Scrambled Eggs & Nox Dine in the Dark

The plan for his birthday celebration was one day before his actual birthday as he needs to work on that day. I started to plan about a month ago, searching for nice restaurants in Singapore and came down to 2 choices - Nox Dine in the Dark and Ocean by Cat Cora. Both have interesting concept: Nox Dine in the Dark, as the name suggests, it's really a dining experience in total darkness; Ocean by Cat Cora is a restaurant in Resorts World Sentosa's S.E.A. Aquarium, where you will be able to observe the marine animals in the Open Ocean habitat. I couldn't decide on which restaurant to choose so I asked my BF to pick for me by asking him to select between "Cannot see anything" or "Can see everything"? Initially he wanted to pick "Can see everything" but he changed his mind a few secs later. And so it's decided, Nox shall be the place! =)

What shall we do for the afternoon then? One week before 5 Apr, I asked my him, "Do you prefer to go to a nice cafe for lunch or do you want me to cook for you?" The last time I cooked for him was 6 Jan 2013 (more than 1 year ago). Without any hesitation, he chose the latter. It's not easy to pick a dish to cook. I prepared Pancakes with Poached Eggs and Ham the previous round and this time I thought I'll give scrambled eggs a try since that's his favourite egg dish.

Pancakes with Poached Eggs and Ham on 06 Jan 2013

Lynne Chua's Scrambled Eggs (Gordon Ramsay Inspired)

According to Gordon Ramsay's Sublime Scrambled Eggs Recipe as well as his Video on Youtube, I prepared similar ingredients by buying them at the market (cheaper) and NTUC with my BF (he insisted to buy the ingredients with me as it's heavy for me to carry them home myself <3).

Ingredients for 2 pax:
6 large free-range eggs (I used normal eggs)
3 tablespoons ice-cold butter diced (I used unsalted butter, salted would be better I guess)
1-2 tablespoons crème fraîche (Sour cream basically but I forgot to add it in as I left it in the fridge =/)
Freshly ground sea salt and pepper (I used usual salt and black pepper)
Few chives, snipped (substitute with green onion if necessary; I used chives)
2-3 chunky slices of rustic bread (I used Focaccia)

Additional Ingredients for Side Dishes (optional):
Mushrooms
Cherry Tomatoes
Salt and Pepper

If you wanna know how to cook the dish, you can check out Gordon Ramsay's Video here. Otherwise you can follow the instructions below (credits to gordonramsayrecipes.com):

Step 1: Break the eggs into a cold, heavy-based pan, add half the butter, and place onto the stove over generous heat. Using a spatula, stir the eggs frequently to combine the yolks with the whites.

Step 2: As the mixture begins to set, add the remaining butter. The eggs will take about 4-5 minutes to scramble – they should still be soft and quite lumpy. Don’t let them get too hot – keep moving the pan off and back on the heat.

Step 3: Meanwhile, toast the bread.

Step 4: Add the crème fraîche and season the eggs at the last minute, then add the snipped chives. Put the toast on warm plates, pile the softly scrambled eggs on top and serve immediately.

Stirring the egg yolks and butter

Chives added

Andddd it's done!

Lynne Chua's Scrambled Eggs on top of Focaccia Bread, with Cherry Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Adding Black Pepper on top

Nox - Dine in the Dark
Address: 269, Beach Road Singapore 199546
Opening Hours: Mon - Sun: 6pm to late;  Lunch: Open for group bookings
Contact: +65 6298 0708
Email: enquiries@noxdineinthedark.com
Website: http://www.noxdineinthedark.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoxDineInTheDark

The long awaited dinner for dear's birthday! I reserved a table at 7pm. We arrived at 7.15pm as it's quite difficult to find a legal parking slot around the area and we still ended up parking next to a continuous white line. *Pray for no fine*

Upon entering the restaurant, we were ushered to take a seat at the lounge. The staff briefed us on what to expect from our dining experience and presented us a drink menu where we can either have our drinks at the lounge or bring it up to our table later on, or both.

