Anyone who has stayed or dined at Starwood hotels may apply for the SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest, not Sarong Party Girl) card without a charge. This card allows you to get discounts and accumulate points and you can redeem the points for a staycation. From now to September, the SPG card gives you three benefits (instead of one benefit, usually in the form of discount) when you dine at any participating restaurant: DOMVS and The Dining Room at Sheraton Towers; Brasserie Les Saveurs and La Brezza at St Regis; and Skirt and The Kitchen Table at W Hotel.

For instance, at Skirt, a stunning steak house, the SPG card can get you (1) 15% discount for lunch and dinner; (2) a complimentary glass of house wine and (3) additional 10% off for a table of 6 or more guests. Triple benefits.

Charcuterie

The food at Skirt was as beautiful as the restaurant. When you enter the restaurant, there is a pleasant aroma of charcoal grill and the restaurant is huge and well-ventilated enough not to feel stuffy, unlike Burnt Ends or Market Grill. The tall ceiling ensures that sound doesn’t reverberate, so even if the next table goes sonic boomz, you won’t hear them.

Gorgeously plated in copper pans and pots or on wooden platter, giving a rustic feel, the food was both visually and orally pleasing. The Skirt Made Blackmore Charcuterie for 2 ($38) took our breath away with its elegant plating. My eating companion thought they were all excellent and I especially enjoyed the beef liver pate spread on sour dough. There was an elusive fruitiness in the pate–we both tasted it and thought it was raspberry but it turned out there wasn’t any fruit–that was fantastically complex.

Sorry for the blurred photo of King Prawns ($25). Dim lights are good for ambience and romance but not so good for shaky hands on camera. A pity that I didn’t capture the beauty of this dish. It was decorative and delicious at the same time. The piquant bitterness of the char counterpoised the intense, honey-like natural sweetness of the prawns – a really beautiful dish that let the ingredient speak for itself.

My eating companion and I agreed that scallops are scallops, it is difficult to do anything spectacular. “But,” my companion said, “it can be badly cooked.” Of course, Skirt’s seared US scallops ($35) were nicely done. It came with dashi, apple and jamon. And it was a very smart combination because dashi (Japanese stock) and jamon (ham) can sometimes give the umami feel. At a rare bite, I did manage the right combination of dashi, jamon and scallop to get the umami feel but it was only one bite. I wished the kitchen had combined the ingredients for me.

Everything on this Skirt Steak Sandwich plate was delicious. The dehydrated tomato was sweet as summer; the crispy jamon on beetroot sauce conjured an image of a pig looking for truffles in the musk; the hard-boiled quail egg squirted liquid yolk; and the beautiful, beautiful Blackmore Australian Full Blood 9+ Wagyu was juicy but not greasy, tender but not without a bite. Tip: go for the garlic salt with the steak–much better than other salts and BBQ sauce.

Unfortunately, the desserts weren’t their strongest suit. The lemon thyme rice pudding with chili sorbet ($15, above) was inspired by laksa, sounding very interesting, but the rice was hard and needed to be more cooked while the sorbet should be spicier. The deconstructed banoffee pie ($15) was basically overly sweet ice cream with torched banana.

The service was outstanding, and the food was surprisingly reasonably priced for such quality and at such an ambience. I was telling my eating companion, I would bring a date back here. But we also saw many corporate-type diners in large groups. The restaurant was almost full house on a Tuesday. Best to make reservation before going.

Skirt Singapore

21 Ocean Way, W Hotel, Singapore 098374
T: 6808 7278
7pm-12am daily
Skirt Restaurant Menu

Rating: 3.673/5 skirts

ps: Thanks, Chisato, Chef Nocente, and Michelle for the hospitality.

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.