Staycation at MBS Part 2 - DB Bistro Moderne

NOTE #1:
This post is not suitable for my vegetarian friends and readers. Don't say I didn't warn you. ;P

NOTE #2:
Loooooooong picture-ful post.

NOTE #3:
If you stumbled onto this post via Google search on "DB Bistro Moderne" or "DB Bistro and Oyster Bar", this post isn't exactly a review on the restaurant. My write-ups on restaurants are usually in a descriptive style of my personal experience and preference rather than how a food blogger does it.


~

Continuing from part 1 of our MBS staycation, we went window shopping at The Shoppes@MBS Singapore before heading down to DB Bistro Moderne for dinner. We badly needed to burn off all the food we ate before dinner but shopping doesn't seem to be a good workout.




DB Bistro Moderne is a celebrity chef restaurant by Daniel Boulud and this season, there is a brand new Oyster Bar with a plethora of seafood from all over the world.




"DB Bistro Moderne is Chef Daniel Boulud's renowned re-interpretation of the Parisian classic. Among his many achievements, Chef Boulud is credited with elevating the simple burger into an art form. This is what sets db Bistro Moderne apart, new takes on old classics, the perfect fusion of sophistication with pure and simple pleasures." - hungrygowhere.com




I'm always intrigued by the variety of sauce available though I usually like to eat my food as their original flavour without any dips.




How adorable is this mini Tabasco sauce?




You know, we were totally not hungry from the Cocktail and Canapé Hour at The Club prior to this and I told myself, "No bread, no matter how delicious they are." I failed at this what you call a cheese bread or cheese puff.




I always say that you could tell how good a restaurant is from the bread they serve. I love good bread but I've to always stop myself from dedicating too much stomach space on bread.




There was a promotion for champagne which came in the form of Champagne Taittinger.




We ordered the smallest one-layer seafood platter which consisted of oysters, lobster, shrimps, clams, whelks, scampi, scallop ceviche.




I love the sweet, fresh and succulent lobster! Craving for some sweet lobster now!




The lobster was the star. Not that human behind.




The shrimps and scampi look sweet and red but looks are deceiving. I would very much prefer those steamed prawns at Chinese restaurants any time. Another favourite was the ceviche and the oysters of course.




We were pretty impressed by the seafood platter though I felt that the cheaper seafood platters at other seafood restaurants would do just as fine.




Check out the 3-layer seafood platter at the other table. I asked the staff if that was the biggest platter and nope, it wasn't. And and and, that guy whose face was blocked by the platter? He's so charming! I love his chiselled good looks and smile.




We also ordered The Original DB Burger to share -- the famous gourmet burger in town. It is a sirloin burger filled with creamy foie gras and braised short ribs served on a parmesan bun.

I'm not a gourmet burger person. To me, burgers are called burgers when they could be eaten with both hands. I don't like squishing thick gourmet burgers and struggling to eat them the way I usually do. So for thick burgers, I would use a fork and a knife to eat and I don't get the real kick from the amalgamation of flavours. On the other hand, kh is a gourmet burger person. I cannot stand it when he watches food channels on gourmet burgers and for the next few days, asks me if we could eat some thick burgers.

I love the taste of the sirloin and the parmesan bun. The creamy foie gras is stuffed in the sirloin. I personally prefer seared foie gras as opposed to pâté or creamy ones though for The Original DB Burger, the creamy one is a perfect blend.

Kh felt it was by far the best burger he had ever eaten. I have to admit that as much as I don't like burgers, DB Burger is really one of the better burgers around (Of course! That's their trademark and at SG$42 in full decadence, it had better be good!) If you are interested, watch the video on how the DB Burger is crafted.

How the husband eats VS How the wife eats

The man: Attempted at using fork and knife first, then decided on using both hands for the full flavour and ended off with sucking his fingers.

The lady: Fork and knife, fork and knife, "It's too difficult to eat and I'm too full can you help me to finish?"




We had complimentary warm madeleines from the restaurant with a special touch.




And when the hub started to do a mock clap, mouthing the word "Ha...", I told him, "No singing please. No singing."




I was so full by then but the madeleines were really good. There was a hint of lemon if I'm not wrong and I love that zesty freshness in a dessert.




