Nestled within the newly refurbished portals of the historical National Museum of Singapore, a fine-dining establishment called Novus found its home. I was just casually mentioning about this restaurant one day while I read about this review somewhere on the net and voila I was taken here to dine while on a holiday in August.
The design & concept is very luxurious but not over cluttered. The grounds of 119-year-old gets a breath of fresh air with contemporary furnitures by Paul Smith & Jasper Morrison. The historical grounds and fine-dining interwoven with contemporary art exhibits, who would have thought that it works?
Novus features a dining room, a bar, a cafe with a courtyard. You can come for a fine-dining meal or even a sip of coffee in the afternoon. For meals, this place serves an avant garde modern European cuisine where you can choose between an ala carte menu or their degustation and also set lunches with reasonable pricing.
I like basket of breads with variety and slightly warmed.
Novus serves good bread.
We started with a amuse bouche and for my entree, I had the Foie Gras Chaud ($28) which consists of pan-seared foie gras, champagne grape gel, brioche and five spice. The foie gras is served in smaller chunks and it goes very well with the brioche because the saltiness of the foie gras compliments the toasted brioche (light & tender crumb) and also with the vinegrette sauce.
The Bisque ($24) is a shell-fish tomato soup that comes with octopus, scallops, prawns, snow cod, crabmeat ravioli and dill. It's a very flavourful soup, concentrated with seafood flavours and best savoured with some bread.
When I saw that Glazed Pork Belly ($40) on the menu, I knew I had to order that. It's a 48-hour-braised pork shoulder using the Berkshire pigs, which is a rare breed of pigs from UK and it's smoked with birch wood. The pork belly is served with artichokes, iberico ham, char-grilled capsicums, confit potato spheres and garden cress. True enough the pork shoulder is tender, and infused with the smokiness of wood and a mix palate of sweetness with the robust flavours of the iberico ham.
The Organic Chicken ($42) is not my preferred choice when it comes to fine dining. However, I had a taste of this dish and I was surprised how tender the meat was. It comes with an aerated potato creme which I thought was pleasant but a little too much.
2005 J.-F. Coche-Dury Meursault, Cote de Beaune, France
We brought our own bottle and pay a reasonable corkage charge which I've forgotten how much. It's a bottle of Mersault which is one of my favourite white from Burgundy using Chardonnay grapes. It's fruity, nutty and has a very good acidity. Creamy & long finish. And to end it all 2005 is really a good vintage. It can go up to $400 a bottle.
The never-to-be-missed dessert here would be the Valrhona Chocolate Test ($18) which consists of an assortment of chocolate dessert in the different forms and textures with different percentage of cocoa - Mousse (38% cocoa), Soufflé (55% cocoa), Crème Anglaise (66% cocoa), Truffle (72% cocoa) and Sorbet (85% cocoa). The indulgence is heavenly but it's a little too much after all the dishes. However, I'm glad that I've tried this. No regrets.
And at the end of the dinner, I received a surprise bouquet of my favourite flowers - white lilies & Gerbera. What a wonderful meal and the best of all, we had the whole restaurant to ourselves! hehe...
It's worth coming back but the only thing I dislike is the trip to the toilet. It's quite a distance from the restaurant and you have to walk through some exhibits to get to the toilet. I was really scared as there were no one around. It's advisable to get someone to accompany you to the toilet if the place looks empty. I think the food prices here looks very reasonable and it's definitely worth the visit. Service was good and ambiance not too bad too for a romantic dinner.
The design & concept is very luxurious but not over cluttered. The grounds of 119-year-old gets a breath of fresh air with contemporary furnitures by Paul Smith & Jasper Morrison. The historical grounds and fine-dining interwoven with contemporary art exhibits, who would have thought that it works?
Novus features a dining room, a bar, a cafe with a courtyard. You can come for a fine-dining meal or even a sip of coffee in the afternoon. For meals, this place serves an avant garde modern European cuisine where you can choose between an ala carte menu or their degustation and also set lunches with reasonable pricing.
I like basket of breads with variety and slightly warmed.Novus serves good bread.
We started with a amuse bouche and for my entree, I had the Foie Gras Chaud ($28) which consists of pan-seared foie gras, champagne grape gel, brioche and five spice. The foie gras is served in smaller chunks and it goes very well with the brioche because the saltiness of the foie gras compliments the toasted brioche (light & tender crumb) and also with the vinegrette sauce.
The Bisque ($24) is a shell-fish tomato soup that comes with octopus, scallops, prawns, snow cod, crabmeat ravioli and dill. It's a very flavourful soup, concentrated with seafood flavours and best savoured with some bread.
When I saw that Glazed Pork Belly ($40) on the menu, I knew I had to order that. It's a 48-hour-braised pork shoulder using the Berkshire pigs, which is a rare breed of pigs from UK and it's smoked with birch wood. The pork belly is served with artichokes, iberico ham, char-grilled capsicums, confit potato spheres and garden cress. True enough the pork shoulder is tender, and infused with the smokiness of wood and a mix palate of sweetness with the robust flavours of the iberico ham.
The Organic Chicken ($42) is not my preferred choice when it comes to fine dining. However, I had a taste of this dish and I was surprised how tender the meat was. It comes with an aerated potato creme which I thought was pleasant but a little too much.
2005 J.-F. Coche-Dury Meursault, Cote de Beaune, FranceWe brought our own bottle and pay a reasonable corkage charge which I've forgotten how much. It's a bottle of Mersault which is one of my favourite white from Burgundy using Chardonnay grapes. It's fruity, nutty and has a very good acidity. Creamy & long finish. And to end it all 2005 is really a good vintage. It can go up to $400 a bottle.
The never-to-be-missed dessert here would be the Valrhona Chocolate Test ($18) which consists of an assortment of chocolate dessert in the different forms and textures with different percentage of cocoa - Mousse (38% cocoa), Soufflé (55% cocoa), Crème Anglaise (66% cocoa), Truffle (72% cocoa) and Sorbet (85% cocoa). The indulgence is heavenly but it's a little too much after all the dishes. However, I'm glad that I've tried this. No regrets.
And at the end of the dinner, I received a surprise bouquet of my favourite flowers - white lilies & Gerbera. What a wonderful meal and the best of all, we had the whole restaurant to ourselves! hehe...
It's worth coming back but the only thing I dislike is the trip to the toilet. It's quite a distance from the restaurant and you have to walk through some exhibits to get to the toilet. I was really scared as there were no one around. It's advisable to get someone to accompany you to the toilet if the place looks empty. I think the food prices here looks very reasonable and it's definitely worth the visit. Service was good and ambiance not too bad too for a romantic dinner.
Opening Hours
Mon–Sat: 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6.30pm – 10.30pm
Bar: 11.30am – 2am
Bar: 11.30am – 2am
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