Holding area before & after dinner

Our pre-appetizer

Rubus Pink (S$18++) - I ordered this cos it's pink and sweet in flavour.

Petit Chablis 2011 (S$18++)

Our Drinks and Pre-Appetizer

We took as much photos as possible as we had to place our things, especially those that can emit light, such as phone, camera and watch, in the locker next to the lounge. There's no toilet upstairs so you better clear your bladder before you go up!

On the left of the locker, there'll be a door with a staircase leading up to the restaurant. We were brought up by one of the male staff, which I couldn't remember his name. He's visually impaired and wearing a pair of sunglasses. I held on to him and my bf held on to me while we climbed up the stairs, in a line. It's getting REAL DARK as we proceed. Step by step, slowly, we reached our table. The staff took my hand and placed it on the chair that I was going to sit. He then explained to us our table setting, e.g. fork and spoon is on your right, serviette is in the middle and usually people tuck it in their clothes just in case.

It's a fixed 3 course dinner, no ala carte, at S$88++ per pax. I shall not reveal what dishes we had even though they change their menus once every 4-6 weeks, to keep it mysterious. What I can say is that you can expect 4 dishes at each course, so it would be 12 different dishes in total, from appetizers to mains and to desserts. You just need to state your dietary restrictions beforehand so that they can make special arrangements to your dishes. My BF and I had mostly similar dishes except for some as we have different food restrictions.

I love their food even though I didn't know how they looked like when I was eating. You got to try to find out what you are eating and to remember every dishes as there will be a quiz after your dinner. During the dinner, we heard many different commotions from other tables - talking, screaming (yes, a group of girls -.-), laughing. Some voices sounded quite far away and we were discussing the size of the restaurant as well as it's design. The floor's carpeted, our table was against the wall and there's another table for 2 behind me.

I would rate the food 8.5 out of 10 and the experience 10 out of 10. 8.5/10 is a very good rating. Perhaps it's due to the darkness that our eyes could see nothing, we could taste the food better. I think the experience could be enhanced if it's less noisy. Don't worry, it's not that loud. The noise level is similar as most of the fine dining restaurants. We chatted for quite a while after our desserts as we don't know how to inform the staffs that we've finished our meal and ready to go off. One of the staff finally came to our table to ask us about the meal and if we were ready to take the quiz. We stood up together, moving off with the same orientation again, in a straight line. I was quite tensed as I knew that there'll be a staircase AFTER the curtain. But I had no idea why I couldn't walk properly. =X The staff tried to loosen my hands by shaking them and told me not to worry, the stair's still far away. Halfway through, a group of girls screamed so loudly that I stopped walking. -.- Please DO NOT scream, it will scare the hell of out other people who are trying to eat and walk properly, in peace. We made it down to the lounge safely, while our eyes were adjusting back to normal tungsten lighting.

Quiz and feedback form

I pre-arranged a surprise with the restaurant to prepare a thin slice of cake with candle to surprise him at the end of the dinner. The cake was VERY YUMMY! There were 3 different layers, I couldn't really tell what ingredients they used. My best guess was creme/vanilla ice cream at the top/base, milk chocolate in the middle and darker chocolate at the base/top.

After we had the cake and finished our quiz, one of the staff (I guessed is the manager) came over to us with an iPad to reveal the pictures of the food we had for our dinner. We guessed most of the dishes right and some of the dishes were really unexpected! He told us that most people could only guessed 40-50% correctly. The highest record so far was 9 out of 12. Can you do better? Try it out. =)

It was a sense-opening (instead of eye-opening) experience! Everything flows nicely and I would strongly recommend you to try at least once in your life time. It would be a very unforgettable meal albeit a little pricey. However, for those we are really afraid of dark, you got to prepare & brace yourself as it's really pitch-dark inside and seriously, you can't see a thing. The service at Nox was great, the staffs were all very friendly and helpful. I would certainly come back again on special occasion. They will announce on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NoxDineInTheDark whenever they change their menu.