The staff suggested ending the meal with apple crumble served with vanilla bean ice cream. When I thought that it would be great to try a French style home-made apple crumble, I hadn't expected a whole pan! Together with the complimentary madeleines, it was too much sweetness.




We had to pack the unfinished ones!




We decided to check out the pool before it closes to see if there was good photo opportunities but alas, no.




You know, I wonder how many people actually bother to read my long gibberish when I posted this photo on Instagram. I guess nobody read till the end to see the wry humour.

Repost:
I love the beautiful night city skyline of Singapore. Blazing luminous stars... Colourful dazzling lights from the skyscrapers... All part of the adornment on the vast canopy of black canvass .
❤️💕
Standing there with such a beautiful background, I imagined myself bathed in lovely bokeh effect. I wondered if I was standing alone in the universe or were there some extraterritorial life on one of those flickering stars thinking the same thoughts .
❤️💕
Then a voice whispered ever so softly to me, "No honey. There are many naked-looking people with you and one lady who seems to stand out more than you do in this frame. Screw extraterrestrial . "
❤️💕
I was jolted back to reality .
❤️💕




The polka dot lady photobombed all my pics but not her fault. She was there first.




The main focus of this photo is the lady with fiery lens aviators taking loads of selfies with the flashlight on.

There were many ladies like her at the pool who kept on tilting their heads at all angles, trying to get the best shots. While they were at that, they tried placing their hands on their heads, their face, their necks and did duck face, Angelina Jolie's pouts, smiled all sorts of sweet smiles, coy smiles, don't-hate-me-coz-I'm-beautiful smiles and I-swear-I-wanna-punch-your-face smiles.

It was all very interesting to watch!




I love this deceptive mirror at the lift lobby. It made my stumpy legs look really lean. In fact, it seems like all the mirrors in MBS have that effect.




And then when we got back to the room, I was pleasantly surprised to see a cake on the dining table from MBS.




Too much sweetness!




In my previous post, I mentioned about how much time and effort I put into styling my much shorter hair and how unruly my hair got after one evening in a non-windy place to boot. Here goes... half the time I was sweeping curtain of hair off my left eye. Nice in photo, impractical in real life.




The hair simply started to curl in all directions and I kid myself saying "Never mind. That was the bed head look I was trying to achieve." At least they were not sticking outwards.




The effect of the overlapping images of the bed in the beautiful night city skyline was just a reflection from the window of the room.




But yeah, it was great watching movies in bed and drifting off to sleep to my favouritest cityscape.

Check out my final post which would feature the iconic SkyPark pool in the day and the hearty breakfast at Sky on 57. I saw a couple of new readers/stumblers on my previous post. Welcome! And hope to see all of you around more often.

Happy weekend! xoxo

Staycation at MBS Part 1 - Virtual Tour Of MBS Orchid Suite & The Club

WARNING: IMAGE HEAVY
Loooooooong picture-ful post. Go get your drinks and popcorn while waiting for the images to load. You could even savour your main dish in front of your computer. Those viewing this on your smartphones and other hand held devices, I suggest you skip reading this post till you get home or you might risk jamming your device and cursing at my blog in public. I know my turtle friend did that once minus the cursing in public. =P


Two weeks ago, the hubz and I had a 2D1N staycation at Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

Ever since Marina Bay Sands opened its doors to the public, I've been wanting to stay at their hotel and often dreamed of taking beautiful pool shots in the roof top infinity pool at SkyPark. Boasting the highest and largest infinity pool in the world, MBS and its iconic infinity pool have been featured on many international news and documentaries.

On many occasions when I stumbled upon new people on social media who knew I am from Singapore, they would link it to that country with that famous rooftop infinity pool. o_O




During the past few years, we have friends with complimentary room stay due to MBS casino membership (from their parents). We got to see the rooms and also went up to the 57th floor to sneak a peek at the SkyPark Observation Deck and the pool.

On those occasions, I was horrified by the CROWD at the pool. There was even once when I saw a group of uncouth _______ (Singaporeans would know which nationality to insert here) tourists slumped on the deck chairs fully dressed only with their naked feet soaking in the pool and talking at the top of their voices. I even spotted a slipper floating in the water!

