Birthday dinner at Zafferano (Ocean Financial Centre)!
Year-end birthday dinner at Zafferano (now Altro Zafferano), the Level 43 Italian fine-dining restaurant at Ocean Financial Centre: a degustation of red prawn, wagyu, sea urchin pasta and a birthday dessert, with skyline views.
Year-end birthday dinner with BB at Zafferano, the perfect way to mark the December milestone. 😍
Zafferano (since rebranded Altro Zafferano) is the contemporary Italian fine-dining restaurant perched on Level 43 of Ocean Financial Centre at Collyer Quay, 43 storeys above the CBD with sweeping skyline and harbour views. With Phase 2 reopening having restored sit-down dining, we booked in for a proper celebratory degustation, and the floor-to-ceiling city lights made it feel like an occasion before the food even arrived.
The meal ran as a multi-course Italian tasting menu:
- A delicate amuse bouche and bread to open.
- A red prawn (gamberi rosso) course, sweet and almost raw-tender, beautifully plated.
- A wagyu beef course, seared rare and sliced over a smear of sauce.
- A sea urchin (uni) tagliolini, the pasta glossy and orange with that rich, briny-sweet sea-urchin creaminess, the standout of the night.
- A fish course with crisp skin over greens.
- A run of petit fours (chocolate truffles and strawberries) and the birthday dessert, a panna-cotta-style sweet with fresh berries and a candle.
- Paired with a glass of red wine to toast.
Each plate was precise and refined, the kind of cooking where every element on the plate earns its place. The sea urchin pasta was the highlight, indulgent and full of umami, while the wagyu and red prawn showed off quality produce treated simply. Add the birthday dessert with its candle and the twinkling skyline backdrop, and it was a genuinely memorable celebration.
The food was excellent. The view and the moment were better. A year-end milestone, properly marked.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 A refined Italian degustation with show-stopping skyline views, the sea urchin pasta the highlight. Would return for the next milestone.
