salt grill and sky bar, ion.

i have to confess that i came mostly for the view, rather than the food. so it was kind of ironic that it ended up being hazy, and the sky was an uninspiring grey. still, the view was quite spectacular, and i liked the lighting and ambience of the restaurant.

we got seated on the second level of the restaurant, right at the edge of the balcony, so our table overlooked the tables below, which made for great people watching.





our restaurant week lunch started off with bread service.



bread was served warm and toasty, with olive oil as an accompanying dip.

appetisers were served pretty quickly. i picked the pork croquette, while X picked the poached prawns. we shared though, so we each got half. this turned out to be a good choice, because the poached prawns were light while the pork croquettes were heavier. i liked the croquette, because PULLED PORK! also liked the lemon puree that came with the croquette- it was interesting and added acidity. even so, i don't think i could've had the entire dish by myself.

the poached prawns, on the other hand, was way too light as an appetiser. only two prawns! but okay... saving grace was that it was cooked perfectly. X didn't take to the coconut yogurt sauce that came with the prawns, though.



was debating between the snapper and beef brisket for mains, and finally decided on the beef. glad i got the beef, because it was exactly my kind of thing.



the beef was pretty good- melt in the mouth and tender. the hazelnut granola added a crunchy element, but i wished there was more of it so that the hazelnut flavour could come through. i did like the dish, but i wondered if there could've been more of a wow factor.

i also tried a bit of X's snapper. it was, however, swimming in butter, which i found a little scary (which is also why i was glad i chose the beef after all). X commented that she could barely taste the cauliflower in the cauliflower puree- which was exactly how i felt about the carrot puree that came with my beef, too.


two desserts were available- chocolate temptation and berrylicious, so we got one of each.


presentation was certainly there, but i felt that desserts were probably their weakest link. berrylicious was simply a frozen berry dessert- a dome that straddled ice cream and sorbet. i don't like ice cream in general, so i didn't take to it. X, who likes ice cream, found it way too sweet. the chocolate temptation ("textures of chocolate", as our server said) fared better, but it was simply chocolate crumble, a quenelle of ice cream, and two squares of chocolate sponge.

in general, food was okay, but i wasn't too impressed. not impressed enough to give them another try, given the prices they're charging. i wanted to try mainly because of the view, so food was secondary to begin with, but subconsciously i guess i still had some expectations. oh well. it was still a pleasant lunch, given the spectacular view (though marred by the pesky haze) and attentive service.

salt grill & sky bar
 #55-01 and #56-01 ion
http://www.saltgrill.com