In this social food gathering event attended by various food enthusiasts, food bloggers and also photographers, everyone dine on a special menu that was arranged to showcase the restaurants' specialities.
The much long awaited first dish was a Minestrone soup. Filled with mixed vegetables and penne, the soup was slightly diluted and not warm enough. Though not being familiar with this Russian soup, I was curious why there was a layer of oil on the soup surface.
There was a choice between 3 main courses. The first to be served and the most popular choice of the day is the Braised Lamb Shanks with Red Wine and Tomato.
Served on a bed of mash potato, the portion of this lamb shank is huge but the taste was lacking. If you were to compare this to the original photo in here, the mixed greens were clearly missing.It seems like the lamb and the sauce are two separate entities as there is only the gamey taste of the lamb. The sauce had no clear red wine taste too. This sets off a sign that the rest of the food might fall into bad shape.
And unexpectedly, the Norwegion Haddock in tempura batter and fries with air flown garden leaves (the main course which I ordered) is neither visually appealing or taste as fantastic as it sounds.The fries were totally unsalted and the tempura batter was not crispy and done in the Japanese style. The fillet itself had no taste or any fragrance of being fried. The tartar sauce was average and even though it did help me to finish with the fillet. I think there is no need to highlight anything about the salad that was "air flown".
It seems that this may be the best main course out of the three.
As I am writing this, I begin to realise the wonder of the food description on menu. The words used are important but this suggests that the quality has to matched up to it. Otherwise......
Moving on to the Tasting Dishes that are to be shared among 4-6 diners......
Schweinshaxe: twice cooked German pork knuckle with Sauerkraut, Mashed Potato and brown sauce.
my great table partner who graciouslly offered to cut the knuckle for the rest of the ladies at the same table--thank you :) !
The skin is crispy but the meat seems relatively drier than those served at other local German Restaurants. Some commented that the sauerkraut was not sour enough. Once again, like the lamb shank and the fish, this pork has no distinct flavour on it's own.
2nd Tasting Dish: Cajun baby chicken with chestnuts, brussel sprouts and bacon
Its strange but the mash potato-brown sauce duo appeared in this dish once again. The dish was lukewarm and lacks the aromatic smell of pepper and herbs of a Cajun style chicken.
3rd Tasting dish: Crab Caesar Salad
This is their signature dish with crab meat cherry tomato and romaine lettuce. But could not spot any pine nuts or croutons that were listed on the menu. Taste was acceptable for me except for the crab meat. Neither its appearance nor the taste added any value to this dish. The looks can be easily mistaken for canned tuna flakes.
This was a nice change to the repeated feature of brown sauce. Laksa gravy leans towards the sweet side and is a much milder version of our local rendition. Scallops and shrimps were fresh and springy but the shrimps were overly salted.
Having eaten a really well executed duck confit in the previous post, I find that this dish has the potential to be improved. The carrot purée was a nice match of the braised duck leg but we could not help but notice the brown sauce or 'natural sauce' (as of menu) in this dish again
After having so much meat, there is not really anything special to recall from this duck confit.
Was disappointed with this dish because of the meat apparently has not been stewed long enough. There were more fats than meat but the fat does not melt in your mouth either. There was no aroma of herbs, onions or red wine. I don't really agree that the base sauce of red wine and tomato, which has been used for lamb shank, should be recycled here once again. The only difference between this Oxtail and the earlier lamb shank is the addition of foccacia bread, which was not toasted well too.
Dessert For Sharing:
I am not strongly opposed to the idea of sharing desserts but the variety and portions should be better planned. It was difficult to share 4 macarons. The chocolate praline mousse was decent but this, along with the cupcakes below, tasted very hard as though they were taken straight out from the freezer.
This explains why the buttercream and the cake portion remains solid hard even till the end of the dinner. The lemon curd filling, that was actually inside 2 out of the 3 cupcakes remain in solid state too. The taste of the macarons are fine but they are too chewy and lose their crispness
I've tried their patisseries before and thus expected something better. But well, everything seems not right this time.Nice ambience but perhaps they need to find a focus rather than trying to excel in different types of cuisine like French, German or Italian. The presentation of food has lots of room for improvement too.
Not before the restaurant can meet the expectations that it has set for itself.
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