I commend their web designer for the convincingly delicious and indulging looking menu on the website. However not much can be said for whoever they paid to decorate their restaurant. It looked like the project of an overzealous teenager who had rummaged through a sale at the chiffon factory, in attempt to DIY a prom dress in 1988. A bit tacky in my opinion.
Pettiness aside, let's get down to the real reason as to why we are here. Chef Brent Savage - have you tasted your own menu? Have the Siberian salt works been pumping overtime to keep up with your demand? Because someone in the kitchen is going crazy with the white stuff.
Initially, I had planned to take on the tasting course which was offered at $120 pp. But my intuition kicked in after the decor and less than friendly waitstaff had given me an uneasy feeling about the restaurant. In retrospect, I'm glad I followed my instincts.
The flavours were very artifical and freshness only came as often as the waiters did - rarely. This applied especially to the mixed leaf salad.
The order of the night consisted of the following:
Smoking martini - it was just a martini with dry ice. However, there was no mad scientist fog clouding around as I had expected. Lacked showmanship but tasted as good as a martini would taste.
Parmesan custard with truffled asparagus - resembled easy squeeze liquid cheese with dollops foul tasting asparagus plonked around it. A complete dog's breakfast!
Black sesame and sea fondant - an interesting looking dish. However, certain flavours were too sharp and leaving the rest of the plate bland tasting. It lacked balance.
Warm potato 'nougat' - could have been aptly named 'Chernobyl Disaster'. It can served like post-war veggie patch with limbs of mushroom, onion and (possibly) daikon radish randomly thrown around a landing strip of potato puree. The flavours did not compliment each other. As a paying customer, I found the dish to be personally insulting, considering the lack of effort and consideration involved.
Slow roast duck breast with cuttlefish and mushroom - the duck was properly cooked, shamefully the flavour was drowned out by the saltiness. The cuttlefish was not worth mentioning as I only found 2 slithers worth in my dish. The mushroom crumble, once again only tasted of salt.
My taste buds had endured enough trauma by the end of my main. Dessert? No thanks.
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