Portico

I wouldn't have known about this place if my friend had not said she wanted to meet there for dinner. It was actually right next door to one of my favourite Japanese restaurant, Himawari, but I had never seen the place before prior to the dinner.

 Portico truffle fries

The first time I was there for dinner, it was around the Christmas period last year, and they had fresh flowers at almost every table. Pretty! I'm such a sucker for fresh flowers.

Chicken wings with chilli lime dip

My friend and I shared the truffle fries, chicken wings and a pasta dish. The truffle fries were pretty good, but my eyes widened when I saw that they had a "Ultimate truffle fries" on the menu that costs a whopping $42. I mean, given that the description on the menu was "800G TRUFFLE-DRENCHED FRIES, WHITE TRUFFLE SALT, 10G FRESH AUTUMN TRUFFLE SHAVINGS, SHAVED AGED GRUYERE, EDIBLE GOLD LEAF", oh well, I can only imagine how decadent the dish would be.

The chicken wings were to die for. Like hands down one of my fave chicken wings of all time. It's the sauce I'm telling you. That chilli lime dip was scrumptious, it was a total rouse-your-appetite kinda dip, sweet, sour and spicy, *drools*. The wings were also yums - served piping hot and really flavourful and juicy.

I wasn't expecting much from the pasta, cos meatballs and pasta just sounds so boring. But woah, the homemade meatball linguine totally rocks. Juicy moist meatballs and al dente pasta, coated in a thick tomato sauce...I was happily slurping up the noodles man.

Last but not least, the dessert. Oh my gosh the dessert. Their plating was very fancy, I mean, by name, it's "a deconstructed blackforest", but in reality, it looks like a fancy garden doesn't it? There were bits of popping candy scattered in the dish, making each mouthful interesting whenever you bit into one of those candy pieces. The chocolate mousse was very rich and intensely chocolately. The portion wasn't huge, but it more than satisfied a dessert craving. Just take my money already!

On a separate occasion, I dropped by for dinner again. To start things off, I shared a bottle of apple cider with my friend (hey, it was a Friday...TGIF + alcohol...). I've never tried this brand of apple cider, and I liked it, it wasn't as sweet as Somersby, but it was just sweet enough for our tastebuds.

Truffle scented mushroom veloute

This was essentially a mushroom soup. It wasn't the best I had, I prefer my mushroom soup to be thick and chunky with gritty mushroom bits, and this was more watery than I would have liked. It was interesting because there was toasted buckwheat at the bottom of the dish, which added thickness to the dish.

Slow braised wagyu beef cheek

Similarly, I didn't really like the beef cheek. It's not that it was bad, but I have just came to realise that while I love beef (for example - like a good steak, or wagyu beef BBQ slices, or a good ol' hamburger), I don't think beef cheeks is something I actually like to eat. So it's more like a personal opinion thing rather than the dish itself.

Once again, I couldn't resist the wings. I recommended this to my friend and she agreed that it was good too once she started eating. Beer (okay, cider), fries and wings. It was a great Friday night indeed.

I think Portico has brunch too, I've been meaning to check the place out for brunch, but haven't gotten around to doing so. Hope to try their brunch one day!