Wood Restaurant & Bar

Good Wood~~

I finally had a chance to try Wood after so long~

I'm a sucker for food cooked in wood-y things eg. claypot rice, korean bimbibab, firewood pizza etc, so when the choice of dinner venue was up to me, I thought "Finally!!".

Strangely quiet at 7pm on a Saturday night, and a little overwhelmed by the quietness actually. Not sure if it is because its tucked right at a corner of Vivo and not visible to the weekend browsing crowd. We were offered the booth seat, which was fabulously comfortable and provided loads of privacy. Call ahead to get one~

I loved the ambience, as its quite hard to find a cosy place for a quiet dinner without the stiffness and intimidation of fine dining. If you get a seat in the open tables, you can actually see the action going on in the kitchen.

Bread was served complimentary, which was quite good. Didn't quite know what it was but tasted like herb toasted pita slices, very good as a starter. Comes with normal olive oil for dip but tasted good on its own. Refilling of bread is also quick so beware not to OD on it~

Warm wood smoked scallops with leek puree and salted black beans ($19)- very good. Nicely smoked taste and scallops were tender and incredibly fresh. Leek puree was excellent, and so were the side salad with vinegrette that came with it.

Hot pan seafood spaghetti with wood roasted manila clams, squid, ang ka prawns ($28) - Excellent, if you're like me who prefers your pasta done the simple alio olio way. Again, seafood were incredibly fresh and was a rather light combination with the pasta. I have no idea what are "ang ka" is, but the prawns were large! Generous quantity of clams made the whole dish rather value for money~

Grilled sakura chicken with lemongrass, shallots and parsley ($25) - didn't actually taste it, but it came nicely grilled and apparently quite good too. Supposedly free of antibiotics (or so I remember), so healthnuts can try it. Wasn't too filling a portion for guys, maybe because there's no carbs (the 2 chicken pieces were served with side salad), so my friend had to fill up with the bread~

Their drinks, cocktails and wine selection are apparently a big thing there, as the menu is much much bigger than that of the food. The wine cellar is the first thing you see when you walk in...impressive~ Shall try it next time.

Service was very good too, very efficient and many smiling faces (which you don't see very much of nowadays).

Definitely worth a second visit for me!!

Wood Restaurant & Bar, a newly opened upmarket restaurant that offers food cooked only by wood and charcoal - the old fashioned method before gas came about and certainly an interesting concept.

Hidden on the ground floor in one forsaken corner of Vivocity, Wood's chef is none other Jake Klein, whose stepfather, Steven Raichlen, is the creator of Barbecue University and known as America's grilling expert. From the facade to the interior, Wood oozes unadulterated class in itself. A short walk through the wooden tunnel from the entrance leads to a magnificent glass wine cellar and the sublimely chic seating area with its posh booth seats, floor to ceiling windows and the huge open concept kitchen. One gripe though. The windows don't face the sea directly, unlike most of the other restaurants at Vivocity.

Complimentary Bread - Its the first time I'm eating focaccia that comes in pizza slices and it was something different. It almost tasted like pizza sans the toppings except that the bread was a little burnt and dry. I still liked it enough with the olive oil though to gobble it all up and yearn for seconds, which unfortunately was never offered.

Smoked Chicken Salad with Hoisin Vinaigrette and Toasted Peanut - Aesthetically pleasing, the salad portion was small, no doubt about it. What I liked about it was the lightly smoked chicken slivers which went well with the savoury Hoisin vinaigrette and toasted grounded peanuts. It helped that the vegetables were fresh as well.

Roasted Asparagus, Baby Greens and Poached Egg - I personally found this dish a little lacklustre as compared to the smoked chicken salad. But having said that, it was still quite good. For starters, this has got to be the biggest asparagus I've seen (not that I've been around much though) and it was well seasoned with salt and pepper. The poached egg wasn't anything special though but the greens were fresh and crunchy.

Wood Roasted Spring Chicken with Lemon, Garlic and Parsley - The chicken looked a tad charred when served. However it was very fragrant and juicy with a lingering herb taste in every bite. I did find it a little too salty at certain parts though, probably due to the heterogeneous seasoning distribution. But all in all a most delightful dish.

14 Days House Aged Ribeye, Rosemary, Garlic & Extra Virgin Olive Oil - I honestly can't taste the difference between a 14 days aged ribeye and a normal ribeye or a 90 days aged ribeye for that matter, so its just a name to me. The ribeye was done medium instead of the medium rare that I had requested, but it was still good. Succulent and juicy with a strong hint of herbs that didn't threaten to overpower the inherent beefy taste. Not the best I've tried, but certainly in a league of its own. Watch out for the small portions though. The beef is probably around 5-6 oz (just a rough guess).

Valhorna Chocolate Pudding with Lavender Croutons and Sea Salt - The chocolate pudding didn't come across as too sweet and very smooth with the dried lavender providing a nice floral complement to the chocolate. The croutons provided a nice crunchy texture to the whole dessert.

Thyme Roasted White Peach with Yogurt Ice Cream - I can't help but profess my liking for this dessert. A didn't taste like it was roasted piece of peach sitting atop chunks of biscuit crumbs with buttery overtones and topped with a nice creamy and sourish yogurt ice cream. Most delightful if you ask me.

An excellent lunch for 2 cost an almost princely sum of about $95 ($10 goes to the bottled water. They don't serve iced water by the way). Good things definitely don't come cheap and the 4 course set dinner starts from $75 per pax ($120 with wine pairing) with slightly bigger portions and a larger variety of dishes to choose from. Service is good as well and for those who prefer privacy, there are private rooms to cater to various group sizes. There's even a romantic private room for 2 complete with a private entrance, if you can afford/are willing to chalk up $300 in bills that is.

I'll definitely be back, but probably only for lunch. The small portions and steep prices for dinner are a little bit too much for me to swallow. For now.

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