We tried Savor last night. The cocktails are lots of fun and the food is intricate, richly flavoured (though it pulls punches with heat), and eye-catching. We went with the chef’s tasting menu, but decided to add the Massamun curry with braised short ribs as an extra main.
We tried 3 cocktails:
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Pearly Essence - cilantro & shallot-infused mezcal, Cointreau, lime juice, syrup, mint, Thai chili, ground roasted sticky rice - not really reminiscent of the laab salad it was based on, but plenty interesting.
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Ravishing Ruby - Asian pear-infused tequila, Triple Sec, lime juice, ube syrup - fantastic mix of pear and a slightly nutty flavour from the ube, served dramatically on a bed of dry ice.
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Coral Breeze - guava and rosemary-infused wine, plum wine, rosemary syrup, soda, star fruit - a guava-forward spritz with nice herbal notes from the rosemary.
We started with “Sai Grog Pla Nam”: sweet chilied Thai sausage, with toasted rice and seabass crumble, betel leaves, pickled garlic, lotus stems.
It was closely followed by “Jang Lon Goong”: lemongrass grilled shrimp mousseline, with cranberry-pepper sauce, hazelnut praline, cilantro-kaffir lime gel.
The salad course featured fresh pan-seared scallops and caviar, chunks of sweet pomelo and red grapefruit, arugula, baby gem, lettuce, and a mint-lemongrass-roasted chilli dressing inside a pani puri.
The “pre-main course” was “Kao Kai Jiew Pu”: rice with crab-fried egg (a fried rice batter ball with a chunk of fresh crab on top), crispy fried egg, puffed black riceberry rice, and Sriracha ice cream.
For the main course, you can choose one of three. We each chose a different one so we could taste each and then ordered an extra Massamun curry (not on the tasting menu), to round out our sampling.
“Gang Ped Ped Yang” featured five-spice duck breast (roasted rare), with red curry (complex, but no kick), spiced apple purée, and roasted star fruit, plum, and physalis.
“Kao Soy Goong Mung Gorn” had a pan-grilled lobster tail, served with black tortellini stuffed with ricotta and pickled mustard green, rice noodle crackers, and a yellow curry broth poured over (also no heat).
The Massamun curry included tender braised short rib, caramelized onion, sweet potato, Thai peanuts, in a puréed young-coconut-house-Massamun curry (lots of cardamom), with steamed jasmine rice, and cucumber salad.
The “pre-dessert” was a jasmine purple rice sorbet with lime and a bowl of jasmine rice in syrup.
For dessert there were two choices, so we each ordered one.
“Kao Mao Tod” was fried glutinous-rice-coated lady finger bananas, toasted sesame seeds, house-made young coconut sorbet, dark chocolate sauce, and preserved sour cherries.
Equally interesting was the winter squash crème brûlée, taro gnocchi, pumpkin cake, pumpkin seed tuile, warm coconut milk foam, and a blob of sweetened taro paste.
They finish you off with a caramelized coconut and young coconut truffle.
The chef’s tasting menu is just about to change, so there will be new dishes to sample very shortly.
