A Private Jet Experience: Alone in F on NH +TG, SQ F, a Suite & Villa, and Incredible Food Porn

Around the corner from the dining area is the office

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If you turn left from the foyer you enter a dressing area. There was surprisingly little drawer space.
To the right is the bedroom.

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Turndown service was only offered the first night, we were there in the room and so we declined. They never returned on subsequent nights, so I can’t say what the service entailed.

Straight ahead through the dressing area is the master bathroom, with separate tub and shower. Bath amenities were Elemis.

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We ordered room service a couple of times, late at night and early morning, delivery was quick and food was generally high quality.

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The club lounge was busy, especially early during the week and towards the end of breakfast. I did visit each morning for breakfast, was too busy out and about and never made it to an afternoon tea or evening cocktails.

The lounge acoustics weren’t great, the place seemed noisy. And it was all hustle and bustle, even the staff rarely stopped to let you pass, if they were moving around they were on a mission not to be interrupted.

Upon entering the lounge in the morning, I’d be asked for my room number some times and not others. I’d be escorted to a table, offered coffee, and that was great but getting any one’s attention subsequently for more coffee was a challenge. All-in-all, I was disappointed in the club area.

In fact, our last day in Singapore, the day we headed to Phuket, my wife got food poisoning. Based on the timing of when she got sick, and determining the only thing that we had eaten differently from each other, the most likely culprit was was an undercooked omelet in the lounge.

The hotel’s pool area was nice enough and deserted during our stay. There’s a bar there but it was unattended. As a business hotel, mid-day pool time wasn’t busy, and it was overcast throughout much of our visit. We only went up there once, perhaps for 90 minutes. We’d have plenty of pool time coming in Phuket, after all.

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Here’s the entrance of the hotel during daytime.

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Getting a taxi there during peak times could entail waits of 10-15 minutes or more, with a lineup of guests and anyone headed to the airport allowed to cut in line. During rush hour it’s advisable to order a cab rather than just trying to catch one.

Rather than a cab, we had a car back to the airport at the end of our stay.

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All in all I was happy with the hotel (and only assume that the food poisoning came from the omelet in the lounge). I’d stay here again. It wasn’t an exceptional hotel by any means. It was a great value, getting the Ambassador suite while booking the friends and family rate. It was clean and everyone was friendly and helpful. But it was overall fairly non-descript, the hotel itself didn’t really provide much in the way of memories for service, design, or anything else.

Seems like a rather long wait.

Love the report. Great trip. And SIN is definitely an easy airport for an introduction to Asia.

Whoops, meant to say minutes, I will correct -- thanks!

Thought so. No other time label would make sense.

In and Around Singapore

I wasn’t to bed until nearly 4am, the internet wasn’t working properly in my room and I needed to have the outsourced company that manages it for the hotel reset the connection. I had somehow gotten frozen out of my work server, and even after getting the internet going I still needed to get on Skype, call the office, and pull someone from IT out of a staff meeting in order to help me with it. Alright, I suppose I was self-centered and demanding. But I had been traveling for well over a day and probably didn’t have the patience I should have. Plus I couldn’t check my most pressing email from the lounge in Tokyo. It had been two business days, messages were certainly accumulating and most of all I had no idea what they were. I didn’t think I’d sleep well without knowing. So I got online for a bit, then finally crashed.

I woke up around 7:45am, went down to the lounge for some breakfast, while my wife continued to sleep. We hung around the hotel as we got up slowly, and managed to go check out Singapore for a bit in the afternoon.

First stop, though, was coffee. Had to have some coffee if we were going to stay up until a reasonable hour, jetlagged as we were.

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I’ve never had much difficulty coming home from Asia. But going to Asia I’m usually up in the middle of the night. Not so much on this trip, probably because I fell asleep right away, got up at a normal hour, and forced myself to stay awake for the day. Still, I was dragging a bit.

We walked around and took in the city

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And then went to Hock Lam Beef on China street for a bit of dinner.

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While the next couple of days featured some absolutely fantastic gourmet meals, those will take on their own posts separately. For now, let’s just say I sampled many things.

Of course, we made a stop at the zoo.

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We visited an ice cream place that we were told was not to miss, though honestly I wasn’t especially impressed.

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The food stalls, of course, are what’s most famous. This was my favorite at the Old Airport Road hawker center:

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But my absolute favorite dish was found at the East Coast Lagoon Food Village.

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It was Roxy Laksa, and admittedly this is hardly my find, they are pretty famous. They’ve got a picture up of Martha Stewart eating there…

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But it was just so darned good.

