menu's assertion that this is for chocolate lovers.

Drinks:

These are worth a mention because mykii serves granitas! A granita is is a semi-frozen dessert of sugar, water, and flavorings originally from Sicily. The granitas at mykii are really quite good. The lemonie crush granita was very refreshing on the palate, and would probably be great on a hot afternoon. I liked the strawberry and yoghurt granita more, however. I can't remember the exact name, but this is sweeter than the lemonie crush granita, and the strawberry taste, while slightly synthetic, is still lovely. The granitas are rather slushy, with little chunks of ice providing a grainy texture. I personally prefer my granitas with a more sorbet-like consistency, but these are still quite good, so be sure to give them a try!

Will probably return, but I ordered way too much this time. Might skip the appetisers, but fairly reasonable for a casual meal. I also found the quirky french music in the background quite amusing.

I placed a reservation for 20 people with Mykii and have told Winnie that I will confirm the exact amount as soon as possible for a weekend.

However I suddenly hear from her that she mentioned that her another colleague had taken a reservation for 50 people and does not honour my reservation. She recommended that I shift our timing despite confirming with me early that there is no problem.

It also takes me around 3 days for me to hear from her to confirm the outing as the matter could not be confirmed by the manager and it's hard to reach her at the outlet.

I decided to give this outlet a skip to prevent any disappointment in future.