Tuesday night's dinner was at a hole-in-the-wall eatery at Fortune Centre. If you didn't look consciously, you would definitely miss the small Italian eatery Basil Alcove.
The place is spartanly furnished with only three small tables inside the eatery. The rest of the customers have to sit outside on the yellow benches placed outside along the footpath.
The menu is not extensive. The choice of starters include one or two salads, some mushrooms and bruschettas. We wanted to order the Caesar salad but were told that they had run out of vegetables. Hmmm...that didn't bode well. So we decided to go for the bruschetta instead. This wasn't too bad. The tomatoes were pretty fresh, and it tasted a little tangy and spicy. It came with a tiny cup filled with olive oil for people who wanted to dip the bread in more oil.
Our mains however, took FOREVER to come. We waited for about an hour. Maybe more. If not for the fact that the six of us were just downing beers and talking nonsense to amuse ourselves (that's what happens when you get 6 fun, intelligent, and opiniated women together. haha), we would have stalked off. But soon, our stomachs started to protest.
But our food came eventually. The Chicken Avocado with vegetables and peach chunks was a winner for its $7.90 price tag. The three pieces of chicken were marinated and pan-fried to just the right degree, without tasting too dry. It went well with the avocado puree. The vegetables were a tad salty but nonetheless the dish tasted pretty good.
My choice of Basilico Duck with Pesto Oil and Red Wine Dressing was a big disappointment. The duck wasn't as tasty as the chicken. It tasted rather flat and the dressing didn't do very much to lift the taste. My friend had asked for more avocado to go with her chicken and I used some of it to go with my duck. For $13.80 (one of the most expensive main courses), it really wasn't worth the money. And because they had run out of vegetables, my friend's duck came with potato cubes while mine had vegetables mainly consisting of strips of eggplant and bell peppers on the side. We found it most disconcerting at first that the same dish we had ordered came out different. OK, at least credit must be given to the chef for innovation and the fact that he didn't overcook my duck which I had ordered medium-rare. The lone chef, by the way, is a pony-tailed 23-year-old man called Xander.
Another friend ordered the Pan-fried Mackerel which she said was "not bad". I didn't try it for myself but I will take her word for it since she's pretty discerning of her food too.
Because I had been away in Beijing over the weekend, I wasn't aware that the eatery was featured in the papers over the weekend. Due to the publicity, they are finding themselves overwhelmed by surge in the number of customers. Hence the slow service (it took forever to get someone to take our orders) and the time it took for our food to arrive. And yes, attribute the lack of vegetables to that reason too.
Xander, however, was really apologetic about the long wait for our food and he apologised for it. He and his uncle were nice enough to pour us a cup of red wine each from a fresh bottle as a way of making up for the wait. Overall, we were pretty pleased with the food at those prices.
So anyway, we left at about 10.45pm after sipping wine and talking more nonsense. That was Part 1 of the action over. Part 2 went on at Balaclava with more drinks. It was a fitting farewell for one of the girls who's leaving for London!
Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road
#01-07, Fortune Centre
(S) 188979
Tel: 63361318