Having already opened one in Hong Kong and just opened one in Macau, shows how much Janice, the dessert queen wants to expand to the rest of the world with her art. And I think she should! If she could break into Australia it would be good too as I only knew about her from challenging the Masterchef contestants with her Chassis Plum signature dessert.

I must say every dish was impeccable, smart and artistically displayed. I was unable to meet her, but her team does well. Socialising and ensuring the guests are looked after by the dietary requirements and the amount of food tasted.

Entree started with 5 artistic savoury dumplings. Can’t believe how it can be so pretty! The dish is called their Signature 5 Dumplings. As you can see from the card below, each dumpling follows its theme and would recommend from eating left to right due to intensity of the flavours.

Starting with Elastic Truffle Mushroom, Crystal Scallop Prawn, Transparent Yuzu Milk Cabbage, Matte Pork Shrimp Chives and finally Crispy Skin Dried Scallop Radish Puff.

Crystal just looks too perfect, but tasted not too different to any prawn dumpling. Couldn’t taste the scallop unfortunately. My favourite was the Matte Pork Shrimp Chives – thankfully we ordered a whole dish of it separately! All others were yummy, but in terms of quantity, I could keep eating the Pork Shrimp Chives dumpling. Crispy Skin Dried Scallop Radish Puff was a delicate dish and I know its hard to make so that was another hit to my list.

Truffle Pork Gyoza Dumplings was also a hit on their menu – we asked for the waitress’ recommendation and yes it was delicious. Can’t go wrong with truffle! We did ask them to separate the chilli, so it may look different to the standard dish. The purple is just a fried piece of sweet potato enhancing the earthiness to the “truffle” dish.Crispy Charcoal Nest was another great one – we had the duck, but after looking online into the menu again, it says pork belly. I definitely tried duck – so maybe it’s recently changed menu. The meat fell off the bone and every elements was beautiful – just look at the presentation! The red dots were some sort of raspberry coulee for some acidity balance. The Mushroom poem paper makes it so romantic – had to ask the waitress if it’s edible – I confirm it is edible. But I felt it was tasteless.

Scallop Somen Sakura Ebi, Ikura was my favourite savoury dish. It looks so simple but it’s bursts with freshness and flavour from the roe. The scallops were beautifully cooked and the somen noodles were thin enough meeting the delicacy of the dish. I couldn’t taste what the drizzled oil was – maybe olive oil?

Cassis plum – bombe, yoghurt elderflower foam, plum liqueur textures. This was the dish that Janice offered to challenge the Masterchef contestants a couple of years ago – don’t have too much, you might get drunk! It’s was the better dessert out of the two we tried. It was beautiful. The cassis is strong throughout every bite. Thankfully there were the crumbled jellies that tasted acidic to balanced it out. Watch out for what’s inside – it was actually quite chilled when I bit into the centre. My teeth got a bit of a tingle! Maybe wait a bit longer once the centre had defrosted.

Shades of Green: 19 Pistachio Sponge, Coco Mousse, Pandan Ice Cream was our second dessert. The Pandan Ice Cream and coconut mousse went well together. The pistachio sponge was light. Wished it was a bit stronger because going from Shades of Green to Cassis Plum, Cassis plum overpowered my palette and made Shades of Green tastes like hardly anything. They were two different desserts. I loved loved the meringue though! If anyone wants to try Shades of Green properly, I’d recommend to finish Shades of Green first, then the Cassis Plum.

As for decor, 2am dessert used colour dye mixed with melted chocolate in many jars. You can see of varying shades of orange, they made each jar unique. Smart and meeting the theme of the restaurant – painting art on food.

Overall, it was a beautiful and unimaginable experience. It wasn’t busy so we got our food just in time for our bellies. Had our own waitress and had plenty of time to dine. The price for something as inspiring and fancy is affordable for a date night in Singapore. It turned out to be around $160SGD, so maybe $150AUD.

I would try their restaurants in Hong Kong or Macau when I visit these cities next.

Tasteelicious Rating: Service: 5/5 Ambience: 5/5 Entree: 4.5/5 Mains: 4/5 Sides: N/A Dessert: 5/5 Beverage: 3/5 Overall: 26.5/30

★★★★

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Never been to Kensington Street before, but KOI is right at the asian hub where spice alley is and many other restaurants hang out. KOI sets up their take away desserts downstairs and the dining experience upstairs.

Service was very good and the pace of delivering all the dishes were steady. Had two set courses to choose from: 3 or 5 course menu per person. We ordered the 3 set course and had of a selection of three entrees, three mains and a selection of four desserts.

We were seated in the middle of the dining area with plenty of space to manoeuvre. Soda water is $3pp with unlimited refills. I like this idea because it makes it affordable and helps cleanse your pallet at each dish.

