The girlfriend wanted to try Wood for her birthday so we went. Thinking it was a weekday night, there should be no need to make a reservation. The receptionist (why would Wood even need one in the first place is beyond me) told us they were full and we had to wait. After a while, she told us that they managed to find us a table. When we stepped in, the restaurant was nowhere full and we concluded that you just have to make a reservation just so you can get it without barrier.

Fine, we let that slide as we were all hungry. We were asked to order drinks but being el cheapo and healthy, we requested for water which took 3 reminders before they were served.

Onto the food.

The girlfriend's crayfish spaghetti ($18) arrived in an appetizing hot pan but the crayfish had a greyish hue that looked revolting. The spring chicken ($19) was not a whole chicken with bones but 2 puny pieces of chicken breast meat that combined, could not have been from 1 chicken. It was decent but just so pathetically sized. The baby back ribs ($18) were too tough and dry. My aglio olio ($14) was a little oily, but the annoying thing was that it was also extremely chili padi hot that all sensations were numbed before midway through the meal.

Really, we were already deciding where to go next to save our girls' night out before finishing our mains. Maybe we just chose the wrong food. I don't know but all I know we are probably never going back.

Pleasant dining ambience, my partner and I were comfortably settled in a booth seat.

We both chose the set menu which cost 39.90++. My set consists of a soup, ceasar salad, tenderloin, a scoop of ice-cream and a soft drink. Given the affordable price of the set meal, I will not expect too much of the soup and salad. When my main course of tenderloin was served, I was thinking if this had been an entree. It was an extremely small piece of meat with overly burnt grilled marks, plated with a tiny carrot and a wee asparagus in a big white plate. I am not expecting a huge-ass piece of steak as those served in casual American/Australia steak places. But this is neither a chic-chic French restaurant where I will gladly pay for a small but quality piece of tenderloin.

When I feedback to the manager on the portion of the tenderloin, he nonchantly mentioned that this is the size of the cut serve in their set menu. I then suggested that it may be wise to inform the diners of the disparity in portions in set menu vs ala carte. Or perhaps they should consider to raise the set menu price for the tenderloin meal and offer a more substantial portion of meat. I don't remember the manager saying anything in response, he seems pretty indifferent.

Needless to say, I finished my portion of main course in no time after dividing my tenderloin into 6 small cubes. Absolutely regretted not taking a picture of the tenderloin, at least the readers can see it for themselves. I had to leave Wood feeling hungry and had to find another restaurant to fill my tummy. For the price range, I am better off spending it at Les Bouchons on a ribeye and frites. If you ever order the tendeloin, do order from the ala carte menu.

Searching for a place to eat at Vivo City can be difficult. There are just so many places and it can be very hit and miss. When you add kids into the equation it turns into a bit of a nightmare.

We liked the idea of Wood as it seems to have an interesting menu and a unique concept of food being cooked in a wood fired oven.

When we arrived at the restaurant, which is tucked away in a far corner of Vivo we were greeted by a smartly dressed lady who looked like a receptionist sat behind a booth. Unfortunately there was a wall behind the booth which lined a narrow corridor into the restaurant so we were unable to see whether it was smart or kiddy friendly. We looked at the menu and was pleased to see that Amex Cardholders were entitled to 15% off food on the a la carte menu.

Lured by the Amex promotion, we decided to give the restaurant a go and the lady led us down the narrow corridor into the restaurant. My first impression was Wow, followed by Oh My God - how am I going to cope with two naughty girls aged 3 and 1 in such a smart, quiet place, surrounded by couples and businessmen eating their lunch. We were offered a large circular table with a lovely view of Sentosa outside and the large industrial sized wood burning oven inside. We quickly decided that eating outdoors was probably the best option as then the kids could shout and scream as much as they like and would leave people dining inside to eat in peace.

I certainly felt more relaxed once we stepped outside and the waitress quickly brought a high chair. My two children loved the view of Sentosa and were fascinated by the colours of the monorail trains which were running frequently. It wasn't too hot as there was a lovely sea breeze blowing although it was occasionally contaminated by the stench of cigarette smoke blowing in our direction by a couple of the kitchen staff who must have been on their break sitting on a table quite a fair distance away.