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And a little beverage from the stall next door:

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Mind you, the next two posts will actually be about food. Which is why I do enjoy Singapore. It’s not because, as some folks argue, it’s a “safe” introduction to Asia. I’ve certainly done “unsafe” Asia. It’s because there’s so much interesting to eat. There are other things to do of course (and not just the zoo), it’s worth more than connecting in the coolest airport on the planet, give the place at least a handful of days if you haven’t ever.

It's one of the reasons I stay up way late when flying Westbound, not too much sleep, then I can get some dozes/sleep on the plane. It won't off-set everything, but it'll get me a nice 4 hour shift at the very least...

I've always gotten service at my seat in the NRT NH F lounge.

The reason for passing boarding pass over when using the lounge is that if your flight is called before you come back, they know to come get you. NH is not the only airline to do this (eg QF domestic lounges, NZ at SYD, etc).

I always go for the kyo kaiseki in SQ F or hanagoyomi in SQ C. Beats the western food options hands down IMO.

Sorry folks, I haven't forgotten about this! It'll probably be the weekend before I get back to it though

we are very patient.

Great to read and drool over the food photos! .....I'll try to be patient too!

Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands


One of the best meals I’ve ever enjoyed was at Tetsuya’s in Sydney several years ago. So when we heard that Tetsuya had opened a second restaurant, at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, we decided we wanted to give it a try on our visit.

The restaurant does two seatings per evening, 6pm and 8:30pm. I had a strong preference for 6pm because I worried about jetlag, that 8:30pm for a dinner start time could mean that I was just too tired by the end of the meal to really enjoy it. I didn’t mind an early booking, and it seemed the safe choice.

On January 2 I made a reservation request for 6pm on February 17, and they confirmed it the next day. They sent me a form requiring a credit card to confirm the booking. There’s only 25 seats in the restaurant, and reservations are only tentative until confirmed with a credit card. Cancellations are required 24 hours in advance or else you’ll be charged SGD$400 per person, which is the cost of the meal without food and exclusive of service charge.

So I had a guaranteed reservation, made six weeks in advance, but then a week before my booking I received the following email from the restaurant:

Dear Mr Leff,

Regarding your reservation on 17 February 2011, we would like to check with you if it is possible for you to move the dinner reservation to 8:30 pm.

Please accept our apology for the inconvenience, this is due to a Marina Bay Sands Grand Opening event that takes place on that day, so we will only have 1 seating time which is at 8:30 pm.

We look forward to hearing from you.

As I said, I had a confirmed booking and I didn’t want an 8:30pm reservation. They weren’t going to honor my 6pm, and 8:30pm wasn’t going to work for me. I asked about shifting my reservation earlier or later during my Singapore trip, and they let me know that wouldn’t work either.

Dear Mr Leff,

Unfortunately we are closed for private function on 16 February 2011.

At the moment, the only possibility is on 17 February 2011 at 8:30 pm.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Well crud. I really wanted to try the restaurant. I let them know that I was disappointed. And I didn’t hear back. I prompted them a couple of days later, and got a reply which I read in the morning at the Intercontinental O’Hare after I had already commenced my travels:

Dear Mr Leff,

Please accept our apology for the late reply.

We are pleased to inform you that we will honor the 6 pm reservation on 17 February 2011 and we look forward to welcoming you and your wife to Waku Ghin.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you.

Well whaddaya know? No explanation for why the change. But we were going to have dinner there. I admit, I felt a bit awkward having pushed. And I worried that we wouldn’t really be welcome. Onward an upward!

Finding the restaurant was a bit of a challenge, the best way to enter is via the Shops but our cab dropped us off in front of the casino, down the street from the shops entrance. We walked inside and were asked for our passports in order to enter, which we hadn’t brought with us! Confusing enough, and I asked whether there was another way to access the restaurant we were told “no, you need your passports.” I realized later that this was completely wrong, but I made a quick turnaround, grabbed a cab back to the Intercontinental which is only about 5 minutes away.. ran up to the room for our passports while the cab waited, and made it back to the Marina Bay Sands. The whole thing took about 15 minutes, we were early to dinner anyway, and we made our way to the restaurant through the casino.

I hadn’t understood the reference to the Grand Opening of the Marina Bay Sands, the property has been open since last year. It turns out though that it’s been a soft opening because the night we had dinner at Waku Ghin was the ‘official’ grand opening. And the restaurant was going to be closed, much of the staff would be involved in the event.

When we arrived at the restaurant we discovered that they had opened just for us. We were greeted by the manager of their wine program, who apologized again profusely for the difficulties in advance of our evening but assuring us they were happy to have us and that they’d ensure we would have a wonderful evening.

