DESIRE at The Scarlet, the distinctive boutique hotel in Chinatown, has been better known for its saucy menu - full of sexily suggestive headings and playful double-entendres - than for its actual cuisine, but wordplay just isn't enough if you want to feed a culinary yearning. The verdict on the restaurant in its original incarnation was that the emphasis on teasing - rather than pleasing - the diner, could only bring it so far.
In December last year, Desire hired a chef who, given time, should be able to take it beyond its one-dimensional reputation and deliver some seriously good food to go with the titillating write-ups. Vincent Teng, previously the owner-chef at modern European restaurant My Dining Room just around the corner from The Scarlet, was given the considerable task of making more of a culinary impact. After the chef took some time to experiment with dishes and develop a menu that would set the appropriate tone, the Vincent Teng era was officially launched at Desire a couple of months ago. The initial results have been encouraging, with cuisine that goes some way towards redressing the imbalance between expectation and reality.
Given the boudoir chic environment at Desire - a sensory experience that one supposes is meant to approximate the dining room in a high-class bordello - there is still a certain element of naughtiness about the menu. The appetiser section, for instance, is titled 'foreplay' while the entrees are under 'main affair'. Desserts, of course, are called 'lust bites', while the award for best culinary pun goes to the 'Set in the City' three-course set lunch ($36).
The insistence on the written enticements is somewhat restrictive and may be more of a hindrance than anything else - as has already been proven - but Teng is both enthusiastic and imaginative enough to meet the current challenge. For any restaurant that wants to be taken seriously, the focus inevitably lies with the food.
At a recent dinner tasting, Chef Teng showed a commendable sense of fun and the ability to live up to the restaurant's theme. A fairly mundane dish - prosciutto with rock melon ($16) - was given the Desired treatment, so to speak, by being presented as a sandwich, with two rectangular slices of melon acting as the 'bread', with the rolled-up ham in between. It was visual entertainment, but not entirely convincing. A deconstructed Caesar salad ($15) came next, with a soft-boiled egg fondant taking centre stage, wrapped with a slice of smoked salmon and accompanied by three leaves of baby romaine lettuce and the relevant dressing. 'I want the guests to interact with this dish by breaking the egg yolk and mixing it with the rest of the ingredients,' says Teng.
The Seafood Soiree ($24) was another visual treat - fresh seasonal seafood atop avocado mousse and served in a martini glass - with a refreshing taste to match. A trio of Kurobuta pork ($38) - served in deep-fried cutlet, braised with apple balsamic sauce and also homemade sausage form - was nicely presented, while the smoked duck fillet paired with a small piece of foie gras ($40) was perhaps the most successfully executed dish, with the duck meat both tender and succulent. A mini-dessert platter featured baked Alaska, hazelnut millefeuille and chocolate tart fondant.
'Desire challenges me to present a dish to match the ambiance,' says Teng. 'It inspires me to be more creative - my basic style and technique are still there and I like to play with the different tastes and textures.' Desire may not be better than sex, but at least it has stopped trying to be.
Desire at The Scarlet 33 Erskine Road.
Tel: 6511-3303
Rating: 7/10