The major question was what my 1 year old could eat. There is no kids menus here. My father in law ordered the sausage platter ($16++) as a main which both my kids would probably nibble and a caesar salad as my eldest like boiled eggs. We asked if they did bread but the staff said there was no bread which I thought was unusual - the first thing I would select for cooking in a wood oven would be bread! ( I didn't realise that so many previous reviewers had complimentary bread with their meals)

The waitress also informed us that jugs of Tiger were 15.80++ (AWESOME!) This is their promotion to celebrate their one year anniversary of opening.

We ordered two set meals (four course lunches) $28++ which comes with a soft drink.
1) caesar salad
2) soup of the day - leek and potato
3) grilled tenderloin - medium rare
4) Passionfruit icecream with fruit.

I ordered their signature dish Grilled Clam rice. $25++

The caesar salads came very quickly which had home made bread croutons on top. We gave all our bread to my youngest daughter who absolutely loved it. We asked the waitress if she could possibly get some more and she went away to the kitchen and came out with a complimentary bowl of croutons to my daughters delight! Not only did we have peace and quiet - she was actually eating too!

Soup was homemade and was spiced with white pepper and was rather nice. The sausages were served on a metal hotplate and had a whiff of woodsmoke to it. They were a hit with the kids.

When the tenderloins arrived my wife was amazed. It was beautifully presented and the meat was probably the most tender she has ever eaten. Cooked to perfection. It came with fresh garden vegetables.

I was a little disappointed that my main course didn't arrive with the others but it was certainly a case of "the best comes to those who wait". My Grilled Clam rice came with 4 huge prawns garnished with chopped tomatoes and ginger. There was a side dish containing a delicious chili padi with chopped birdseye chillis, a dash of salt, sweetness and good quality sesame oil. It was served in a huge granite bowl which has been in the wood oven. The Japanese rice lying next to the rock had a nice crispiness. It was infused with a delightful seafood aroma coming from a generous portion of fresh clams scattered within the rice. The prawns were grilled to perfection and were simply divine. I would give this dish alone 95/100!

My Kids had passionfruit icecreams donated from the set menu by their mum and grandma and they wolfed the lot down!

This was a lovely meal, good service and Wood did not let us down. Well Done, and Thank you.

usually i take a few days (or weeks or months even) to write a review for a place ive been to for a meal. but i just got back from dinner and i felt i HAD to write a review for Wood - i have never been before felt this irked (safe for the white rabbit and even that review took like a few weeks after my patronage of the restaurant to materialise).

we were at vivocity and wandered around looking for a place for dinner and settled on Wood, after going through their menu and asking the lady at reception specifically whether the mixed barbecue platter (see below) which stated that it was suitable for 2 - 3 persons was an appetiser or supposed to be a main. and she confirmed that it was supposed to be a main, and we decided we'd have that and got into the restaurant.

before i go into the substantive review, this following was what we had, taken verbatim from the menu:

Mixed barbecue platter (suitable for 2 - 3 persons)
Choose 3 items from the following:
Baby back ribs
Sirloin steak
Lamb
Spring chicken
Sausages

Chocolate fondant - warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream (time to bake and serve is approximately 15 minutes)

well suffice to say when the mixed barbecue platter - priced at $58 was served, it obviously only could suffice as a main for ONE. not two, or even worse, three. we had chosen the baby back ribs - 5 tiny little rib pieces were served, spring chicken - (apart from the fact that it clearly had not been barbecued - it was more like a rotisserie chicken) the two tiny (again) pieces were parts of a chicken thigh, and then they served a palm sized (excluding fingers) piece of steak.

it was abyssmal. how could it possibly have fed two? it would have barely sufficed as an appetiser, which came along with the price tag of $58 no less.

