Vineyard @ Hort Park

Date:  Aug 18, 2011

In a week, I went to this restaurant twice.  First time is two days ago, where I buka puasa (break fasting) with one of my Malaysian Muslim friend.  Then, today, I went with my team mates from Singapore Poly who attended the The Business, Science & Arts of Wine class with me.  We are doing a wine restaurant review on Vineyard @ Hort Park as our term project.  I have mix fillings about the restaurant, as the first night, there are some items I don't like.  But today, the food and wine pairing is exceptionally well.

This is a new restaurant opened by Creative Eateries.

As you may know, Creative Eateries alos open the following restaurants.  Where I have eaten in 8 of these restaurants before, and I found that the food is quite ok in these restaurants. Vineyard @ Hort Park will be their first wine restaurant in the list.  Actually, it was later corrected by the restaurant manager that there was another wine restaurant opened in Esplanade but later, they close it down and change it to Barossa.

It is situated in Hort Park.  Beside the hill, and on top of a small hill.  In front of it is a nice water features.  So, there are three sitting ares, outdoor beside the water features, indoor with nice spacing and lighting, and an outdoor garden area with fans.  Three different unique places for you to enjoy wine and food.

The ambience of the restaurant is really nice.  If you sit outdoor, there are rocking chair for you to enjoy your wine.  And the sun set (around 7:24pm) is very nice to look at.

The food menu is Itallian, French and Thai.  It is not fusion, but authentic food from the western and the eastern.  This is good for a wine restaurant, as it gives you a good variety of wines to choose from and to pair it with the food.

The servicing staffs are generally good in the knowledge of wines and food pairing, and when they recommend you the wine, especially from the restaurant manager, it will not go wrong.

First night, when I was there, the waitress recommended this wine.  As we ordered the beef and ham.  It is from Italy, a DOC wine.  But we found that it is not sweet enough for our nice main entree.  Personally, I don't like this wine.

I ordered Tasmanian Oysters, it is a bit small.  But the restaurant need to improve on their serving style.  As you can see, they only provide 1 piece of lemon.  If you ask more, of course they will give more.  But for Oyster, restaurant should put 1 peice of lemon for each Oyster serve, is it not?

The seafood soup and the garlic bread I had is nice.

I ordered a chicken, as my friend ordered the Wagyu beef.  But the chicken taste nice.

But to my understanding, my beef lover friend from Malyasia said, the Wagyu beef is really nice, and melted in your mouth.  I did not taste that yet, as I save it for tonight.

OK.  We ordered an extra pizza, but both of use later cannot take it, as it contains blue cheese.  Our mistake, both of us dont take blue cheeze, but when we see 4-Cheese, we never though it has blue cheese in it.  But when the smell came with the dish, we knew.  A bite of it, we regret we order it.  Blue cheese is just like Durian, you love it, you like it.

So today, I went with my classmate there again, as I have suggested this new restaurant who is one month old before I had my first trip.

We got a wine buyer from a super market, we got a french who lives in Australia before, and me and the other friend who is learning from them.

So, we ordered the following appertizers.  A spicy prawn with pamelo salad.  This dish is quite nice.  But it does not goes too well with the first bottle of wine we ordered.  As the pamelo has some acidic in there already that has change the taste of the wine a bit.

The second appertizer which is a smoke salmon actually goes very well with the wine we chosen.  To me, it is nice, and it is nicer if you take the lemon confit (the stuff in the white sauce) and mix it with the pamelo salad.  The crunchy of the lemon confit mix very well with the pamelo salad.

This is the first wine we have.  It is a DOCG.  It is a Chianti, means 100% sangiovese.  It is also a "Special Edition".  And it is a Reserve bottle too.  I like this with the smoke salmon.  It is very smooth.  We all like it.

Then, I ordered the Wagyu beef that I did not get to it on Tuesday night.  So, I ordered the Wagyu to be shared.  And this Wagyu Beef from Snake River in Australia is really some nice beef.  The oily parts really melts in your mouth.  And it goes very matching with the 2nd bottle we had.

Although all their food has come, and each are quite tasty in my opinion (I tasted each a bit).  But the red wine is definitely good for the Wagyu beef.  It is a Scarpantoni Estate Cab Sauv.  And this is the most expensive wine out of the 99 bottles that is on the wine list.  oh ya... it is S$99.  Not expensive, very easy going, nice oak taste with berries notes not sure from blue or red berries.  The finishing is also quite nice.

We are still students, no wonder we cannot taste the red apple notes.  hahaha.

Then we order another 4 main dishes.  A spaggetti.  Quite spicy, but it taste nice.

A rissoto.  Very nice with a bit of vinegar added in.

I love this mushroom pizza with smoke bacon.  I strongly recommend this pizza.  Where I had 5 slices of it.

Fish and chips.  Not sure what fish is it.  The flour a bit thick.  but the cryspy taste is there.  I dont think it is a cod fish.

Lastly, we have to take some sweet stuff.  So I recommend the Hazel nut crunch bar.  Not so sweet, but taste very nice.  and it actually goes very well with the last wine we try.

In addition, we ordered one more dessert which is a Lemon Lava cake.  It is nice, but gives a bitterness to the sweet wine we ordered as the sweetness from the lava cake overhelmed the sweet wine we had.

The last wine is from Scanpantoni Estate too.  Scanpantoni is in McLaren Vale in Australia.

McLaren Vale wine terroir consists of the lime stone soil which is similar to the Champaign region of France.  And I think the limestone note of the white wine has give a pleasent finishing together with the Hazelnut Crunch Bar.  It does not goes too well with the Lemon Lava Cake as both are sweet, and the lemon lava is way too sweet and it takes away all the sweetness from the wine, left with some bitter finishing.

I also tried the Thai Red Ruby on Tuesday.  It is not as nice as the one at Tanglin Mall.

Overall, all of us likes the outing tonight.  The food is very nice well done, and the wine selections is very matching with the food.  My classmates likes it.  So am I.  As long as you order the food you like, I think this restaurant is worth going back.  I am planning a third trip back next week.  And my wife will be visiting it on next Thursday night too.

All the best to Vineyard @ Hort Park.