The Equinox Experience

If you're wondering what's an equinox, this is how Wiki describes it as:

'An equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year. There is either an equinox (autumn and spring) or a solstice (summer and winter) on approximately the 21st day of the last month of every quarter of the calendar year. On the equinoxes, night and day are nearly of the same length as the Sun crosses the celestial equator (i.e., declination 0).'

Go ahead and read more about it if you're interested. But what's really cool is this. Had dinner with Slawek on Saturday, 22 September 2007 at Equinox Restautant, Swissotel The Stamford. What was the occasion? We were not celebrating any occasion but it was quite some time since we had dinner somewhere nice. And surfing the net, I came across the Equinox and thought it was a good idea. And only today thanks to Slawek that we realised, that was the equinox weekend and we were at the Equinox. Awesome!

We have been to Top of the M Revolving Restaurant, Mandarin Hotel and that was a very good experience. The food was fantastic, the view was awesome as it was a clear night and although it was rather pricey, we had a good evening.

So we had pretty high expectations of Equinox. Some things that you have to take note. If you want to sit at the window seats, they have a window seat policy. There are two shifts that you can choose from, either from 6.30pm to 8.30pm or 8.30pm to 11.30pm. Good way for them to make money cuz you get more people by having two shifts. We went for the 6.30pm slot. Also prepare your credit card as you have to give them your credit card details. If you don't turn up, they will charge $40 per pax. And if you're running late, they will hold your table for 15 minutes so do watch the time.

We had a nice table and the view was fantastic. I think the 6.30pm slot is a good one cuz you really see the change in landscape. Each minute I look out, the landscape looks different. So out came my camera and yes, I took pictures. Kinda hard with the glass window and I had reflections in my pictures. And as it got darker, all the pictures turned out blurry. But these are some that I had of the skyscrapers for your viewing pleasure.

Above: View from my seat at 6.47pm.

Above: Slight difference but yet a difference at 7.13pm

Above: Same view but a minute later at 7.14pm.

Above: It gets better at 7.18pm

Above: And this is the last (clear) shot at 7.25pm.

Amazing or what. I tried taking pictures at 8 plus just before we left but it didn't turn out clearly. That's a shame cuz I really like the night view with all the buildings lit up. Very nice.

As for the food...where do I start. We were served with some bread with butter and olive oil. And pretty cool how they served the basket of bread (see below).

For starters, I had their Bisque of Lobster and Mud Crab soup and found it so so. It looked presentable but taste wise..it was pretty average.

Was pretty dark inside when we started on our dinner. We both ordered their Beef Tenderloin (see below) which was their signature dish. For what we were paying, we really expected something heavenly. Found the meat chewy (gums actually hurt after I was done eating the meat). Was very tiring that dish I must say. Huge disappointment. Had to down alot of water when eating dinner. Oh yes, we had still water (no tap water served of course) and we had three bottles throughout the night and each bottle costs us $10. So savour your evian please *laughs*

How could we miss dessert ya? I did think about having Cedele's carrot cake but getting all dressed up and since we started already had the main at Equinox, thought we could end with something nice. So we picked the Sweet Temptation (below) that was meant for two. Should have listened to my instincts and gone for the carrot cake at Cedele's. Dessert was no big deal and that was really our last shot to go ooohhh and ahhh over the food but we didn't :o(

Upon reflection, thus the candle shot below (that's the candle that was burning on our table), Equinox has a great view, the staff was extremely professional but the food needs to be better. It was an expensive dinner for two and all we got were a great view and some nice cocktails that we had with dinner.

If you want to enjoy the view, it's still possible. Have dinner elsewhere, then head to City Space which is at Level 70 at the same hotel. You get the great view of Singapore cityscape minus the huge hole in your pocket. They have a good singer there and you can just enjoy the drinks as you watch the cityscape. That was how we ended our evening and many drinks later, I was a happy girl!