For my birthday this year I chose to have dinner at the Mandarin Grill + Bar. I must admit that I had quite a difficult time deciding where to celebrate since there are so many fine dining options out there, but I have always been intrigued by the artful presentation of the dishes served at the Grill + Bar hence it ended as my place of choice.
I was originally celebrating with my dad, but due to some pressing issues he was unable to attend, so I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mr. C as that night’s dining companion.
Upon entering the restaurant, I was quite surprised by the decor as I was expecting it to portray more of a steakhouse vibe, rather than a proper dining room with modern finishes. The atmosphere was also not as stiff as I was expecting it to be, and the ambience was actually quite pleasant and comfortable.
We chose to go a la carte rather than picking from the set menus so we could share and try more things, but before that we were served my beloved bread basket and a couple of amuse bouches. The bread basket was served warm which I expected no less from a one Michelin starred restaurant and from the few that I tried, I was most impressed with their quality. I especially liked their olive bread as well as the black sesame roll which was quite unusual, with a slightly firm yet chewy crust where the flavour of the sesame filled the senses in a pleasant way. We were also able to choose an olive oil to accompany our bread, I picked an Italian one (with the gold ribbon) which was so smooth on the tongue, and since Mr. C let me pick his, I chose a peppery one which was made from baby olives. Out of the two I actually preferred the peppery one as the olive taste was much sharper on the tongue.
Continuing with the olive trend, our first amuse bouche was a small green liquid sphere of oliveness. No doubt there was gastronomy involved in making this, where a semi-hard gelatin casing enveloped a centre of liquid olive essence. I did not really like this, as I was not very fond of the texture of the exterior and the taste was only so so for me. Accompanying this were a pair of herbed savoury biscuits topped with finely shaved parmesean. I would have never thought I would enjoy biscuits that were salty, but they were surprisingly good, quite buttery with the herb flavour coming through strongly.
We were also presented with a pair of cheese gourgeres. So delicate looking, with the choux pastry hiding a warm gooey cheese centre. I loved it~
We started with some French oysters. I am not especially partial to oysters, but I do enjoy them once in a while. The ones we had were Fines de Claire and these were very creamy and quite sweet from their natural juices.
For entree, we started with ‘Garden’. A plate of beautifully arranged organic vegetables which were held together by a mixture of blended argula and coconut milk. The waiter then proceeded to ‘water’ our arrangement with the dressing inside a small watering can. Very cute~ Presentation wise it get full marks, but in terms of taste, the vegetables were of course very fresh, but the dressing was too bland for me. Also I did not like the flavor of the argula ‘soil’, as it was quite strong.
For soup we had the lobster bisque. This was heart warmingly good. The flavour of the lobster was very intense, and the addition of cream gave a wonderful smoothness and thickness to the texture.
We picked two hot appetisers, the scallop and fois gras. Three very plump scallops were served in a small ceramic pot atop a combintation of sea grass and kelp. The scallops were perfectly cooked so they were very tender and retained the natural sweetness of its juices. What was interesting was the addition of a few roundish green leaves, which was described by the waiter as oyster leaves. The special thing about these leaves were that they were supposed to give off a slight oyster flavour since these plants are grown in the same area where oysters are bred. And surprisngly they did, a subtle oyster ‘fishiness’, which went very well with the rest of the dish.
The fois gras was beautifully plated, but was a very disappointing dish. The quality of the fois gras was not very good, as it was quite ‘rough’ in texture and not very smooth. It was also very gamey in flavour. Disappointing.
For mains, we were served the sea bass first. This was salt baked, and came to the table on a big slab of pink himalyan salt prior to being plated. The presentation was quite cute, where the starkness of the white of the fish contrasted sharply with the colourful pureed dots of artichoke, lemon, pepper and saffron. The sea bass was perfectly cooked, very tender, and the dots of sauces helped to enhace the natural flavour of the fish. My favourite combination was pairing it with the lemon.
The Beef ‘Calotte’ was our pick from the meat course. I was quite anticipating this dish, as there have been some very positive reviews about it. The beef itself comes from the US snake river farm and the ‘calotte’ is the ribeye cap where the meat is supposed to be the most tender and flavourful. This was presented inside the signature Mandarin Grill book, but when we opened it I was surprised to find everything to be black. The waiter then explained they had just changed the presentation of this dish that day and the theme was charcoal, so essentially everything was coated in charcoal, even the vegetables which unfortuately looked like lumps of coal. However to me, this dish was just about the beef. And yes it did deliver. Cooked to a perfect blushing medium rare, I knew it was going to be very tender from the way my knife slid through it quite easily. The beef was so flavourful, and there was a pleasant gaminess to the taste which melded well with the slight fattiness of the beef. Definitely recommended~
And finally to my favourite part of any meal. Desserts! We chose three to share between us, fruit, banana split and oreo. Since we asked for them to all come at the same time, we picked the lightest one to eat first. Fruit was a mix of seasonal fresh and freeze dried fruit with two types of sorbet, mandarin and pear. Although it was very pretty to look at, it was not very special. The fruit was fresh, but the freeze dried fruit was a little odd in texture and it kept sticking to my teeth. The sorbets were good though, refreshing with a clean and crisp flavour.
The banana split was presented very differently to what one would commonly associate with the name sake of three scoops of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream with two halves of a banana and topped with fake whipped cream with maraschino cherries. Instead, three baby bananas were presented on a dish and then lashed with chocolate sauce. Mr. C was curious enough to ask how they remember which one was what flavour to which the waiter replied that the angle at which the bananas were placed represented each flavour. Each banana turned out to be a coating of white chocolate with a different filling of strawberry mousse, banana mousse and vanilla ice-cream. As cute as it looked, it was quite sweet overall and the texutre of the mousse was quite firm and not very smooth.
Our last dessert was oreo, which was a vanilla ice-cream with a crumble of chocolate biscuit crumbs and topped with chocolate espuma which is foam. The texture of the dessert was airy and light due to the main element being foam, but it was very chocolatey in flavour. However I did find that it became cloyingy sweet after a couple of mouthfuls and in the end I seemed to enjoy the honest flavour of the vanilla ice-cream most.
As a little surprise, since it was my birthday I also had my very own chocolate candle. Quite cute really, a dark chocolate coating with chocolate ganache inside where the red flame was made from firm icing.
And to end we were served our own his and hers petite fours. Mine was a sherbet powder compact with lemon and raspberry sherbet which came with my own white fairy floss puff, while Mr. C had a chocolate cigar in it’s own cigar dish. I only had a slight taste of mine, because again it was just way too sweet for my liking, and I soon monopolized the chocolate cigars since the dark chocolate was just what I was seeking to end my meal. It was no surprise that the chocolate was so good since the Mandarin Oriental does excel in it. Smooth and rich, with the intense flavour of good quality dark chocolate. I wonder if they would serve it to the ladies upon request.
Although there were hits and misses where the dishes were concerned (dessert was unfortunately quite disappointing for me), I did have a fabulous evening. Thank you for celebrating with me, it was much appreciated 🙂
Just Something About Me 