Post Birthday Meals

I returned to office today after a super long weekend. Caught up with my boss on some of the things at work, then she told me she's treating me to lunch for my birthday. Super paiseh, coz she already sent me a flower gift last week! We went for Skinny Pizza and it's my first time trying. The pizza and the pasta we ordered was amazingly good. I will definitely be back!

After work, I was supposed to meet hubby at the Regent Hotel, but since I was early, I decided to check out the Petit Bateau sale at Isetan. The offerings were similar to what I saw last year. I still had unopened ones in P's wardrobe, so I left the sale empty handed.

Walked towards Far East Shopping Centre and Forum Shopping Mall, an area which I have never walked to before. I stepped into Forum for the first time, and found it smaller than expected. It was a long and leisurely stroll to Regent, and it makes a good exercise just before dinner.

Received a text message from my hubby some 5 min before I reach Regent, telling me that he needed to do OT. Ugh, what?!? Our reservations was made for 6.30pm, and he's still at his office. Hmmm, I'm in for a long wait... True enough, he turned up only 30 min later, but armed with a cake and a bouquet of flowers. He told me he was late because he went to collect the flowers, not that he did OT. Haha, I can't stay angry with him for long.

The choice of dinner venue is Basilico, an Italian restaurant. I really love the food and ambience at Basilico since I went with my ex-colleagues some years back. This place came to mind when hubby asked what I wanted to do for my birthday. I told him I wanted to have an uninterrupted dinner (so we arranged for P to be at my mom's place), so we can have some time alone without the need to worry about P toppling our drinks or having a meltdown. It proved to be a right decision.

We were showed our seats and the menu. The waitress saw the bouquet of flowers and asked if we were celebrating any occasion. I told her it was my birthday yesterday, but we decided to celebrate today instead. She wished me a happy birthday with a huge smile and proceeded to serve us water. I thought that was nice and attentive of them. Thumbs up to that.

I hadn't done any research on the pricing prior to coming. To be honest, I got a mild shock when I saw their Basilissimo semi-buffet (comes with a main course) going at $78++ per pax. Boy, this is going to be one expensive meal. Since its too late to change our minds, we just have to make the best out of it. The food didn't disappoint. From the warm long bread they serve at the start right to the desserts, I couldn't find anything to grouse about.

Parma ham, assorted seafood, cheese (my fav)

We both decided on the tenderloin steak as the mains, and they let us take our time with the buffet spread. When we were looking satisfied, they then ask if they could serve our main course. Our steak arrived shortly in full glory - Beef, asparagus and chestnut purée. My steak was slightly overdone than the medium done-ness I had requested for, but it was still juicy and good.

Dessert time, always my favourite part of buffets! Chocolate pudding, carrot cake, passion fruit cake, I want to devour them all! They also had gelato ice cream and I took the Vanilla flavour, oh so good!

After the sugary overload, I took out the cake that hubby bought for a look. It turned out to be a mini bee cake. Haha, I've been badgering him to get me a ladybird cake. I thought he would just brush me off as being silly, but it turned out he did take it to heart. *Touched*


The cake hubby bought

We took some pics and was preparing to call for the bill when the same waitress appeared carrying a cake with a lighted candle on it! I wasn't expecting them to go beyond wishing me Happy Birthday, but they really go beyond to ensure we get the best service. The cake they drive turns out to be a tiramisu cake with biscotti, raspberries and strawberry on it. Simple but pretty. Hubby declared himself too full to eat, so I ate through 3/4 of the cake before surrendering.

The bill came up to $183, but it was one of the best birthday dinners of my life. The whole experience was great - food, ambience, service and everything. It was everything I had in mind. Hubby also commented that we used to eat very fast and leave within an hour, but tonight's dinner took almost 2 hours. I thought it was still fairly early when we were having our desserts, but a quick time check shows me that it was close to 9pm. We really need to slow down sometimes...

Thanks for everything hubby - the dinner, the gifts, the love and the lifetime companionship.

The birthday girl