THE ALKAFF MANSION (*****)

This is THE restaurant in Singapore. Before selecting our airline, booking the hotels and organizing the tours, we just made sure about one key thing: we must have a reservation at THE ALKAFF MANSION. This superb residence used to be the property of the prosperous Alkaff muslim family. The mansion, on the top of the Telok Blangah Green, is a visible reminder of the strong colonial presence in the Singapore of the 1920's. Reaching this top hill mansion is by itself a pleasant experience, which brings you quite exhausted and thirsty to the doors (if you didn't take a cab!) There is greenery and flowers abounding. The house communicates intimately with the visitor inducing the feeling that he is the warmly expected guest of some millionaire friends: there is a beautiful park, a huge reception area, and a magnificent dinning room on the first floor with a dramatic view expanding over the city and the Indonesian islands. To make you feel as if you are anywhere but in a restaurant, the management has a sophisticated trick: there is no uniformity among the tables or the chairs, as if your host was obliged to corral them from the other rooms to receive so many guests... Now, what about the food? This is when we went nuts realizing what we missed! We came for lunch, enjoyed very tasty meals in a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere, with the pleasant company of a beautiful PR Manager sure... but we were proposed international cuisine. OK, the lobster was excellent. Sure the grilled salmon was impeccably first class. Of course the dessert made out of fresh mangoes was digestive. But where were the real specialties of THE ALKAFF MANSION: we mean, the "RIJSTTAFFELS"?!

Because we had to postpone our visit from dinner to lunch the next day, we just missed this unique Dutch influenced Indonesian cuisine, which makes the place like a jewel in Singapore, as they only serve it IN THE EVENING, following a long noteworthy protocol. "Rijsttaffel" means "rice on the table". It comes with a spread of spicy seafood, meat and vegetable dishes, as well as a variety of tasty condiments. Traditional "Rijsttaffel" service should be elaborate and elegant: reminiscent of a gentle wealthy refined colonial past. A majestic dinner gong intones the commencement of the ceremony and we are swept back in time to the highlands of Java, perhaps the garden city of Bogor. Then, a procession of lovely ladies dressed in traditional Indonesian sarong kebayas emerges to personally introduce and serve each dish. Touristy, isn't it? Sure; but what's the matter if this is entertaining and elegant, and if the food tastes so good? And we missed all that! So, next time we fly to Singapore, we will, one more time, make THE ALKAFF MANSION our top priority, for a dinner we will take pleasure in reviewing in much detail for your kind attention. Till then, why not do like us: try lunch first, then have the ultra fine dinning. Good things should come step by step! An unforgettable experience and not so expensive for the famous top end restaurant in town.