You would never ever see the pool as empty as this image taken from MBS homepage at any time of the day! I will write about our experience at the pool in a separate post.



[Image source]


Over the years, I gave up the dream of staying at MBS in exchange for more cultural travels overseas and fun staycation experience like at Sentosa Hard Rock Hotel, emo experience during my illness after a check up at Fullerton Hotel and more recently, the unique experience like at Sentosa Tree Top Lofts with once in a lifetime dolphin interaction programme.




Nevertheless over the years, I also saw many non Singaporeans I knew from the Internet staying at MBS and posting such beautiful scenery and pool shots that it refuelled my interest in a staycation at MBS.




Kh has been really busy with work recently, overworked in fact, and often left me alone. Fortunately I'm a highly adaptable person with many great friends so I would just hang out with my good friends or with me, myself and I and be totally chilled about the whole thing. It caught me by surprise and I was in fact quite touched when he posted this status check-in on the day of our staycation before my birthday.




We reached MBS slightly earlier to request for an early check in. The Orchid Suite wasn't ready yet so the receptionist suggested that we go for the complimentary afternoon tea at The Club which was included in the room package.




I'm usually a tea person but I recently decided to try coffee every once in a while.




I was thrilled by the panoramic view of Marina Bay and part of Gardens by the Bay from where we sat.

I learnt so much about the various marine vessels from the hubz though there were still a couple of unidentified vessels.




We could see the Singapore Flyer and National Stadium which newly opened mid last year after years of demolition and construction. It looks like some futuristic dome whereby spaceships would zip in and out from. Guess which is the National Stadium?




I love to dip my sweet treats in fruit jam and butter but we hadn't had lunch and were craving for savoury food instead.




When we were about done with sweetness overload, we got a call from the staff that our suite was ready. The highest possible level they could get us was level 47 which is at Tower 3 all the way at the other end.




When kh booked, he asked for the city view instead of the gardens (Gardens by the Bay) view and we were thrilled to see this sight greeting us right at the end of the corridor where our door is. Did it mean that we got both views?
Note:
The Gardens by the Bay would be at the bottom right of this photo.
The left glassy portion of this photo is the living room area of our suite.




You could view the video tour of MBS Orchid Suite in my amateur video. Pardon the hub's way too hurried frown after his cheeky smile. He thought he would smile for my video but decided to throw a "Duh... you're disturbing me" frown instead.




The dining area was seriously underused by us. We only used the table to put our stuff and can you believe that my coffee-lover hubz did not even touch the Nespresso machine?




The living room and the hubby glued to the TV as usual. He could spend ANY holiday lazing in the hotel room and watching TV.




The view from the floor-to-ceiling living room was lovely even on an overcast day.
Left of the bay is the Marina Golf Course and the right would be the Gardens by the Bay.




The bathroom is always my favourite part of any hotel stay.




There is a traditional bath tub...




... double sinks with wall to wall mirror.
To the right are separate cubicles for the shower and toilet area which could be seen more clearly in my video from 1:03 to 1:40 min.




The toiletries are from Paiza. Honestly in my ignorant mind, I haven't heard of Paiza and thought it doesn't sound elegant at all. Name aside, I was seduced by their scent and felt immeasurable joy showering with their shampoo and bath wash. Kh and I also agreed that even though Paiza sounds so unknown, the scent is lovely.

While typing this portion, I googled and found out that Paiza is a trademark of Las Vegas Sands group and are quality products. No wonder!




I don't know if this is called the sitting area. Kh spent the most time on this couch being a couch potato and watching HBO and FOX movie channels.




Separated by the swivel TV is the bedroom area.




This is the city view from the floor-to-ceiling window in the bed room!

Panning from left, is the financial district of the CBD area at the background. In front of the CBD fringing the water are the Marina Boulevard, Collyer Quay, Clifford Pier and Fullerton area.




Zooming in on the "floating glass house" is Louis Vuitton.