We first ordered a cocktail. Monkey Sour – Monkey Shoulder, yuzu, syrup and white, $19. Pwoahhh. It was strong – I can taste the yuzu but a lot of the alcohol. Not my usual go to but I saw “yuzu” and naturally gravitated towards any drink that has this! I stuck with soda water for the rest of the night

Even though we ordered the 3 course menu, we were provided with other nibbles on the side. These were yummy. Roasted potato with chive and butter. Potatoes were lightly seasoned and just crispy in bite sizes. The dipping was divine… it’s so creamy but light that I could keep having it by itself…

The second complimentary side is fried ox tail with dollops of black garlic on top. Ox tail meat was soft inside, I could see the shredded meat and has a beautiful fried colour. Black garlic was not very strong so it didn’t overpower the ox tail for these early dishes.

For our entrees:

Scallops and Chicken Raviolo, Shallot Dressing is a petite size and slightly hard to share amongst the three of us. The filling of the Raviolo didn’t have the wow-ness. But the shallot dressing was the highlight. It was clear and simple.

XO Risotto, Squid Noodle, Tomato Powder, this was a light dish even though it’s risotto. Squid was light and tender in noodle pieces and the sprinkled tomato powder only added a hint of sweetness to the risotto. I only saw that this dish was meant to have XO. Definitely NOT spicy at all..

Bone Marrow, Sambal, Eschallots, Watercress, Lime, Brioche Bun, this was the best out of the three entrees. Small in portion but the sauce on the Marrow is very tasty. The Brioche bun is also nice to dip it with the sauce. Again there was Sambal? For someone who can’t take spicy, it wasn’t spicy for me at all.

For the mains:

Wagyu Chuck Ribs, Eggplant Puree, Chinese Broccoli, Turnips, Beef Jus, is the least favourite main. The Chinese Broccoli was charred, but it was bitter, so I think they overdid it. Beef Jus was good to have with the Wagyu, but then dipping the eggplant puree tones it down. I think it was better to have just one or the other. Dipping the wagyu with both jus and puree confused me a bit. So I ended up dipping the broccoli with the jus and wagyu with the puree.

Barramundi, Cauliflower, Dashi Cream, White Fungus, Wild Asparagus. The best out of the three mains. Fish is cooked perfectly with crispy skin. Dashi cream was pleasant with the cauliflower. Cutting through to cauliflower was satisfying – soft and smooth cuts. White fungus was added to this dish with its natural flavours, don’t know how it ties this dish together, but I ended up dipping it with the sauce and dashi cream. Didn’t have the wild asparagus, it looked like spring onions rather.

Crispy Duck Breast, Braised Witlof, Onion Puree, Duck Orange Sauce. Duck breast was to be accompanied by the onion puree and orange sauce. It was nice and I found the braised witlof interesting – never had it before.

To break from savoury to dessert, KOI shared the below before our set desserts came out. I think KOI wanted us to ease our pallets from savoury to sweet. We each had a bowl of lemon and lime sorbet with yoghurt liquid nitrogen and cardamon.

Espresso, Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Tonka Bean, Hazelnut. How picturesque is this? Dark chocolate as the log and the espresso for some bitterness. KOI’s dessert is never too sweet which makes it very appealing to me.

Grilled Corn, Coconut, Brown Butter, Tapioca. The best dessert for the night. All elements went well together and puzzle looking biscuit was very crispy and I tasted a bit of ginger – like gingerbread but very thin. The Tapioca was the best that added so much texture and playfulness to the dessert. Grilled corn made it feel like I was having popcorn with the Tapioca. Coconut foam was light and could continue scooping it in every spoonful of each element.

Honey, Caraibe Chocolate, Banana Toffee, Lime Ginger. I loved the lime ginger sauce, love the honey and love the chocolate together. But didn’t understand the banana toffee. I think the toffee needed to be stronger than banana, because the banana gave a weird taste to the dish and held the dish back overall.

For after meal drinks we ordered the black sesame latte. It was nice, just right for my friend J, but I’m one who needs strong flavours on any lattes (matcha, chai, or black sesame). I wish they made the black sesame stronger. (I’m just picky, it’s definitely one of  the better lattes I’ve had)

Overall, our experience was very enjoyable, we saw Reynold and his brother working that night which was worth the trip from MEL to SYD. My friend dined here a year ago, and their menu was very different, they had each set course themed to a colour so it played with you senses. I wish I was able to try that idea again…

Location: 46 Kensington Street, Chippendale, Sydney

Website: http://www.koidessertbar.com.au/

Tasteelicious Rating: Service: 5/5 Ambience: 5/5 Entree: 4.5/5 Mains: 4/5 Dessert: 4/5 Beverage: 4/5 Overall: 26.5/30

★★★★

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