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2012-01-18
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Food was good the first time I went but merely average on my second trip. Details of my 2nd dinner.For starters, the complimentary bread was soft, warm, fragrant and a pleasure to eat with the slick and smooth butter. The bruschetta was lightly toasted on the outside and topped with fresh juicy tomatoes with a dose of olive oil. Light and simple!The Carpaccio di Manza - Beef carpaccio with Parmesan cheese and quail eggs lightly drizzled with extra virgin oil was way too salty. Think eating slice
For starters, the complimentary bread was soft, warm, fragrant and a pleasure to eat with the slick and smooth butter. The bruschetta was lightly toasted on the outside and topped with fresh juicy tomatoes with a dose of olive oil. Light and simple!
The Carpaccio di Manza - Beef carpaccio with Parmesan cheese and quail eggs lightly drizzled with extra virgin oil was way too salty. Think eating slices of beef dipped in concentrated salt solution. I understand that the purpose of the salt is to mask the rawness of the beef but the amount of salt present in this dish just blows things out of proportion. The saltiness from the cheese didn't help either.
Please let me emphasize the fact that I am not a fan of raw seafood or mussels thus I didn't quite take to the Terrine of seafood, a symphony of mussels, squid, prawns and scallops drizzled with salsa verde
. One thing's for certain though, everything was very fresh and it was pretty evident with every bite. There was this chilled jelly like thing that came with it which made me squirm with every bite. Not exactly my idea of an ideal starter.
Blueberry gnocchi, served with braised venison in a red wine, bitter chocolate jus - Dull as this dish may look, it straddles between very good and excellent. The blueberry added a nice twist to the otherwise flat tasting gnocchi and the venison was nicely done - fibrous, chewy and tasty. The red wine taste was rather evident and complemented the dish very well. The bitter chocolate jus was less pronounced though. A nice dish I would definitely recommend. Not sure if they have it on the ala carte menu though.
I swapped the lamb in the set menu for a beef tenderloin and certainly didn't regret doing so. The beef was done just right (medium rare) and the juicy flavours just burst through with every bite. However, it was a little too fatty around the edges, which made it slightly harder to chew. The sauce that's drizzled on the beef is red wine jus I believe, judging from the mild overtones of red wine. Tough fight between this and Jaan's rendition.
The Warm apple strudel served with a refreshing white chocolate sorbet was surprisingly normal. The strudel wasn't as flaky as I would have liked it to be and the apples weren't exactly top grade apples. They tasted a little too soft and sourish for me.
The Raspberry Torte didn't come with the set menu but was taken from the ala carte menu. Presentation wise, a clear winner. Taste wise, decidedly good. Not too sweet with spongy cake layers and white chocolate shavings. Definitely my choice of dessert over the the rather lacklustre apple strudel.
Overall I wasn't too impressed this time round with the food quality at Zambuca, not when we paid about >$400 for 5 pax. And to top it off, we weren't exactly bursting our buttons at the end of it. But having said that, I'll be back again, simply because my positive experiences at Zambuca far outshine the negative ones. After all, which restaurant doesn't have its off days
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