Panning to the right, are the Raffles Place and City Hall area. All the tall buildings are the hotels. Fringing the water is The Esplanade, The Float @ Marina Bay where we have been holding our National Day Parade for the past few years and would be holding the last NDP this year, and the Helix Bridge. The white structure designed to resemble an open lotus flower in the foreground is the ArtScience Museum which I've not visited before.




I recently read an article which mentioned an old case about Gary Hoy's death by misadventure. In an attempt to prove to a group of prospective articling students that the glass in the Toronto-Dominion Centre was unbreakable. He threw himself through a glass wall on the 24th story and fell to his death after the window frame gave way.

Kh totally plastered himself on the slightly sloping thick glass as my heart crept out from my ribs. I kept reminding him of Gary Hoy's accidental autodefenestration. As for me, I didn't even lean on the glass when I posed. The only parts touching the glass were my palms.




Herein ends the pictorial tour of Orchid Suite and if you want a video tour, this is the same video in my previous link.




Mirror Wefie.




We spent the rest of the afternoon slumping in front of the TV while waiting for the Cocktail & Canapé Hour.
Aside: Am I the only one who thinks that this looks like a watch advert except that the watch is out of the photo?




There, Ebel watch advert! Lol...




I know, I know. A few people say I look good with short hair when they saw this photo. I love such chin length short hair style too, but I know that if I cut my hair to this length, the ends would stick out instead of falling effortlessly to frame my face. Already at this much shorter length (yes, I cut my hair again 2 weeks ago), it is super high maintenance. The after-shower blowing the night before could never keep the hair curled inwards like it did when it was long.




Sometimes I dislike one night staycation coz I would bring all my toiletries to the hotel. I even brought the L'Occitane Roses et Reines Hair Mist and body mist which my branch babes gave for my birthday just to bathe myself with the heavenly rose fragrance throughout my stay.

When the silly hubby saw these in the bathroom, he exclaimed, "Wah! MBS has your favourite L'Occitane rose!"




It was time for Cocktail & Canapé Hour at The Club! Oh my, I loved almost everything they served! If not for the fact that we had a dinner reservation at DB Bistro Moderne, we could just be cheap skates and simply ate our fill here. This could well be how many people make full use of what they paid for a memorable MBS stay.




From what we knew, non-alcoholic beverages are complimentary in the package but we got our sparkling at no extra charge.




I didn't quite like the pork slider mini burgers. I don't really fancy sweet meat.




Super love cheese platters and cold cuts in general.




Even their lightly flavoured crackers to go with the cheese were so delicious.




I was coughing nonstop at a point and when I asked for water, they gave me a bottle of Fiji!




We decided to go shopping and check out the pool just before dinner and was dismayed at the perpetual crowd. It is a really great place for people watching though!




Seeing the hues of pink and orange in the sky at the SkyPark, I told kh that we had to catch the setting sun without any blockage. So back to our room we went coz that was our only evening in that room to catch the sun set behind the city skyline. The sun set scene looked a lot more beautiful in real life coz you could see the sun as a clear golden ball which couldn't be captured on my iPhone 6.




You never notice how fast the sun moves except during sunrise and sunset. Just within minutes, the sun had sunk so low and was a fiery red circle in the deep orange evening sky.




I thought kh was making me hold the sun when he asked me to pose like that. I was quite tickled by the end result of me blowing bubbles of Esplanades.




OOTD was an old and forgotten drape top (TANGS) which I dug out from my wardrobe paired with what else but my staple denim shorts (Cotton On) and comfort shoes (Pedal Works).




From my last hair cut in March, I cut my hair shorter again. It is slightly below shoulder length now and I've to curl my hair inwards with a curling tong for it to look as if it was an effortless I-woke-up-like-this style. My fringe is growing out pretty well now and you see that nice floppy wave? It was EFFORT! Lots of hair spraying and loosening and spraying again and loosening with blowing in between. Impractical too coz half the time, my hair was covering my left eye.




I do like my shorter and lighter hair. I like how unkempt it looks sticking out without styling and how it looks like an effortless hairstyle when styled. However, I've to spend 10-15 minutes on it now whereas in the past when I had long hair with bangs, it was ZERO minute. And that 10-15 minutes of effort doesn't last. Check out in my next post on the dinner at DB Bistro Moderne when my hair became so untidy in just one evening.