in any case, both my partner and i thought that the chicken and ribs were actually rather good - minimal carbon (of course, the chicken hadnt even came from a barbecue that we're sure of) and the seasoning / glaze was great. it wasnt too salty or sweet - it was tasty, but not over the top and went very well with the meat. the steak was done wrongly - we asked for well done, came out medium rare. they took it back, served us a new piece which was burnt on the edges, but medium well inside - it appears that it is extremely difficult to serve a good well done piece of steak this days. the steak however, had a good sauce.

so anyway, back to the mixed barbecue platter. it came with a third of a roasted corn and half a small tomato. (prior to ordering i had asked our waitress what the mixed platter came with and she said, oh corn, maybe some potatoes? well she did say she couldnt remember. but whatever. the point is - if she knew the stupid platter was going to be so small, and there was no reasonable way it could serve as two mains, she honestly should have said something. like perhaps along the lines of the mixed platter may be too little for two - and i would have sought further clarification.

because we dont like to (and never have time to) wait extra for food, we ordered our dessert - chocolate fondant (essentially molten chocolate cake) at the same time as our main, with understanding from the waitress that they would be able to eliminate the extra 15 minutes needed to bake (or so they say) the cake, and would serve the dessert as soon as we were done with our main, which in the circumstances, clearly did not take long.

the chocolate fondant was again, impressively delicious. but it wasnt hot at all, and because it wasnt hot, it wasnt exactly molten, there was no oozing of chocolate from the cake once it was cut into. it was just liquid, but so viscous it was pretty much sitting solid. which makes me think that they prepared the chocolate fondant so early, that it had cooled down and the liquid chocolate near solidified. it was a big pity, because it was very good.

in any case, i asked to speak to the manager - this chinese dude whom i didnt catch the name off and told him about our experience with the platter as well as our comments on the dessert. he was shocked that we were saying that the platter was ridiculously small - which makes me wonder whether somehow someone somewhere in Wood made a mistake. i have no idea. at best, we could only describe to him how small the portions were, and he probably wasnt convinced. oh well. we also told him that the chocolate fondant was prepared too early and he didnt really have anything to say about that.

service wise i dont think there was any problem, but really - i am rather miffed about how they said that it would feed 2 to 3 people as a main, no less and how it all turned out. i really did like the restaurant and the food, whatever little of it, was actually pretty good. at no time however, was there any complimentary bread. in fact, they were hard pressed to complimentary anything, if you asked me.

i have a good mind to go back there soon, ask them whether the mixed barbecue platter would feed two people as mains, obtain their YES again and when the food is served (assuming there wasnt any mistake with ours) get the manager and ask him how it could possibly feed two. but my partner's view is that if we didnt have a good experience there is no point in going back. i dont think we had a bad experience per se - just something somehow went wrong somewhere.

well in the end we had to have a second dinner at hua kee, which is down the road at pasir panjang food centre - barbecue stingray, stir fried vegetables, the works.

Visited Wood for their set lunch on 21 Oct, Sat. This restaurant is priced for their food being cooked with wood fire.

Their set lunch value at SGD 19.80 is a steal.

This SGD 19.80 set includes soup of the day, maincourse and coffee/tea.

For maincourse, you can choose from the following :-
1. Pizza Margarita
2. Smoked Chicken Pizza,
3. Linguine Vongole
4. Wild Mushroom Aglio Olio

The soup of the day we had is cream of broccoli and we are served with warm olive bread. Both are very easy on mouth and stomach. Hmmm what's more, the bread is free flow cuz the waitress asked us twice if we want more bread [rate 4 out of 5]

I chose the Smoked Chicken Pizza. The pizza is not thin crust but it is defintely hand-made as the pizza dough is not evenly kneal. The tomato-based sauce is extremely SWEET. It tasted good enough but I prefer it with more cheese. [rate 3.5 out of 5]

My Hb chose the Linguine Vongole, he mentioned the pasta is not bad.

Attentive staff, good ambience but maybe their dishes are cooked with wood fire, it is pretty slow with only a handful of tables are occupied.

Additional information - 15% on ala carte food. (note - the ala carte menu is of mid to high price.)