My initial reaction was 'huh, how to fully utilise the $100 with just the 2 of us?'. I was so wrong. Googled Tatsuya and discovered that it cost an arm and a leg, plus maybe an eye-ball to eat there. Probably had to top up another S$100, which I'm not prepared to pay.
The only alternative is RSVP. Found out that there's a 7-course degustation menu at $75+++ per person, and was prepared to top up the balance, meant to be a lunch treat to T since he's a foodie, and I got my bonus.
Called to enquire and was told that this set menu is only available for dinner, plus I couldn't use the voucher on set meal - only for buffet or ala carte. The girl was truly apologetic, but she offered this piece of news - hey, don't be too disappointed (and get this) - 5 out of 7 items from the set menu can be found in the ala carte menu!
Now, maybe I'm probably missing something, but isn't it better off for us to be able to pick & choose the items at much cheaper cost? So we settled for lunch, went to look at the buffet spread (T was sorely disappointed with the spread) and settled for ala carte.
Bread came. Hard as rocks. We messed up the table with crumbs but wait staff didn't clear, had to sweep the crumbs on the floor. Actually, swept onto sofa first until foxy realized how messy she had been, so then decided to sweep onto floor...
The first dish was soup - can't remember the fancy name, but it's the only soup in menu that is not common. Had some alcohol in it, brandy I think. Actually, it was a crustacean bisque and the alcohol was cognac although you really cant taste it since it was either most likely cooked out or left out completely. Don't think adding alcohol adds any value to the dish other than making it more expensive.
Tastes very much like lobster soup, only saltier, with a hint of alcohol. (not really!!!) Presentation is unique though, with a prawn & scallop. Interesting, yes.
Next is a salmon appetizer. There are 3 kinds of salmon - I'll let T elaborate on it. My favourite is the raw salmon and crunchy fish roe. The 3 types were cured salmon, tempura salmon, and pan-fried salmon. It was ok, but the cooked salmons were a bit dry. And no tempura sauce.
Next came our main dish, beef & goose liver. We saw the beef alright, but where is the goose liver? We asked the wait staff, who was clueless that there was supposed to be a goose liver on the plate, and went to the kitchen to check it out. Hmmm...beef & goose liver dish without the latter, and nobody found it strange? The beef was a tenderloin, supposedly the most tender part of the cow. And cooked medium rare, but the beef was nowhere near tender and quite flavorless, which leads me to believe it was of poor quality.
Our risotto came next almost together with the beef dish. When we placed the order, the wait staff asked us what kind of pasta we want for our risotto. Despite stressing that we wanted risotto, he repeated his question.
Our conversation went something like this :
Wait staff (WS) : what kind of pasta do you want in your risotto?
Us, puzzled : we ordered risotto.
WS : ya, what kind of pasta do you want?
Us : you mean you have pasta with your risotto?
WS : so what kind of pasta?
Us : risotto is rice right?
WS : oh, let me go check.
Never came back with the answer.
Despite the strange encounter, the risotto turned out fine, topped with beef, semi-dried tomatoes and black olives. And as you can see, lots of olive oil.
On our way to the hotel, we spotted a banner that offered free lobster for spending above S$80. Now we're definitely going to go above that, so after placing our order, we checked with the wait staff. Of course he has no clue and had to check before getting back to us that yes, we'll be entitled to lobster, and how would we like it done? We asked him about our choices and he could not explain, had to run off to get a card with pictures of the lobsters.
We chose butter lobster. Actually it turned out to be the best. What irony, the freebie is the best dish.
Wait staff brought a small bowl containing goose liver, no explanation on why it was missed out. T was very sure that it was fried -too hard & too oily. Sorely disappointed. The best way to prepare foie gras is to just pan sear it. This was definitely not pan seared as there was no color, the foie gras was tough inside and looked shiny and quite oily. How sad to destroy such a nice piece of meat.
Last was dessert. We ordered apple strudel. What was served looked more like popiah, with apples that were over-cooked. The saving grace was the scoop of ice-cream and strawberries.
Total bill? We don't know, there was no receipt. Wait staff just verbally told us that the S$100 voucher covered everything, no need to top up any cash.
Unprofessional service, so-so food, doesn't live up to fine dining at all. Disappointed to say the least. Will we be back again? Unlikely, unless foxy gets another $100 voucher...
