Oyster, Scallop, Quail Egg Yolk, Togarashi Rimmed Caesar Shooter

I’m sure many of you have come across the delicious Instagram account cookingwithben_ of Chef Benedict Lim. Ben has over 16 years of culinary experience and even owns Ohana Poké Bar at the night market. In the evenings and weekends, he also offers catering at his home. You can let him know what ingredients you want or dislike and his menu will change depending on what is fresh.

Our first item was the Caesar Shooter which featured oysters, scallops from Japan, a quail egg yolk, some horseradish on top of a shooter of clamato juice, soy vinaigrette and rimmed with togarashi, a Japanese six spice. Usually, this shooter comes with sea urchin, but unfortunately, he could not find any fresh sea urchin that day. The togarashi gave it that spicy kick, and the scallop and oyster was so fresh. Perfect combo!

Oysters with Lime and Cucumber

Next up was another refreshing dish featuring the fresh sweet oysters. Underneath the thinly sliced cucumbers were the oysters and these were flavoured with lime and a soy vinaigrette. Definitely opens up your palette.

Salmon Poké

Ben is famous for his Poké (I mean he did open a stall selling poké at the night market!). Our next dish was the Salmon Poké which was topped with Alaska shrimp sashimi and a quail egg in the centre. The salmon sashimi is flavoured with gochujang and soy vinaigrette and sits on top of sushi rice. It is similar to a sushi or chirashi tower which many restaurants have now. Probably one of my favourite pokés even though it may not be very traditional. The shrimp was so sweet and the quail egg yolk added to the creaminess. He also makes other versions, such as scallop and sometimes they are topped with sea urchin.

Scallop and Prawn Uni Rissotto

One of our mains were the Scallop and Prawn Uni Rissotto. This was an amazing twist to the classic rissotto. The rissotto is made with a sake dashi broth and uni butter cream cheese with black truffle. So fragrant and flavourful! The scallops and Argentinian red prawns were also huge and cooked perfectly. Break open the 63 degree egg and let the yolk pour out, you cannot ask for a more creamy and smooth texture.

Sous Vide NY Striploin

As if we were not already filled up, our last main was the Sous Vide New York Striploin. Sous vide was a smart move since he was able to set up the machine at the beginning of the dinner and let the meat slowly cook while he made the other dishes. He then needed to just sear the outside before serving to us. Very tender and pink all throughout. The meat came with sides of edamame puree, smoked pork jowl, king oyster mushrooms, and roasted parsnip. I especially loved the pork jowl as it had an amazing bouncy texture. Everything just worked so well together.

Amaretto Vanilla Cake

Lastly, for dessert, we had the Amaretto Vanilla Cake which came with a coconut and pandan gelato, topped with a strawberry salsa and a piece of mint. The pandan and coconut gelato was spot on!

Overall, we really enjoyed our dinner at Ben’s. There are around 5-6 course sharing plates but you will be beyond full at the end. A minimum of 6 guests are required and his space can fit up to around 8 guests. Each dish seen above other than the starters and the dessert is shared between two people, so plenty to go around. Our dinner was $50 as we did it on a weekend, but you can get a premium menu for $75 which may offer more premium ingredients and possibly a couple more courses. Highly recommend checking this out. Just contact him on his Instagram or on his website!