My Jap-foodie-GF and I decided to put our ‘streak of good luck with food’ to the test. We wanted to see if our luck with good food was only limited to Japanese cuisine. (^^lll) Haha. And with that, we were headed to Wild Rocket since both of us had Wild Rocket on our list of places-to-check-out. Talk about similar taste buds, eh? =) And so, reservation was made for 2 for a weekday evening. Do note that if one is going for the omakase menu, one would need to make the reservation by phone.

Wild Rocket is located within Hangout Hotel which is at the top of Mount Emily. Since we were feeling a little lazy, we took a cab from Plaza Singapura. Despite its close proximity, our cab fare came up to almost $10 cause of the windy route the cab had to take. Hmm…

Now… When we reached Hangout Hotel, we did not realise the entrance to Wild Rocket was within the hotel. You know how some restaurants occupy the first floor of the hotel but patrons would need to enter from the outside? So yah… We mistakenly walked round the hotel only to realise the entrance to Wild Rocket was from the hotel lobby. Oops. And even though we reached early (before the restaurant opened for dinner), we were able to make ourselves comfortable at the small but quirky-furnished hotel lobby. Ha.

And because we had made reservation for the omakase tasting menu, we were led to the chef counter. We were not given the menu (pages 1, 2) because by going with omakase, it meant we were leaving it to chef Willin! It’s also while chatting with the staff that we learnt that if one would like to have the omakase menu at the (normal) tables, one would need to come in a group of at least 4.

And with that, we started our dinner:-

1) Dish #1 (above) – And to kick start our dinner, chef Willin presented us with pomelo salad with tiger prawns and frozen coconut dressing. He went on to say this was Thai-inspired, and that this dish was also created and served to Princess of Thailand when she visited his restaurant. And for this, we were told to break the ‘ice cream’. A refreshing and nutty start to our meal.

  

2) Dish #2 (above) – And this was inspired by our local dish bak chor mee. Chef Willin described it perfectly when he said, “Fat of land meets fat of ocean”. Ha. Glass noodles cooked with pork fats topped with chopped tuna belly. My favourite of the night.

3) Dish #3 (above) – Chef Willin’s interpretation of our local dish nasi lemak. And this was amazing. Nasi lemak puree (which had the aroma of pandan leaves) with pan-seared Hokkaido scallop, anchovy chilli and puffed rice.

4) Dish #4 (above) – And what looked like our local dish char kway teow was not our stir-fried flat rice noodles. Chef Willin replaced the noodles with thinly sliced cuttlefish which gave the dish a very interesting texture. And we were told the dish was cooked with the best extra virgin olive oil. A staff gave me a dab of it to try, and it certainly was different.

5) Dish #5 (above) – And chef Willin shared with us of how he got inspired by seeing ‘Singapore Fried Noodle’ on the menu when he was in England, and how those did not even come close to the real Singapore fried noodle. Ha. So at Wild Rocket, this would be his version of taking ownership of the menu’s Singapore fried noodle. We were also told this was part of his SG50 project. Spaghettini cooked with lobster oil and prawn fats (I think I heard prawn shell too if I am not mistaken), this was not too bad. But what intrigued us were the plates. Apparently these plates were collected from chef Willin’s traveling. And instead of leaving them at home (since he shared he was barely at home), he brought these beautiful plates to use at the restaurant.

6) Dish #6 (above) – Breaded ball of Australian spanner crab and blue swimmer crab meats, placed on top of salted egg sauce.

7) Dish #7 (above) – And we were told the black cod was cooked in the same way as our herbal tea egg (茶叶蛋). Fish was infused in herbs & pu-erh tea leaves for 48 hours. Chef Willin told us to start with the egg first before moving on to the cod fish. And the quail egg was brilliant! One would expect it to be a hard-boiled egg, but no! When we put the entire egg into our mouths and took a bite, the yolk just oozed out. Or should I better say, burst out. Amazing.

8) Dessert #1 (above) – Pineapple-flavoured sorbet on pineapple pieces, sprinkled with chilli powder & soy sauce salt to celebrate the old way of eating pineapple. Oh yes, soy sauce salt. Wow.

9) Dessert #2 (above) – Chendol! With pandan infused panna cotta, gula melaka and graham biscuits. The staff also very graciously poured us each a cup of vintage sake which paired very well with the gula melaka.

10) Dessert #3 (above) – My Jap-foodie-GF and I were curious about their a-la carte menu and we decided to try more. We were given a tasting portion of the Wild Rocket strawberry cheesecake. I spied from other table that the usual portion of this dessert was served in a martini glass.

11) Dessert #4 (above) – Again, we were greedy and ordered more from the a-la carte menu. And this would be the tasting portion of gong tng Chinese peanut candy with peanut butter ice cream.

So yes, one would probably get 1 or 2 desserts for the omakase menu. My Jap-foodie-GF and I had 4 desserts because when we were to be served our desserts, we were still feeling a little hungry (or rather, greedy) and curious. So we ordered more. Ha. And it was a very nice gesture when the staff said he could do tasting portion for us when we were contemplating between 2 of the 3 desserts on the a-la carte menu. In fact, I really appreciated it that the staff did not recommend us to try the ‘pandan-infused panna cotta’ from the a-la carte menu because the chendol from our omakase menu had a small portion of the panna cotta too.

Will I recommend Wild Rocket? Definitely. Rather, it’s a “What are you still waiting for?” Lunch omakase ranges between $80 to $120 while dinner omakase ranges from $120 to $160 per person depending on the ingredients used for the meals. Our meal came up to $135 (before GST and service charge) per person. I am already thinking of heading back to try their a-la carte dishes since what was offered in our dinner omakase is different from what’s available on their a-la carte menu.

Speaking of which… I thought I should share this too. On the night we were having our dinner, chef Willin was also playing host to a group of friends who came to dine at his restaurant. I appreciate it that chef Willin still made the effort to introduce most of the dishes personally, rather than leaving it to his co-chef or waiting staff. And as we stood up to make our way out of the restaurant after having made payment, chef Willin even walked us out. Thumbs up!