The White Rabbit: restaurant in a former church sanctuary

The White Rabbit...interesting name for a restaurant, and even more interesting that it occupies a former church, with the dining hall taking the place of the sanctuary. As a result, the restaurant is beautiful, particularly in the evening, but also during the day.



The ambience is unmistakable. Beautiful...the magnificent arches supporting the pitched roof to the wonderful stained glass panels. Very nice.

But how's the food...well, for me, a bit of a mixed bag...but I am getting ahead of myself.

I started my meal with the Baked Camembert Parcels:



Ultra light phyllo pastry, wrapping a slice of camembert, on a bed of capsicum and vegetables with a balsamic reduction as a dressing. I must say, this is quite nice. The pastry is really very light, almost tasteless...but the mouth feel is quite remarkable, and contrasts nicely with the soft, creamy cheese within.

For my main course I had the oxtail



Two cuts of oxtail, with two vertebrae I guess...not the largest nor the fattest, but quite enough...on a bed of mashed potatos and roasted vegetables. The oxtail was braised till it is really tender...this is hours of braising, as the bovine tail is full of tough muscles and fat...the fat rendering nicely, and the muscles made tender with the cooking. The flavour could be more robust and savoury. But I find it a bit tame, so to speak...light when I expect an oxtail to be powerful...perhaps sometimes overpowering even. Nice, but not my best experience of oxtail.

One of my lunch companions had the Black Olive Sea Bass...



Sea bass, seared/pan fried, on a bed of potato, and greens...I didn't sample the fish, but it looked very nice.

For desserts, I had the profiterole, and we kind of shared a baked alaska:



I found the profiterole very good...I guess this is not a master's virtuoso performance of a dessert, as it is perhaps no more than some pastry, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream within, and hot chocolate sauce and chopped almonds. But it is certainly a great treat.

The Baked Alaska



Meringue is toasted till it becomes a thick crust, hiding some ice cream within. Nice...

Coffee...I had a macchiato



Regular espresso...certainly not up to the standards of the new espresso joints I have been blogging about, but good enough for most restaurants.

For me, the food was good, bodering on excellent, but somehow not quite genius enough to make it...the desserts were rather comforting. But the venue's ambience is wonderful. And certain a nice place to go for a nice night out.



The White Rabbit
39C Harding Road, Singapore
6473 9965
Weekdays: Noon–2.30pm, 6.30pm–10.30pm
Weekends: 11am–2.30pm, 6.30pm–10.30pm
(Closed on Mon)