Upon entering the restaurant you’re led into a private room with stools to sit at a bar in front of a grill. The meal is prepared by your own dedicated chef for the evening, teppan yakki style. The chef was really down to earth, and made us feel at ease. Make no mistake, though, this is no Benihana…

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Kobujime
Shiroebi from Toyama Prefecture

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Lots of things going on at all times, the chef would cook for you.. explain what he was doing.. serve you something to try.

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Marinated Botan Ebi with Sea Urchin
and Oscietre Caviar

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Tachiuo Wrapped in Pancetta
and Braised Witlof and Aonori

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Here’s the wagyu beef we’d be enjoying shortly.

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Alaskan King Crab with
Yuzu Scented Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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Puree of Potato with Soft Poached Egg, Black
Truffle Caviar

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Braised Lobster with Tarragon

Before…

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And after:

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Watching our chef baste the lobster in butter just tempted me for several minutes, and it was incredible.

Japanese Wagyu Steak from Kagoshima Prefecture
with Wasabi

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This was the most incredible dish of the evening. Fresh shaved wasabi went surprisingly – and incredibly – well with the wagyu beef, the fat from the meat offsetting and balancing the wasabi in a way I wouldn’t have expected but that makes perfect sense.

Consomme’ with Rice and Fugu

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Gyokuro

The Wikipedia explanation is here, it’s an expensive green tea that’s grown under the shade rather than the full sun.

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After our ‘meal and a show’ we were escorted into the main dining room and showed to a table in the window looking out over the Grand Opening gathering and fireworks. They serve the desserts in the main restaurant since those aren’t being prepared by your chef.

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Strawberry shortcake

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The strawberry shortcake was actually very similar to a dessert I had at Tetsuya’s several years earlier. It’s one of his signature desserts, so not surprising, and it was good, but I found it a bit surprising.

Ghin Cheesecake

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Petit Fours

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Overall, and despite the rocky start over our reservation, I’d rate this as one of my top 5 meals. Was it worth SGD$400 per person plus service and tax, without alcohol? Perhaps not. It’s a celebrity restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands, those celebrity restaurants in Vegas are usually overpriced for what they are and often not even good. This one was very good.

After dinner we went upstairs to Ku De Ta, the nightclub on top of the Sands. We went through the Shops, where we discovered signs that would have led us to the restaurant without going through the casino and needing our passports…

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It was a strange experience, a bit of a velvet rope kind of place where I saw a man walk up and say that his friends were already inside, he was meeting them for drinks. And the woman at the door replied, “I’m sorry, sir, you’re not on the list.” And with that she turned him away. My wife and I walked past the entrance, she got our attention to ask if the lounge was what we were looking for? And we were invited right in. I’m not usually the hip, skip the line kind of guy, at least without greasing someone’s palm with a singificant tip or paying someone else to do it for me. All I can figure is it’s because we were in Asia, well-dressed, and white. Very strange.

The view up there was incredible:

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We didn’t spend much time up there, unsurprisingly I was a bit jetlagged, and we headed back to the hotel relatively early in the evening just as the party up top at the Sands was really getting underway.

what an incredible meal, and considering the cost of your airfare, dinner wasn't bad at all.

Now I just have to write up the next night's dinner at Iggy's...

Wakyu Ghin - only 25 seats - certainly more intimate than Tetsuyas

Iggy's Restaurant in Singapore

The night following our lovely dinner at Waku Ghin we had dinner at Iggy’s in the Hilton on Orchard Road. This is possibly Singapore’s most celebrated restaurant, and we were looking forward to it.

We arrived at the Hilton and took the elevator upstairs. We were the second ones in the dining room, just a couple of minutes after our assigned booking time. This becomes important.

There’s a set menu that everyone in the restaurant follows, though of course they ask any allergies or food preferences and will accommodate as needed. But while we began our meal at a different time from those tables around us, it became extremely clear extremely quickly that we were not going to stay on a different schedule.

Other tables filled up around us, and they were served quickly, and must have been rushed onto their subsequent courses because we looked around and everyone had caught up to us. So far so good, as long as they were happy.

But when the table to my right slowed down, each person getting up to use the restroom one at a time while not finishing their food, that one course at that one table took a very long time. And everyone else paid the price. We waited for our next course. And we waited. And waited. And waited. No one came near our table, until the next table finally finished and was ready to move on along with us.

We began with three amuse bouche courses. Apologies in advance, photos aren’t the greatest.

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Then began with the menu.

SQUID
Sea urchin, dashi, ohba flowers

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OYSTER
Gillardeau oyster, sea essence, mascarpone shiso

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SOUTHERN BLUE FIN TUNA
Kintoki carrot, buratta bottarga

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HIMI KAN-BURI
Leek, pepper, wasabi

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ABALONE
Kashinikari rice, Alba black truffle

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WAGYU
Olive tapenade, Yukon gold potato

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