Good value gourmet meal at the Pollen.

mw's birthday lunch was at the Pollen at the Flower Dome in Gardens by the Bay. I must say that the $55 set lunch (wine and tax not included) is a pretty good value for money. The wine is pricy and I assume that constitutes the main profit for their lunch.

Its good value for money also because after lunch, you can exit directly into the flower dome and take a post-lunch walk without paying the admittance.

The flower dome walk was nice, though crowded due to the tulipmania exhibition (I think).

We polished off this before I took this photo. The pot in my hand is hummous - its a fairly standard dish but very well executed (the blend of spice, oil, tart, saltiness and nuttiness was very nicely done). The butter is a garlic butter with seaweed - also nicely blended flavor. Lastly the bread is decent, though not spectacularly so.

Starter dish - which both of us had. Its a chicken liver parfait (mousse) and a thin slice of slightly tart apple on top. Dots of balsamico and liquor jelly and crushed pistachios. The green thing at the side is some kind of cucumber.

The wine is from Sicily and is a grape varietal called Isolina which is new to me. Slightly nutty and not too acidic.

Pan fried barramundi (which is ordinary) but it rests on a bed of turnips/onions/nuts and a very nice stock which was added at the table. The fish flesh absorbed the stock.

Apricot encrusted chicken, which mw had.

For dessert, they let us sit at the dessert bar where they assembled the desserts. This one had corn custard, dessicated milk, strawberries, a corn cake and some fruity soft jellies.

This one was notable for the fairly intense coffee flavoured meringue (apparently constructed from dessicated egg white combined with coffee providing the fluid).